During the 1996–97 season, veteran coach Bob Hill was fired and replaced by then-general manager Gregg Popovich.

[9] The Spurs qualified for the playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference and tied the Utah Jazz for the league's best regular-season record (37–13).

Toward the end of the season, with the team teetering on the brink of making the playoffs, New York fired general manager Ernie Grunfeld.

Hawks center Dikembe Mutombo guaranteed a victory, but the Knicks prevailed in a four-game sweep to set up a matchup with the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

[18] Roster The Finals were played using a 2–3–2 site format, where the first two and last two games are held at the team with home court advantage.

[19] On June 25 (two years to the day that Duncan was drafted by the Spurs), with 47 seconds to go in Game 5, Avery Johnson hit the game-winner.

[21] The 1999 NBA Finals was aired in the United States on NBC (including WNBC in New York City and KMOL-TV in San Antonio), with Bob Costas and Doug Collins on play-by-play and color commentary respectively.

[citation needed] Locally, the Finals also marked the comeback of Marv Albert following his infamous sex scandal two years prior.

Albert served as the Knicks' radio play-by-play announcer on WFAN with long-time partner John Andariese.

[citation needed] In 2000, the Spurs became the first NBA champion since the 1985–86 Celtics to fail to win a second consecutive title.