2002-03 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Tim Duncan. Duncan won Finals MVP after a dominant series, including a near quadruple-double in the closeout Game 6 (21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, 8 blocks).

Series context

The 2002-03 NBA Finals matched the San Antonio Spurs against the New Jersey Nets, who were making their second consecutive Finals appearance after falling to the Lakers the previous year. San Antonio finished the regular season 60-22, tied for the league's best record, and were playing their first season in a new arena. The Spurs were led by Tim Duncan in his prime, with veteran center David Robinson playing what he had announced would be his final NBA season. The Nets returned largely the same core that had reached the previous Finals, led by Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, and Richard Jefferson, having again secured the Eastern Conference's second seed with a 49-33 record. The series opened in San Antonio, where the Spurs took Game 1 by a comfortable 101-89 margin on June 4. New Jersey responded in Game 2, edging the Spurs 87-85 to even the series. San Antonio regained control with an 84-79 win in Game 3, but the Nets again answered, taking a tightly contested Game 4, 77-76, to tie the series at two games apiece. The pivotal Game 5 in New Jersey went to the Spurs, 93-83, putting San Antonio one win from the title as the series shifted back to Texas. On June 15, San Antonio closed out the series at home with an 88-77 victory in Game 6, clinching the franchise's second championship. Tim Duncan was the unquestioned force of the series, anchoring both ends of the floor and delivering a historic all-around performance in the clinching game, 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and 8 blocks, narrowly missing a rare Finals quadruple-double. His play across the six games earned him the Finals MVP award. Equally significant was the storyline surrounding David Robinson, who had struggled with injuries during the regular season but contributed meaningfully in the Finals, including 13 points and 17 rebounds in the series-clinching Game 6, allowing the future Hall of Famer to retire as an NBA champion in his final professional game. This title represented a changing of the guard in the league's power structure, as the Spurs established themselves as a fixture of championship contention for the rest of the decade under the tutelage of coach Gregg Popovich, while the Nets' loss marked the end of their brief run of Eastern Conference dominance. The 2003 Finals was also notable off the court: it was the first NBA Finals broadcast by ABC after NBC's twelve-year run as the league's network partner, and it went down as the lowest-rated Finals in league history up to that point, a mark that stood until 2007. Duncan's Game 6 line, combined with Robinson's 13 points and 17 rebounds, meant the two combined for 37 rebounds by themselves, more than New Jersey's entire team total of 35 for the game. Duncan's second Finals MVP award made him just the eighth player in league history to win the honor multiple times. New Jersey's season also unraveled in an unusual way after the loss: the Nets fired coach Byron Scott early in the following season with a 22-20 record, replacing him with Lawrence Frank, who won his first 13 games to set a record for the best start by a rookie head coach in North American major professional sports.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 2003 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 2003 NBA Finals