We have reached the Final Four of our Spurs Villain Tournament, where the winners of each bracket have been determined, and the winners of this round will go head-to-head to determine who is the biggest Spurs villain of all time. The heavy favorites mostly continue to prevail. In the Elite 8 (or Finals for each bracket), three of the top seeds came out on top by varying margins, along with one kinda-but-not-really “upset” in the fourth.
On the “on court” side of the bracket, we had Spurs Killers, which was the closest match-up. Derek Fisher’s 0.4 shot plus other killer plays was just enough to beat out Ray Allen’s “The Shot” by a relatively slim 19% margin. The Dirty Players poll was not as close as expected, with Zaza Pachulia’s slide blowing out Karl Malone’s elbow. The level at which Pachulia won this one, with 72% of the votes, seems pretty wide, but despite Malone’s extensive history as a dirty player (and human being), Pachulia’s play came in the playoffs and ultimately cost the Spurs a chance at a championship, while Malone’s elbow was in the regular season.
On the “off court” side, actions dominated over words. Kawhi Leonard’s dynasty-destroying moves unsurprisingly blew Stephen Jackson’s big mouth out of the water, and our lone “upset” was the one non-1 vs. 2 match-up of the series, where 4th seed Uncle Dennis Robertson continued his “Cinderella” run by blowing out another loudmouth in 3rd seed Mark Cuban. Did recent news and the more recent timeline play a role in his rise over the most notorious haters of the Spurs’ championship era? Quite possible, but the result still means we’ll have a Family Feud in the next round.
1. Derek Fisher vs. 1. Zaza Pachulia
This was the inevitable match-up the instant the brackets were released. Despite a couple of formidable 2nd seeds, they never really stood a chance against these two behemoths of negative Spurs lore. Both left two teams vying for championships wondering “what if,” and both moments are so notorious that the NBA had to make rules in response. Since we have more room with only two polls today, I figured we’d shake things up a bit and actually make you watch two of the more painful moments in Spurs history to burn them back into your brain, as badly as you may want to forget them.
First we have the notorious Derek Fisher, who became a Spurs villain the instant he hit this shot with 0.4 seconds left in Game 5 in Round 2 in 2004. It came right after Tim Duncan had just hit what seemed like an amazing game-winner, there’s still plenty of controversy surrounding the clock, and it caused the “0.4 Rule” to be created, which states it is impossible for a player to get a catch-and-shoot off in less than 0.4 seconds, so anything less means they can only tip the ball.
And lest anyone forget, that wasn’t all the damage Fisher did: there was also the no-call foul on Brent Barry in Game 4 of the 2008 Western Conference Finals, which sent the Spurs back to LA down 3-1, and he was a pest in general for the 2012 Thunder in their WCF victory over the Spurs. Fisher truly was the Repeat Denier for the Spurs at the height of their Lakers rivalry.
And then we have Pachulia, who also got a rule named after him after he carelessly (purposefully?) slid under Leonard in Game 1 of the 2017 WCF against the Warriors, knocking him out while the Spurs were up by 21 and ending their chances at returning to the promised land. After that, any case of a player interfering with a shooter’s landing space became subject to video review and a potential flagrant 1 or 2 foul. Also, unbeknownst at the time, this for all intents and purposes marked the end of Kawhi was a Spur, which we’ll get to in a moment.
1. Kawhi Leonard vs. 4. Uncle Dennis Robertson
And now we get to the Family Feud match-up that is surprisingly relevant today after the NBA just laid the hammer down on the Clippers’ Aspiration Scandal, in which they are accused of circumventing the salary cap to pay Leonard extra money at Uncle Dennis’ behest. Kawhi played the “I’m just a basketball player who trusted the wrong people” card and came away relatively unscathed with “only” a $700k fine, but he also fired Uncle Dennis as his representative, who himself is banned from all NBA activity for five years (should have been for life, in my opinion).
But that’s neither here nor there for Spurs, which is something everyone needs to remember when voting. They won’t come out and say it, so we can’t be sure Uncle Dennis demanded the same impermissible benefits from the Spurs that we know he did from the Raptors, Lakers and Clippers (although I place the odds at likely). What we do know is he was a huge influence on Kawhi even back then and most assuredly played a role in pushing the narrative that the Spurs had mismanaged his injury so he would look less bad when demanding a trade from the “perfect” organization, with the ultimate goal being to get back to LA, and it mostly worked. Leonard followed his lead, stayed away from the team for most of the 2017-18 season and even hid in a closet when they tried to check on him.
It’s hard to imagine he would have done all this without the bad influence of his uncle if “all he cares about is basketball,” but here’s the thing: Leonard is an adult who had already made almost $100 million at that point. I fully understand that after the horrible tragedy he endured as a young teenager — seeing his father murdered right in front of him in a case that has never been solved — he needed a father figure, and that ended up being his maternal uncle. But was there ever a point where he thought, “I don’t like the way this is playing out or how people I care about and have shed blood, sweat and tears with for the last seven years are being portrayed”?
Did he actually not realize he was being used and taken advantage of by his own family? Is he truly a child in an NBA player’s body who is so naive and gullible that he couldn’t differentiate what has happening right in front of him vs. what his uncle was saying? That is ultimately what you have to decide when voting. Do you blame Uncle Dennis for negatively influencing Kawhi against the organization, or do you blame Kawhi for going along with it and allowing things to play out the way they did? Let us know with your vote!
