As experts and fans continue to ponder whether the San Antonio Spurs are actually true NBA Championship contenders, one team after another is indicating that they are. The performance of the young core on the franchise's annual rodeo road trip highlights another sign – at least by their standards – that they are taking the next step.
The annual excursion that takes the Spurs away from their home for a month began during the 2002–2003 season when the organization moved to a new arena. The Spurs went 8-1 that year as the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo took over their building. This is a road trip mark that no Silver and Black team has ever been able to surpass. In '03, the Silver and Black used it down the stretch to reach the franchise's second championship.
Two years later, the Spurs claimed a third title after going 5–2, representing the third Rodeo Road Trip in franchise history. In June 2007, the Spurs again held the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Four months earlier, he had posted 4-4 marks within February. Seven years after that, they went 6-3 in a 28-day span en route to the 2014 championship.
Between and immediately following their fifth title, the franchise never held a losing record on the Rodeo Road Trip:
2004: 6-1
2006: 6-2
2008: 6-3
2009: 5-3
2010: 4-4
2011: 6-3
2012: 8-1
2013: 7-2
2015: 4-5
2016: 7-1
2017: 6-2
It's probably not a coincidence that '17 also marks the last time the Spurs advanced to the conference finals. Beginning with the Rodeo Road Trip in 2003 and thereafter, the organization reached the league semi-finals nine times.
Rodeo road trip success declines for Spurs
From the 2017-'18 season through the campaign ending in the spring of 2023, the Spurs never once achieved a winning record — other than a three-game trip in 2021 that was significantly shortened due to COVID restrictions. Otherwise, the organization struggled every February:
2018: 2-4
2019: 1-7
2020: 2-6
2022: 4-4
2023: 1-8
The Spurs qualified for the playoffs in '18 before losing to the Golden State Warriors in the first round. The following season they again made the postseason, taking on the second-seeded Denver Nuggets before losing in Game 7.
The franchise has not made the playoffs, breaking the NBA record of 22 consecutive appearances.
Victor Wembanyama's first experience with the franchise's two-decade tradition also represented one of its worst performances as the Silver and Black went 1–8 for the second consecutive rodeo road trip.
Then they went 3-7 last year.
This time, February included an impressive 11–0 record, marking the third time in franchise history that the team has gone undefeated in a calendar month (minimum ten games) and the club's longest winning streak since 2015–16. Seven of those 11 wins came on the road, including wins against the Los Angeles Lakers, Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers.
Officially, the Spurs went 6-1 on the Rodeo Road Trip this year. In reality, they won eight of nine away from the Frost Bank Center when their two annual 'home' games in Austin were included in the expansion.
That 8–1 mark matched the 2002–03 team's record. Now we wait to see if these Spurs match that Championship team in any other way.
