Looking back at San Antonio Spurs 2014 championship team 10 years later

Few teams epitomize the game of basketball, the NBA, and San Antonio itself better than the 2014 “Beautiful Game” San Antonio Spurs. Ten years ago this self-built, homegrown, and foundational team stood up and avenged its prior loss to the Miami Heat, downing the team from South Beat 4-1 in the 2014 NBA Finals.

Going back a full decade, these players were already well known and loved, with one exception. This last championship only further solidified their legacy. So, what got them to that point and how have they continued to leave their mark? Let’s take a look.

Tony Parker

Tony Parker was already a lock for the Hall of Fame before entering the 2013-14 season. He had five All-Star appearances, three championships, one Finals MVP, an All-Rookie team honor, and five All-NBA honors. By the end of the season he would add another All-Star appearance and All-NBA 2nd Team along with the fourth championship. On the court, he meshed the duties of scorer and floor general with his passing abilities and finishing skills. 

Parker would continue on as a Spur for four more seasons, before retiring after playing one final year in Charlotte. He’s developed an interesting portfolio of investments including a vineyard, ski resort, and his French Basketball team LDLC ASVEL, which employed Victor Wembanyama two years ago. Parker was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023, and his No. 9 jersey hangs in the rafters of Frost Bank Center.

Manu Ginobili

Manu Ginobili, forever one of the most popular Spurs, was also bound for Hall of Fame honors going into his last championship. Along with his two All-Star appearances and two All-NBA teams, he also has a Sixth Man of the Year Award, an Olympic Gold Medal, and four Championship rings. Ginobili will also forever have his mark on the game for his transformative footwork. The “euro-step,” popularized by Ginobili, was an iconic way to attack the basket and can now be seen in every NBA contest at least once. It, combined with his passing, made him a threat to defenses at all times. 

Ginobili would play for four more seasons until his retirement in 2018, one of which included one of the best blocks in NBA history. He now works for the Spurs as Special Advisor to Basketball Operations. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022 and his No. 20 jersey is also retired in Frost Bank Center. 

Tim Duncan

What can be said about Tim Duncan that hasn’t already been said? At the tail end of his career, Duncan qualified as a Hall of Famer two times over before adding a fifth ring to his resume. The list of accolades is daunting even for longtime fans. Two NBA MVPs, 14 All-NBA honors, four championships, three Finals MVPs, and 15 All-Star appearances are just the start of the list as the 2013-14 seasons began. Duncan brought the game to its absolute fundamental roots and excelled at all aspects of it.

He is the most important Spur of the dynasty and is universally considered the greatest power forward of all time. He would play two more years after the 2014 championship before quietly retiring in 2016. Since then, Duncan served one year as an assistant coach and remains a part of the Spurs organization today, helping develop Wembanyama. 

Kawhi Leonard

The 2014 Championship cannot be talked about without mentioning the Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard. At the time, Leonard was the up-and-comer set to take the torch of the Spurs dynasty. Before the Finals, Leonard had an All-Rookie team to his name but not much else other than his potential. He had averaged 9.8 points and 4.1 rebounds going into his third year. The Spurs found him as a diamond in the rough and slowly helped morph him into what he would become. 

He earned the 2014 Finals MVP honors averaging 17.8 points and 6.4 rebounds throughout the series and played spectacular defense on Miami star LeBron James. Since then, he went on to win two consecutive Defensive Player of the Year Awards, along with two All-NBA First Teams, and two All-Star appearances before forcing a (call it unceremonious) trade. The Spurs sent him to Toronto, where he would win another championship and Finals MVP in 2019. Leonard would then sign with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency, where he has dealt with numerous injury issues and varying playoff success. 

Marco Belinelli

Marco Belinelli was an important player coming off the bench for this Spurs team. He was a sort of Ginobili’s Ginobili. That is he was a great seventh or eighth man off the bench. His ability to make threes — and off-balance ones at that — was probably underrated at the time as he averaged 43% from long range. 

Since 2014, Belinelli made several stops around the league, including Chicago, Atlanta, and Philadelphia before returning to the Spurs for his last two seasons in 2019 and 2020. Since 2020 he has played for Virtus Bologna of the EuroLeague.

Matt Bonner

Matt Bonner is the epitome of a San Antonian who got here as soon as he could. Hailing from New Hampshire, and playing two quick seasons in Toronto, Bonner made his way down south in 2006, winning a championship with the Spurs in 2007 and then 2014. He was a solid big coming off the bench all the way through 2016, earning himself the nicknames of Red Mamba, and Red Rocket for his clutch shot-making.

Now retired, Bonner has earned his place as a San Antonio legend. He contributes to the local Bally Sports Spurs’ broadcasts and is a self-proclaimed curling enthusiast. 

Aron Baynes

Australian Aron Baynes was a big that was getting his career started in 2014. Still, he contributed in 53 regular season games and 14 playoff games as a big off the bench. After his tenure with the Spurs ended in 2015, Baynes carved out a decent career that included an Eastern Conference Finals appearance with the Boston Celtics in 2018.

Tragically, Baynes’ basketball journey was cut short during Australia’s 2020 (2021) Bronze Medal Olympic run in Tokyo. In between quarters, Baynes had left to use the restroom. When he didn’t return, a team staffer went to look for him and found him lying on the floor of the bathroom with two deep punctures in his arm, unable to walk. It’s still unknown what exactly happened. Baynes was hospitalized in Japan with some sort of neurological condition which was traced back to a fall he had in halftime warmups of the Aussie’s first game that may have caused his fall in the bathroom. He eventually made it back home to Australia and has gone through months of rehab to be able to walk again. He didn’t make it back to the NBA like he had planned but does play in Australia's National Basketball League as of last year. The most important thing though is he is ok. 

Danny Green

The 2014 Danny Green was a quintessential “3-and-D-guy.” He could defend his assignments well and make perimeter shots from the outside, averaging 43% from three on 4.7 attempts per game. He was essential to the way the Spurs played and would continue to be for several other championship teams. 

Green is arguably the most successful member of the 2014 roster–post San Antonio. He won another championship with Toronto in 2019, being traded there with Leonard, and grabbed a third the very next year with the Lakers in the NBA Disneyworld Bubble. Over the last few years, his career has started to dwindle, holding a contributing role with the 76ers for a couple of years and a largely non-playing role in Memphis, Cleveland, and back to Philadelphia. 

Patty Mills

Fellow Australian and teammate of Aron Baynes, Patty Mills will also be a forever beloved Spur. The perfect point guard for the second unit, Mills had a knack for making the right plays at the right time, a skill he brought to the Australian National team as well as other NBA franchises. He did stay in San Antonio until 2021 and has since played in Atlanta and Miami this season. 

Around the city, Mills left his mark as the inspiration for the Australian-themed Roo Pub off Redland Road north of 281, which opened in 2014 and is still running to this day.

Boris Diaw

Boris Diaw had already led a long NBA career before making his way to San Antonio, which included a Most Improved Player Award in 2006. For San Antonio, he found a way to be an integral part of the team for his pin-point passing and accurate shooting. A great glue guy off the bench, he carved out an archetype for himself that many contenders would love to have on their squad today. 

After his play with the Spurs finished in 2016, Diaw played a year in Utah as well as a year in France. He is now the president of the Metropolitan 92, Wembanyama’s last French team. 

Tiago Splitter

Brazilian Tiago Splitter didn’t have a long NBA career but he was certainly in the right place at the right time. After a prolific Euroleague Career he was drafted 28th overall by San Antonio in 2007 but didn’t come over until 2010. As the starter next to Tim Duncan, Splitter helped hold down the front court. Before retiring in 2017 he played a year in Atlanta and Philadelphia. Today, Splitter is a coach for a division rival, the Houston Rockets, serving as an assistant to former Spur and now Rockets head coach Ime Udoka. 

Cory Joseph

Cory Joseph was also only in his third year going into the 2013-14 season. He was a decent player off the bench and has found success as a journeyman since leaving the Spurs in 2015. He has spent time with Toronto, Indiana, Sacramento, Detroit, and Golden State.

The “Beautiful Game” Spurs will forever be remembered as a team that changed the game of basketball. For some it was their last dance, for others it was only a phase of their career. Regardless, it is a team that we can look back on with fondness as it build upon the legend of the Spurs Dynasty that stood for nearly 20 years.