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Spurs and Thunder star in NBA’s Western Conference Finals: 10 extra dimensions

The clash of the Spurs and Thunder in the NBA’s Western Conference finals may fly a bit under the national radar when it opens Sunday. Here are 10 factors that make this showdown intriguing.

6. Celtics connection

  • By Ross Atkin Staff

Both San Antonio forward Tim Duncan and Oklahoma City center Kendrick Perkins feature at least indirectly in the history of the Boston Celtics.

While Duncan never played for the Celtics, he was the player Boston hoped to select in the 1997 draft when the team had two lottery picks. That gave them a 36 percent chance of getting the top pick, but instead it went to the Spurs. New Coach Rick Pitino was able to add two solid players to the roster, Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer, but neither was the major building block that the 6 ft. 11 in. Duncan proved to be.

Eventually the Celtics took a flyer on finding a center by trading for Perkins immediately after he was drafted in 2003 with the 27th pick on the first round by the Memphis Grizzlies. He matured quickly as a defender and rebounder and was a key contributor to the Boston’s  2008 championship run, when the Celtics beat the Lakers. Two years later, in a rematch against Los Angeles, Perkins injured his leg in Game 6 and was unable to play in Game 7, which the Lakers won 83-79.

Now as the Spurs and Thunder square off, Duncan will be looking to do something that even Bill Russell, the Celtics great, wasn’t able to do, namely play on championship teams 13 years apart. Russell’s 11 championship teams spanned 12 years, from 1957 to 1969. Duncan has four championships in his resume, from 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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