The San Antonio Spurs lay claim to one of the most successful and dominant stretches of NBA basketball in the league's history. From 1999 to 2017, the Spurs went 1133-459, posting a mind-boggling .712 win percentage. The Spurs also claimed five NBA Championships in that time, and won 60 games in six separate seasons.
That type of dominance is incredibly rare in the modern NBA, especially over that long. Most people would consider a run of that magnitude, headlined by one of the ten greatest players in NBA history, in Tim Duncan, a dynasty. One former NBA champion, Nick Young, however, does not.
The former Golden State Warrior and Los Angeles Laker guard, who won a championship with Golden State in 2018, took to X to make the claim that the "Tim Duncan spurs was not a dynasty team."
"Swaggy P" hasn't added any further comment defending the take. He chose to post it on a Thursday morning with no further comment.
While the Spurs may not have ever gone back-to-back, they won four titles in nine years (and three in five years, from 2003-2007) and had 20 consecutive winning seasons, making the NBA playoffs in all of them.
Duncan won two MVP awards in 2002 and 2003, with 10 First Team All-NBA selections. Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard each laid claim to a Finals MVP, and Leonard won Defensive Player of the Year as a forward twice.
This combination of feats, paired with unmatched dominance in the modern era, would surely qualify to most as a dynasty. Young, however, doesn't think so.
Young played in the NBA for 12 seasons, with career averages of 11.4 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game. In his Championship season, Young averaged 7.3 points per game, but scored just five points in the finals.
Young is perhaps most well-remembered for an incident during his Lakers tenure. Then-rookie D'Angelo Russell recorded a video of Young talking about women who were not his then-fiancée, rapper Iggy Azalea. The incident created a rift amongst Young and Russell, and the Lakers' locker room as a whole. Young has spoken out about the incident as recently as December, after Russell was traded back to the Lakers, Young posted "AND STAY OUT... Dat bring yo a** back to LA" on X.