If you watch Bill Land and Sean Elliot call San Antonio Spurs games throughout the regular season and the playoffs, you know that the Memorial Day Miracle comes up at least once every broadcast, usually when Elliot sarcastically says, “back in my day” before questioning a foul call.
It deserves the attention that it gets. It was a milestone in the playoffs that signified a shift where the Spurs were no longer going to lose games like that and would finally get over the hump and win their first championship.
But that wasn’t the only great Spurs comeback of that season. Even before the playoffs started, they racked up buzzer-beaters in that strike-shortened season on their way to a No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, including one that beat the Houston Rockets in a nationally televised game.
On a Sunday afternoon in 1999, the Spurs hosted the rival Rockets, who had loaded up on Hall of Famers like Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen to try to get one last ride out of their aging squad for a championship. In putting that team together, they parted ways with Mario Elie, who’d helped them win their two titles earlier in the decade.
The Spurs scooped him up and it immediately paid dividends, not just for his leadership in the starting lineup but for his clutch performances.
Early in the NBC broadcast, it looked like it was going to be a long day for the Spurs, who were down by as many as 23 points to Houston. But they clawed back and somehow found themselves in position to win in the final seconds.
Unless you own the 1999 Spurs Championship VHS, it’s tough to find footage of this game because recording and preserving highlights on a digital platform was nearly impossible in the 20th century for everyday fans.
Although there is the clip above that’s been preserved from a separate championship collection put out by the Spurs (not the NBA championship video).
There’s also this low-quality version I found on YouTube which includes Bob Costas calling the game-winner with Doug Collins on color commentary.
What you can’t really get an appreciation for in these highlights is how close that Scottie Pippen three came to going in. I still don’t know how it didn’t fall. Remember when Robert Horry nearly beat the Spurs in Game 5 of their 2003 playoff series? It was closer than that.
That win was the Spurs’ third straight victory. They closed out the regular season winning 12 of their last 13 regular season games, then went 15-2 in their playoff run to a title (back then the first round was best-of-five).
It sounds hard to believe now, but shortly after winning the title in ’99, the Spurs put out a soundtrack that included audio highlight packages of buzzer-beaters from that year, career retrospective highlights of David Robinson and Tim Duncan, and calls from the Memorial Day Miracle and the final seconds of their championship-clinching game in New York in English and Spanish, as well as the trophy presentation and a portion of David Robinson’s speech from that year’s River Walk championship parade.
The CD (remember CD’s!?) included the call of Mario Elie’s game-winner
The call of this game is included on that San Antonio Spurs Go Spurs Go! Greatest Hits Championship Edition. There are even a few songs, including “What I Like About You” by The Romantics, “Get Ready for This” by 2 Unlimited, and “We Are the Champions” by Queen.
You can’t find the album on iTunes, Apple Music, or Spotify, but you can buy a used version of the CD on Amazon for less than two dollars!
