The San Antonio Spurs are back in the NBA Finals, a statement that would’ve seemed crazy to say a couple of seasons ago when they were camping near the bottom of the standings. But the dynamic of a sports team can change in a hurry, especially when they land a generational player like Victor Wembanyama, which they did when they selected him first overall in the 2023 NBA Draft. His arrival has completely altered the franchise, turning what could have been a painful rebuild into immediate greatness
once again.
Texas sports fans might be getting used to this quick turnaround because they have seen it time and time again. It wasn’t that long ago when the Houston Astros went from three-straight 100-loss seasons to making the World Series four times in six years, coming away with the giant trophy twice. Those miserable summers helped yield a goldmine of high draft picks that eventually turned their little baseball team into a baseball empire.
And that brings us to our beloved Dallas Cowboys. We all know it’s been 30-plus years since we’ve seen them hoist the Lombardi trophy. When we look back, they, too, had to suffer through some awfulness before returning to glory. The two-year transition from Tom Landry to Jimmy Johnson saw the team finish with the worst record in the league in 1988 and 1989. Their terrible display of football resulted in consecutive draft classes that yielded them the triplets – Michael Irvin (88), Troy Aikman (89), and Emmitt Smith (90), ultimately springboarding into a ‘90s dynasty. In short, their back-to-back cellar seasons helped them win back-to-back Super Bowls.
This recent resurgence by the Spurs isn’t the first time they’ve had a historic turnaround. Back in the early ‘90s, a talented San Antonio team was derailed by injuries, including losing their two biggest stars, David Robinson and Sean Elliott, for most of the season. The team only won 20 games, making the franchise’s lowest win total in what is now nearly 60 years of existence. Their reward? Tim Duncan. Just as it did with Wembanyama, the lottery balls took a lucky bounce, allowing them to win the first overall pick in the draft and select the league’s next biggest star.
So, that’s the secret, right? Just be absolutely terrible, and they’ll finally get a draft pick high enough to select a cornerstone player who can put the franchise back on track. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), the Cowboys don’t sink far enough to hit rock bottom these days. Over the last two decades, this team has remained consistently relevant, as one of the more successful NFL teams, at least when it comes to the regular season. The only time they truly flounder is when they lose their starting quarterback for a long stretch of games. Because they avoid these major collapses, they also avoid ever getting a top three draft pick, as you’d have to go all the way back to 1991, the last time they’ve been afforded such a privilege. One can’t help thinking, is this refusal to suck the one thing keeping them from playing on the big stage in February?
Don’t get me wrong, the Cowboys have had a couple of bad seasons over the last decade and a half, but as stated, they’ve come after their QB, whether it was Tony Romo or Dak Prescott, went down hard for the year. Those dreadful seasons were in 2015 and 2020, and they did come with the consolation prize of a rare Top 10 draft pick. Oddly enough, the Cowboys came out of the subsequent drafts with Dak Prescott and Micah Parsons, although Prescott was a fourth-round compensatory pick and Parsons was a trade-back contingency pick. Regardless, the team selected a franchise player each time who just so happened to be the highest-paid player on offense and defense, respectively, entering this year’s offseason. Yet, despite these star players, the Cowboys still failed to push past their divisional round kryptonite.
This raises the ultimate question of whether losing is actually the secret formula for winning. The Cowboys have spent decades teetering on a tightrope of competitive mediocrity, always good enough to remain in the conversation but never bad enough to secure the draft equity needed to reset their ceiling. Perhaps true greatness requires a longer journey through the dark side, leaving us to wonder if the bottom needs to fall out before they can truly put things back together again.
