Spurs By The Numbers- Jeff Lebo wears #12 for four games

When I joined Pounding The Rock, I pitched a project that would cover every player who ever wore a Spurs jersey. Not equally, by any means, but each jersey would be identified numerically by the players who wore it.

There is a significance to the numbers of jerseys as it pertains to the five NBA Championships that have been won by the San Antonio Spurs.

There is only one jersey number associated with all five San Antonio Spurs NBA Championships- #21. Tim Duncan. He is coincidentally also the only player to be involved in all five titles.

There are five numbers associated with four Spurs titles. #9 (Tony Parker) and #20 Manu Ginobili, as well as #2, #4, and #11.

The next set of jersey numbers are those associated with three of the Spurs NBA titles.

Those numbers are 3, 5, 8, 12, 17, and 33. Today we continue our look at #12.

#12

Jeff Lebo

Photo by Greg Thompson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Few players spend their entire NBA career on one team anymore. When it comes the the Spurs, there are a few- David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili . . . Jeff Lebo.

On September 29, 1989, the San Antonio Spurs signed undrafted shooting guard Jeff Lebo. He played for 4 games in between November 10 and November 18 averaging 1.5 points per game, 1 rebound and hitting both of his free throws over his total 32 minutes.

Jeff Lebo was waived on November 22nd to make room for Johnny Moore the same day the Spurs signed him back. Moore was returning from his bout with Desert Fever.

″I think we all wanted to keep Jeff,″ said head coach Larry Brown. ″But we’ve had some situations where we needed somebody in an emergency situation.″

The next season Lebo found his true calling when he joined East Tennessee State as an assistant coach. Moves through Vanderbilt and South Carolina finally opened the door in 1998 as he was hired as head coach of Tennessee Tech, where he was a three-time OVC Coach of the Year. This created a decade’s long head coaching run with stops in Chattanooga, Auburn, and East Carolina, the latter which earned a CIT championship on 2013.

Last season, Jeff Lebo made his way to the G-League as an assistant coach to the Greensboro Swarm, the affiliate of the Charlotte Hornets.

His time in the NBA was short, but basketball is in his blood and he continues to shape the players who long for the same opportunity given to him by the San Antonio Spurs. He must be an aggressive coach as there were very few photos available where he wasn’t yelling from the sideline wildly.

Next number: Matt Othick is the second player to wear #12 for four games.

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