The Team that Would Have Lived Up to the Hype, Had It Gotten Any
The NBA’s San Antonio Spurs have won five, count ’em F-I-V-E, world championships since Gregg Popovich took over control of the team nearly 20 years ago. That’s right up there with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, two of the most celebrated, and far more revered, franchises in pro basketball.
Some athletes and the sporting contests they compete in actually do live up to the hype. A precious few even manage to exceed it.
Last night, while much of the sporting and entertainment world focused on the dud of a prizefight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, which turned out to be way more of a celebrity-garnished money grab rather than the epic boxing match of the century that had been promised to the public, off to the southwest some 200 miles away, inside a packed arena packed with hostile fans, one of America’s most remarkable and enduring dynasties may finally have come to a disappointing end. Thiers was, and still is, the sports dynasty that virtually no one talks about, since the team is all but ignored and invisible in what’s become an already crowded national spotlight, perpetually thick with undeserving teams from much bigger markets and athletes who haven’t accomplished half as much as this team of sportsmen and its destined-to-be Hall of Fame coach.
Indeed, it’s the sports franchise that’s come to define the old axiom, “there’s no ‘i’ in team.” Bereft of scandals and lacking the soap opera melodrama on and off the court that so often destroys great teams, it’s stars don’t make many headlines. While famous athletes playing for more popular teams enrich themselves hawking endorsements, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and their teammates seem content with letting arena scoreboards and championship banners serve as their publicity machine.
The NBA’s San Antonio Spurs have won five, count ’em F-I-V-E, world championships since Gregg Popovich took over control of the team nearly 20 years ago. That’s right up there with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, two of the most celebrated, and far more revered, franchises in pro basketball. But when one stops and considers what the Spurs have managed to accomplish within the game’s modern era, they really have no equals. Consider just a few of this team’s accolades:
- Of all active NBA franchises, the San Antonio Spurs rank first in overall winning percentage. Hence, the Spurs are the winningest NBA team of all time.
- The Spurs have won their division 20 of the 38 seasons that it’s been in existence, since the original ABA franchise moved to San Antonio from Dallas, in 1972 while still in the American Basketball Association (ABA).
- San Antonio has made it to the NBA playoffs 18 straight seasons, their last non-appearance coming in 1997. The Spurs have also made the playoffs 24 out of the last 25 seasons, an unequaled stretch of success.
- San Antonio has won 50+ games for 16 straight seasons, again an unequaled run in the NBA.
In the first round of this season’s playoffs, the Spurs played against the Los Angeles Clippers, which provided those who saw it one of the most competitive confrontations in quite a while. It was the only series to run the full course of seven games. Those who watched any part of the matchup were treated to night after night of remarkable battles between the two most interesting franchises in the league at the moment, arguably about to head off into different directions.
Game 7, which ended just as the Mayweather-Pacquiao dance came to its lethargic conclusion at the MGM Arena, ended in breathtaking fashion. A back-and-forth, see-saw battle between two exhausted teams who gave everything out on the court over the course of the series ended with one final last-second, desperate, off-balance jumper from a hobbled player which swooshed through the net, thrilling the hometown fans, and all but ending one of the greatest runs in the modern basketball era. Final score: Clippers-111 Spurs-109
Indeed, the Spurs would have lived up to the hype — except that there wasn’t any. There’s never been any, not that any of the guys in black and white seem to care.
We might not see the likes of this selfless team and its remarkable group of athletes again. This is all the more reason to celebrate them today after departing the court together for what could be the final time as serious contenders.
Thanks for the kind and deserving tribute to a team I’ve followed since their debut in the early 1970s, Nolan. No doubt you’re right that this is the end of an era that didn’t get near the praise and recognition that it deserved. That being said, if you’ve followed the NBA over the past few years, you know that the end of their miraculous run is not something new.
At the end of last season, and through the first 50 or so games this season, the Spurs were living up to the predictions that followed their fifth championship in 2014. It was to be the end of an era. The Spurs were old, and they would surely falter in 2015. Then the revival started. They rose from 7th place in the standings, briefly into second place, only to slip to sixth at the end of the season. Facing the red hot Clippers, they gave it all they had. Questionable calls against both teams, miracle shots and extraordinary defense prevailed, and we were treated to game 7, which, in my opinion was hands-down, the best game of the season for both teams.
So…here we are again, announcing the end of the same era, only this time, with only a handful of players under contract for the coming season, the dreaded age factor sure to become a reality next year, and competing in the star-studded Western Division, the possibility of dropping into the lottery next year could very well happen.
However it plays out, I’ll continue to be a devoted fan.
I’m not a big fan of the NBA, as I think it’s a substandard product, but I watched this game, and these days the Spurs have to qualify as my favorite team. Why? Because they’re the best at playing team basketball. They’re one of the few NBA teams I can stand to watch.
It also shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone who actually follows sports, even the mouth-breathing NBA commentators were predicting this would be the best series, it was great, and it was the only first round to go to a game seven.
This may, indeed, be the end of their era, but I’m not convinced of that. During their run, the Spurs never made it to the championship in two consecutive years, and they got there last year. Folks have predicted their demise before, many times. They’ve got the best front office and head coach in the NBA even though several other teams have learned from their experience. So, until they fall down in consecutive years and Popovich retires, which will happen one of these years, I’m not going to count them out. I’m not saying they’ll be great again next year, but I won’t be the one to predict that.
Also, would you have written this if the Spurs had won last night and then lost in five or six to the Rockets in the next round? Last night’s game was a coin flip. If a foul were called on the non-call on Duncan’s missed shot at 2:25 with the Spurs up by three (not saying it should have been called, but it certainly could have been), he sinks two, and the Clippers are behind the eight ball, and Steve Ballmer likely cries like John Boehner after a bully knocks over his ice cream cone. We should always be careful not to overreact to the result of a coin flip, and this game seven was a coin flip. Congrats to the Clippers. I probably won’t watch another NBA game this year.