The Stoics...

In my regular life I’m kind of superstitious.  If I really want something to happen, and it is completely out of my control, or even if it is in my control, I won’t make the assertion out loud.  I’d never talk myself up on a court anymore (tennis or hoops) because in the back of my mind I know that the minute I do, my knee will give out.  Or even if it’s something I’m good at, I feel like there’s some mystery involved, and if I am too over-confident about the end product, I will crash and burn. 

Having your hopes and dreams left to chance and to the whims of an unrelenting universe, is par for the course for sports fans, but is it possible that it is for a coach as well?  Thus is the enigma of Erik Spoelstra.  The Miami Heat head coach is a tireless worker.  His attention to detail and devotion to dissecting videos of opposing teams was legendary far before he succeeded Pat Riley as head coach five years ago.  Four NBA Finals appearances and two championships later, it would seem that he and the Miami Heat would have this down to a science by now, but the truth is they don’t.  They’ve had some good luck on their side of course.   And although Miami has been very good the last three years in a watered-down-Eastern Conference, one wonders that if a butterfly had just flapped it’s wings in a different direction somewhere in the mountains outside of Beijing, that Miami would still be chasing that second title, and first since LeBron came to town.

The point isn’t that Miami is a bad basketball team, there are very good, and they deserve the glory for the championships that they’ve won the last two years (especially the first one against OKC.)  But most of their big wins, have that weird intangible quality about them; that they weren’t necessarily deliberate.  It always feels like a rather large percentage of the offensive game was left to chance; what we used to call amoeba offense in high school, albeit run by brilliant offensive basketball talents it is unmistakably good.  That’s good enough to win 7 nights out of 10 in the NBA, but any team that relies on this in the NBA Finals, well, they’re no match for the extremely well oiled machine that is the San Antonio Spurs. 

Obviously, we all know this now, but even two years ago the difference was more than obvious.  In the Spurs beautiful motion offense nothing happens by accident, they are the only team I’ve ever seen in the NBA that almost always gets a good shot.  Their discipline is incredible, regardless of whether it’s the starters, the second team or a mix of both.  And on defense, when they shut down the Eastern Conference champions (Miami) twice in a row on their home floor, there is no chance involved.  That butterfly in Beijing can flap all it wants.

The point is that Gregg Popovich and RC Buford have created a haven in San Antonio that has no rival in modern sports history.       

The Thing About Ball, and Marty McFly's San Antonio Spurs...

The thing about ball is that it always comes back around.  The San Antonio Spurs almost made history last year, coming seconds away from winning a fifth championship over a span of 14 years with the same coach and star player.  But despite last season's crushing defeat at the hands of Miami, the Spurs defied the odds (for what seems like the millionth time,) and made it all the way back to the NBA Finals this year.  And so as fate would have it, here they are again, representing the stellar Western conference against the East's Miami Heat. 

The Spurs always appear to be the better team.  Perfect movement on offense, great team defense, brilliant coaching, and heady play.  They’ve been, over the last fifteen years, the closest thing the NBA has had to the Celtics of the 50’s and 60’s who won 11 championships in 13 years.  The Spurs have been right in the mix every year and although they’ve only actually won four championships (I say only as if most franchises wouldn’t kill for such hardware) they could have won many more.  A bounce here, an injury there, a missed shot here, a heartbreaking-miracle-shot-from-the-other-team there.  San Antonio has been a basketball Utopia for the past 15 years, and contrary to popular opinion, it has been anything but boring.

But the other thing about ball is that there can only be one winner.  It seems so obvious of course, but the way people talk these days, it’s seems that for NBA teams it’s either “championship” or “completely failed season.”  I thought that if the Oklahoma City Thunder hadn’t caught fire on offense in an unprecedented and never-duplicated manner in 2012, the Spurs would have advanced to meet the Heat that year in the Finals, and I think that they would have won that series because the Heat were still searching for their identity.  And we all know how close the Spurs came to winning the Chip last year, thanks to Ray Allen’s contribution which was, very possibly, the greatest shot in NBA history.  So by all accounts, incredibly, instead of Miami gunning for a three-peat this season as is the current reality, it very easily could have been the Spurs in the exact same position.  In the alternate space-time-continuum reality, when Marty wasn’t able to stop Biff, the Spurs very well could be working on championship number seven!  They would have been the Evil Empire, but instead they are the lovable Underdog.  Because that’s yet another thing about ball; everything matters. 

I’m never one to talk about championship-or-nothing as it regards to NBA teams.  I’ve seen far too many extraordinary things happen that so effortlessly seem to nudge history in one direction or another.  The Blazers, Kings, and Suns specifically, could have very easily been champions over the past 15 years, and the Spurs and Celtics could have added Chips to their trophy cases too.  But history remembers the teams who are up when the final horn blows, and Miami has been that team for the last three years.   

So as I find myself at a bar in LA, with equal fans Miami and San Antonio, it’s a perfect time to think legacy.  As far as these poor Laker fans go, and I say poor in the least sympathetic way possible, since they’ve had the greatest success of any NBA team in history, it’s actually kind of an interesting situation at present.  Laker fans want to root against LeBron of course, because he is the obvious heir-apparent to Kobe and is well on his way to usurping the Lakers’ favorite son’s greatness in NBA circles.  But they also, should want to root against Tim Duncan, who has long been a Laker enemy, and who would be a serious threat to Kobe’s “player of the era title,” if he indeed gets a fifth championship.  

So it seems to be kind of a lose-lose for Laker fans, but don’t worry, they’re taking it fine.  Most of them seem to be pulling for San Antonio, because they are the better pure team, and maybe because they feel bad about the Fisher shot (which facilitated a Rule change!) as well as other Shaquille O'Neal related beat-downs, when “Champions” from the East were easy-Pickens.  Those Lakers stomped at least three possible Spurs championships, which would have actually added to San Antonio’s “Marty McFly seven” we talked about earlier!!  Can you imagine?  Russell’s Celtics don’t seem so far off now do they?

Regardless, it seems that current-reality Laker fans are forgiving their past hatreds and actually pulling for the men in silver and black!  I suppose it's because anything would be better than ex-Pat Riley getting yet another Chip in Miami-maroon, and rightfully so.  Things should definitely come back around at some point.  It's the thing about ball.          

So here we are.  Game over.  The Spurs pretty much dominated game three.  They are the best team in basketball, and have been for a few years.  But as Miami has proven, sometimes the better players can skew that, and given enough times through the space-time-continuum, they can alter history. 

Right now though in the NBA, for one reason or another (or more specifically, because of LeBron James,) it’s still Miami’s world.  But the Spurs don't need a hover-board or a flux-capaciter to alter the space-time-continuum.  They just need to stay the course and play the games.
Hill-Valley will never be the same.
Thanks for reading,
Underdogs out!                        

MLK 2014...

Martin Luther King Day, 2014.  We are here today, in a place of unparalleled, yet obviously still incomplete, racial harmony in our country.  But as crazy as it sounds, much of the credit for the progress that has been made, has to go to the game of basketball.  For years the NBA has made the most of this special holiday and with good reason.  Throughout history, basketball has been a huge proponent of highlighting the long process of positive integration among different races in our country, and the future hope to break down barriers among racial stereotypes.  It's a crazy world for sure, but all we can do is our best to make sure that it's as controlled as we can make it.  And sports once again, gives us a platform to do that.  Regardless of upbringing or nationality the best will out.  We learn this over and over.  

Therefore one of the most obvious proponents of racial equality comes with the presentation of NBA basketball.  The game provides for many, on television and otherwise, and all of them deserve it.  At some point they've earned their place amongst the world's greatest game.