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.
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