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!
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