This year’s NBA season was a huge roller coaster ride. It
all began with the Dwight Howard saga that honestly got irritating by the time
it was over, continued with Kobe Bryant’s multiple foot/knee issues, Rajon
Rondo returning from his injury as good as anyone could, and of course the
Return, which underwhelmed, frankly as expected.
Amidst all of this, a plot was festering; a plot that had
been hatching; a plot that has been changing and evolving for 17 years now.
After last year’s horrific loss to the Miami Heat in 7 games, everybody (as
usual) thought the Spurs were done. They were finally done. But they had other
ideas (as cliché as that may sound, it’s true). The hurt of losing in the
finals, coupled with the frustration of being a mere 28 seconds away from a
championship would make any superstar crumble; But not a super Team, not this
Spurs team.
As a Spurs fan, I believed in my team, but it wasn’t really
clear from the beginning of the season. Pop’s adamant minutes restrictions for
the Big 3, a few games lost due to certain injuries by almost every one, and the
season didn’t begin with a frenzy of a bounce back. They lost their first games
to almost all the contenders. They were swept by the Rockets and Thunder in the
regular season, squared series with MIA and IND and beat the Clippers 2-1. They
were winning a large number of their games though, begging the question if they
were still good enough to beat the elite teams. We see now, they are.
But this isn’t about numbers, or about stats, as important as
they are, as a fan; this is about a legend, about the story you get to tell your
kids. The world is filled with hero stories; I know that’s what everyone likes.
A man, faced with adversity, stands up, makes a bold statement and conquers it
all. This in part is true, because it rarely happens that an entire group of
people have an equal amount of motivation, hurt anger and dedication towards
what they do, and all of those people are on 1 team. They played the most
sublime basketball I have ever seen a team play in a series, I’ll admit, I haven’t
been a basketball fan for very long, and I unfortunately haven’t watched MJ or
Kobe in their prime, but that’s the thing; those eras belonged to people, the
90’s Bulls were MJ’s Bulls. The 2000 Lakers were Shaq’s team; the next three
peat was achieved by Kobe’s Lakers.
The history of sports is littered by these
legendary stories. But this year’s spurs create a story very different. How
would you begin the tale? This is a story of the year 2014. A great franchise
that was … and you’d trail off in thought. Whose team is this? Duncan, Manu,
Tony? Pop predicts that Kawhi is going to be the Spurs franchise player in a
few years. If that prediction comes true, since he was the finals MVP, years
from now, will people say this was Kawhi’s team? Or is this Pop’s team? Every
player deflects this kind of argument towards the other. They feed off of each
other’s success. They truly are a model franchise in sports. They have 2 father
figures, one who yells, the other barely talks, Tony looks like a happy kid,
Manu, well, behaves like a happy kid, Kawhi, Danny and Mills really are kids. It’s
kind of an odd, worldwide family.
I hope the system they have created is duplicated,
enhanced and played with for years, so when the next generation watches
basketball, we can say, this, THIS was the Spurs way. The beautiful way.
P.S: The Heat now know, first hand, A Million Ways to Die in the West!
P.S: The Heat now know, first hand, A Million Ways to Die in the West!
