Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Showing Love for San Antonio

I'm an American sports fan, so I say that I love teams with solid work ethics that make up for a lack of athleticism with smarts, effort and execution.  I'm an American sports fan, so I claim that I love seeing great athletes play their entire careers as a member of one team.  I'm an American sports fan, so I insist that I root for small market franchises and underdogs.  And I'm an American sports fan, so for some reason I don't want to see the San Antonio Spurs win the 2012 NBA Championship.

Like most sports fans I know, I'm unable to reconcile the first three of the above facts with the fourth.  After all, the Spurs are methodical and boring.  They lack the flash and sizzle of the Heat, the celebrated youth of the Thunder and the big city appeal of the Celtics.  Never mind that the Spurs are built on a foundation of everything we as American sports fans say we stand for - hard work, consistency and stability.  We claim to hate the way the NBA has turned into a league based around superstar athletes and slam dunks, yet we're hard pressed to find anyone rooting for San Antonio to take town younger, flashier and sexier Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals.

  San Antonio's "Big 3" isn't as heralded as either Miami's or Boston's.

Take a look at the Spurs' playoff roster.  It's a seemingly random mix of aging stars (Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker), undervalued young players who have been with the organization since they were drafted (James Anderson, DuJuan Blair, Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter, Gary Neal) and veteran role players that have been kicked around the league (Matt Bonner, Boris Diaw, Stephen Jackson).  What's not to love about this team?  Other than Duncan, who was heralded since his time at Wake Forest, every guy on the roster was overlooked at some point in his career, some as recently as a year or two ago.  Why aren't we all fawning over these guys?  Why do we all want the Durant- and Westbrook- led Thunder to represent the West in the NBA Finals?

The Spurs are a sports mystery.  They represent everything we as sports fans always say we want in a champion, yet we'll root for pretty much anyone to beat them - this year it's Oklahoma City, but during the past decade it's been Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas and even Seattle.  Even as I write this, I have to admit that I want OKC to take Game 2 tonight and march closer to the NBA Finals.  If the San Antonio Spurs do win the 2012 NBA title, though, we'll have no choice but to remember them as one of the league's great dynasties.  The question is: Will we want to?  

1 comment:

Avory said...

Sigh. For the longest time I felt the Spurs were the team from the West that would be the best match-up to derail the Heat.

When the Spurs went down to OKC, I was fooled into thinking--whew!--good thing the Spurs weren't exposed in the Finals!

As it turned out, instead of an experienced team like the Spurs, the Heat preyed upon an inexperienced Thunder team. A beat up old Celtic team pushed Miami to the brink; turns out a healthy Spurs team might have been exactly what the doctor ordered after all.