Thanks, Spurs, Thanks ... Take 2
Four years ago at my old website (uselessanalysis.com) I wrote a post thanking my favorite team in sports, the San Antonio Spurs, for an incredible run over the years. They had just been eliminated in the first round of the 2015 playoffs one season after winning their fifth championship, and it appeared that their title window had finally closed.
Since then, while the team has been competitive - even putting up franchise records in wins and point differential in the 2016 season - they haven’t seriously challenged for a title. Tim Duncan retired after that 2016 season, Kawhi Leonard was hurt in the 2017 playoffs and would leave the team in a bitter divorce, Manu Ginobili retired after the 2018 season, and Tony Parker left for the Hornets and retired after the 2019 season.
Suffice it to say - it’s truly the end of an era. While the Spurs may return to dominance someday, the team I was drawn to back in the day doesn’t exist anymore. I ultimately found myself happily rooting for familiar faces Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in the 2019 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
I pondered what might have been if Kawhi weren’t hurt against this same Warriors team in 2017, then watched as Kawhi benefitted from Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson going down to two of the most devastating injuries in NBA history this time. You know what? Maybe it all evens out in the long run.
Along those lines, the Spurs got theirs. The league belongs to others now. I’m grateful that we got one final championship run five years ago that I could share with my son. They were a team to celebrate and remember.
Below is the original post I wrote about the Spurs’ run. Outside of my assumption that Chris Paul’s Clippers would take over the West instead of the Warriors, I think the sentiments hold up. Go Spurs Go.
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Relief. That's what I feel right now, a few hours after the Spurs lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, ending their season and perhaps their historic run of dominance through the league. Why? I'll get into that in a bit.
The San Antonio Spurs have been my favorite NBA team for 15 years. Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, there was no local team. This meant freedom from the inherent silliness of rooting for a team of "sellswords" just because their arena was in my city -- and as a result, I've felt a stronger connection to the Spurs over the years than my traditional "home teams" in other sports as I moved around the country.
I was first drawn to the Spurs in 2001, two years after their first championship in the lockout-shortened 1999 season. The twin towers of Tim Duncan and David Robinson anchored a squad that shared the ball offensively, played without ego, and committed to defense first. I loved everything about the way they played, and because of that they became my favorite team in the league.
There have been five distinct storylines since the Spurs became my favorite team, and it's been interesting to see how they have evolved over the years.
1. Up-and-Coming: 2001-2003
The Spurs dominated the regular season in all three seasons, finishing with 58+ wins and capturing a top-two seed in the Western Conference every year. They ran into the Shaq-and-Kobe-led Los Angeles Lakers in 2001 and were destroyed by the defending champs in an embarrassing 4-game sweep. In 2002, the team added Tony Parker, again faced the repeat champion Lakers, and again were defeated. In 2003, Manu Ginobili came aboard, they ran into the three-peat Lakers yet again, and this time the Spurs prevailed, leading to a championship a few weeks later.
I always appreciated this version of the Spurs because of the unique combination of past-their-prime veterans like David Robinson, future stars like Parker and Ginobili, role players like Malik Rose and Bruce Bowen, and a selfless superstar like Duncan. Despite winning a championship in the asterisk 1999 season, these squads had a certain vulnerability that was augmented by repeated losses to the champion Lakers. When they won in 2003 by going through the three-time defending champs, the Spurs had officially arrived.
2. Dominance and Devastation: 2004-2007
The Spurs maintained their regular season dominance, winning 57+ games and finishing in the top 3 in the West each season. Taking on an adaptable persona, these Spurs could grind it out with the best teams, but also won up-tempo postseason series against the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks. The Spurs could have won the championship in all four seasons if not for two heartbreaking losses.
In 2004, the longtime nemesis Lakers beat the Spurs thanks to Derek Fisher's miracle 0.4-second game winner in Game 5. In 2006, the rival Mavericks won game 7 in San Antonio after a clutch three-point-play from Dirk Nowitzki. In both of these losses, the Spurs were down big at home, found a way to battle back and take a lead on a clutch shot (Duncan in 2004, Ginobili in 2006), and then lost in the final seconds. These devastating losses led to bounce-back championships in each of the following seasons.
3. The Doldrums: 2008-2010
After five dominant seasons with three championships and two close calls, the Spurs fell off significantly, at least by their high standards. They won 56 games in 2008, 54 in 2009, and just 50 in 2010, when they finished 7th in the West.
In the playoffs, there were some moments, such as the epic Phoenix game 1 in 2008, the game 7 road victory against the New Orleans Hornets that same year, and the series win against Dallas in 2010 as the 7 seed. But in each season, the Spurs went home quietly, losing in 5 to the Lakers in 2008, losing in 5 to the Mavs in 2009, and getting swept by the revenge-motivated Phoenix Suns in 2010. The era of dominance appeared to be over.
4. The Renaissance: 2011-2014
2011 was a year of huge change in the NBA, as the free agency class that included LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Amare Stoudemire redefined the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, out west, the Spurs were back in big form, as they finished with 58+ wins in three of the four years and went 50-16 in a shortened season in 2012. The playoffs played out like a classic climb-the-ladder story.
The Spurs were shocked in the first round in 2011 by Memphis, but the Spurs acquired Kawhi Leonard in the offseason and they responded. They reached the Western Conference Finals in 2012 and won 20 consecutive games, showcasing an offense built on beautiful passing, before losing 4 in a row against Oklahoma City, They bounced back to reach the NBA Finals in 2013, only to lose arguably the most devastating game in NBA history to the Miami Heat. After that loss, I proclaimed [at uselessanalysis.com] the 2013 team to be my favorite sports team of all time, only to be blown away by the resilience of the 2014 squad. Motivated by revenge in 2014, the Spurs beat the Thunder and eviscerated the Heat, ended the LeBron-in-Miami era, and took back the crown. What a team, and what a story.
5. Denouement: 2015
After a win like that, there's only direction to go: down. The Spurs started this season hung over and sleepwalked to a 34-23 start. They had some signature wins, including beating both Memphis and Golden State on the road, but the same cast of characters were clearly missing the edge from the previous season. The Spurs went on a run towards the end of the season, but they lost to the embarrassing Knicks in a game that turned out to be critically important on the last day of the season. Facing the New Orleans Pelicans, a young team who needed a win to make the playoffs, the Spurs lost and finished as the #6 team in the West when a victory would have delivered the 2 seed.
That all led us to today, as the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Spurs and opened up a summer of uncertainty, with the futures of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Kawhi Leonard all in flux.
So why am I relieved that the Spurs lost? This season was all gravy. Nothing the Spurs did this year could have topped 2014, and it was clear they knew it. All year, the team felt one step behind -- starting slow, blowing the Knicks game, dropping the final game of the season, and losing games 4 and 6 at home to the Clippers. Every time this team had a big opportunity, they failed to capitalize. This season was not meant to deliver a championship to the Spurs, and it's better to know this now rather than in a few weeks.
The Spurs drove a great team to the edge and drew out a classic performance from a one-legged Chris Paul, whose game-winner over Duncan may go down in history if the Clippers go on a run. The torch may have been passed tonight, and it's great to see for the league.
Thanks for a great 15 years. Go Spurs Go.