FAKE RONJAN!!I think the 2013 Spurs are my favorite sports team ever
I wasn't sure what angle to take in the post 2013 NBA Finals world. I had considered writing about the best NBA Finals ever, the best title defenses ever, the closest teams have ever come to a championship without winning it, or even a more personal look at the toughest losses I can remember for teams that I root for. I'll probably get around to writing all of those eventually, but it just isn't the time right now. I just want to pay appropriate tribute to the Spurs.
48 Minutes of Hell had a better take on it than you're going to get here. All I can really focus on personally is that in a do-or-die situation, one of the best players in the history of the game had to go for 37-and-12 while playing lockdown defense to shut out Tony Parker in the 2nd half ... and the Spurs still had a shot at it at the end of game 7. Can't ask for more than that.
The Spurs are typically known for their fight, even in devastating losses. When they lost to the Lakers in 2004 in game 5 on Derek Fisher's 0.4 second shot, they had trailed all game by double digits and clawed their way back to take a late lead on a miracle shot from Duncan moments earlier. When they were eliminated by the Mavericks in a game 7 in 2006, they had come back from 3-1 down in the series to force game 7 and trailed that game by double digits until a late rally as well. That is not even mentioning some of the amazing come-from-behind wins over the years, of which there are too many to properly mention. If this was the last run for the Spurs in the "big three era" -- with Ginobili clearly running on fumes at this point and now a free agent -- that's the way to go out.
Sometimes the passing of the torch is more elegant than the run itself. Up until this point, my favorite version of the Spurs was the 2003 team. It was a unique combination of youthful energy from 21-year-old Tony Parker and first-year-NBA-player Manu Ginobili, grizzled leadership from David Robinson and Kevin Willis, some classic role players like Bruce Bowen and Malik Rose, and of course the brilliance of 2-time MVP Tim Duncan at the peak of his powers.
That team -- unlike the 1999, 2005, and 2007 Spurs who also won titles -- seemed to have an endearing sense of vulnerability. They had lost to the eventual-champion Lakers in two straight seasons (going 1-8 in the two playoff series) and it wasn't clear whether they ever could knock off the Shaq-Kobe combo. They were simultaneously too old and too inexperienced outside of their frontman. Sometimes those are the teams that are the most fun to root for, even if they don't win it all.
This Spurs team has similar qualities, with inexperienced players like Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green having big moments at times in the series while the now-aging Duncan and Ginobili try to exhaust whatever they have left in the tank. Really, the big difference is the feeling that the other shoe has to drop eventually on the Spurs. 10 years ago, this team was just trying to make a name for itself. Now, they're chasing their former glory.
There's something poetic about having LeBron James put together what may be -- in context -- his finest two-way performance ever against the very team that humiliated him 6 years ago in front of his hometown fans. LeBron, for all of the criticism, has had an incredible career in bouncing back against champions who have tested him in previous seasons.
After losing to the Pistons in 2006, the Cavs bounced back the following year en route to their only NBA Finals appearance. After losing to the Celtics in 2008 and 2010 with the Cavs, LeBron's Heat knocked them out the next two seasons en route to the NBA Finals. And now, finally, after losing in the 2007 Finals to the Spurs, LeBron got them back six years later. That's resilience and clutch performance that hopefully he'll start getting credit for. And it was the 2013 Spurs who pushed him the furthest.
When it looked like the Spurs had wrapped up game 6, I starting thinking about what I was going to write as my "reaction" on Facebook. In fact -- jinx alert -- I ended up drafting something along the lines of "what a finish, what a game, what a series, and what a season!" It never crossed my mind to describe the Spurs as deserving champions, the best team in the league, or even great. Maybe that's because they just aren't any of these things, and the Miami Heat are all of them. And I'm okay with this.
The Spurs may yet have a bright future, particularly with Kawhi Leonard emerging as a potential force, but I'll never forget what they did this spring. Go Spurs Go!
-rj