Well now that I've recovered from the San Antonio Spurs’ 5th NBA Championship that was won on Sunday after soundly beating the Miami Heat in 5 games. I'm writing my thoughts on how a small market NBA franchise that hasn't had a lottery pick in 17years could be so consistently successful and yet be so underrated by the rest of the nation.
I’m not going to bash the Miami Heat because I really do like their players and coach. To make it to the finals 4 straight years is a very rare accomplishment that requires great talent and extreme dedication. They should be proud of it. But the Heat, like most of other teams in the NBA think short term success by buying the best talent that they can afford versus the Spurs who are by their consistent success are forced to find diamonds in the rough and work to develop their talent to fit into Pop’s system.
The San Antonio Spurs have just completed its 15th straight season winning 50+games and the 6th time it won 60+games. This is a team that was built, not bought. This is the team that since its 2005 NBA championship was considered by the talking hairdos as too old to compete for a championship. This is the team that was too boring even after its 1[SUP]st[/SUP] championship. If you watched this year’s finals, you saw a team that passed the basketball like no other team in NBA history. If you didn’t watch the finals you missed something special. They brought beauty back to basketball and played a style of game that those of us old enough haven’t seen since the 80’s Celtics and Lakers. This team averaged over 20 assists per game for the season. Every player that competed against them had sore necks the next day from trying to follow the ball. It was at times Globetrotter like. This franchise has missed the playoffs only 4 times since entering the NBA and only 5 times since their founding in the ABA in 1967. And they are the only former ABA team to win an NBA Championship.
The team is built on character and chemistry before talent. Coach Popovich requires each player to check his ego at the door or use that door to leave. The Spurs’ biggest stars are treated the same as the last guy on the bench and they take less money than stars of similar stature so that the team can afford to surround them with the talent to be successful. Many free agents have taken less money to come to the Spurs because all they do is win. Add the fact that the team resembles the United Nations with players from six different countries and you have a very unique team.
The owner, GM and coaches shy away from the lime light and have created an atmosphere of family with everyone in the organization past and present. Many of the Spurs' former players retain residences in San Antonio even if they get traded to other teams or retire. Current and former players are still involved in the community with their money and time. And if you happen to run into a player at the supermarket or a restaurant, (which happens a lot) they will stop and say hi or talk to your kids. They are just regular guys. For example, I used to play pickup basketball at a local gym with the same guys twice a week at lunch. We did this for years,and several times during the NBA off season a few of the Spurs’ players would come and play with us. They never tried to embarrass us by dunking on us, blowing by us for layups or talk down to us. They were there to work on fundamentals and get a workout. They even helped us with our game. Some of the players, especially Tim Duncan, are car guys who occasionally show up at car meets.
The team culture is reflected in our community culture as well. We have celebrated 6 finals in San Antonio, (we even came out to celebrate the season after last year’s devastating finals loss to the Heat) and no cars were burned, no property was damaged and few if any arrests for disorderly conduct were made.
So the question remains....why are they so underrated? They do nothing but win.
I’m not going to bash the Miami Heat because I really do like their players and coach. To make it to the finals 4 straight years is a very rare accomplishment that requires great talent and extreme dedication. They should be proud of it. But the Heat, like most of other teams in the NBA think short term success by buying the best talent that they can afford versus the Spurs who are by their consistent success are forced to find diamonds in the rough and work to develop their talent to fit into Pop’s system.
The San Antonio Spurs have just completed its 15th straight season winning 50+games and the 6th time it won 60+games. This is a team that was built, not bought. This is the team that since its 2005 NBA championship was considered by the talking hairdos as too old to compete for a championship. This is the team that was too boring even after its 1[SUP]st[/SUP] championship. If you watched this year’s finals, you saw a team that passed the basketball like no other team in NBA history. If you didn’t watch the finals you missed something special. They brought beauty back to basketball and played a style of game that those of us old enough haven’t seen since the 80’s Celtics and Lakers. This team averaged over 20 assists per game for the season. Every player that competed against them had sore necks the next day from trying to follow the ball. It was at times Globetrotter like. This franchise has missed the playoffs only 4 times since entering the NBA and only 5 times since their founding in the ABA in 1967. And they are the only former ABA team to win an NBA Championship.
The team is built on character and chemistry before talent. Coach Popovich requires each player to check his ego at the door or use that door to leave. The Spurs’ biggest stars are treated the same as the last guy on the bench and they take less money than stars of similar stature so that the team can afford to surround them with the talent to be successful. Many free agents have taken less money to come to the Spurs because all they do is win. Add the fact that the team resembles the United Nations with players from six different countries and you have a very unique team.
The owner, GM and coaches shy away from the lime light and have created an atmosphere of family with everyone in the organization past and present. Many of the Spurs' former players retain residences in San Antonio even if they get traded to other teams or retire. Current and former players are still involved in the community with their money and time. And if you happen to run into a player at the supermarket or a restaurant, (which happens a lot) they will stop and say hi or talk to your kids. They are just regular guys. For example, I used to play pickup basketball at a local gym with the same guys twice a week at lunch. We did this for years,and several times during the NBA off season a few of the Spurs’ players would come and play with us. They never tried to embarrass us by dunking on us, blowing by us for layups or talk down to us. They were there to work on fundamentals and get a workout. They even helped us with our game. Some of the players, especially Tim Duncan, are car guys who occasionally show up at car meets.
The team culture is reflected in our community culture as well. We have celebrated 6 finals in San Antonio, (we even came out to celebrate the season after last year’s devastating finals loss to the Heat) and no cars were burned, no property was damaged and few if any arrests for disorderly conduct were made.
So the question remains....why are they so underrated? They do nothing but win.
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