alamo50
04-20-2005, 05:33 PM
One more day at work and than I will be flying off to my bball Mecca for the fifth time in four seasons time. The first visit I had in San Antonio was the last season for the Spurs in the Alamodome as I had booked my trip for four weeks. As it turned out our playoff season exactly lasted those four weeks as the Fakers swept us (seems so long ago) out of the second round......
A new season started with the Faker sweep in our minds, but far more importantly was the Admiral’s farewell tour and the opening of a new Spurs home; the SBC Center. Being one of the biggest D-Rob fans around I immediately had a feeling we would win the championship when David announced his retirement in the off season and it didn’t take long for me to figure out it was my destiny to be there to cheer on The Admiral on his way out.
First things first as I traveled to San Antonio at the beginning of the season to get my last chance to meet David in person because I had experienced myself the year before that it was just impossible during the playoffs. With the help of two of my dearest friends I got the chance to meet David after a Seattle loss (Barry’s buzzer beater) and having my dream realized. I told him to enjoy the season to the fullest and that I would be back to cheer him on during the last games of his career in the NBA Finals.
So I did. I went home and followed the season like I always do over here in The Netherlands. Reading recaps, analyzing box scores and talking in the fan forums with my fellow Spurs fans all around the globe. I quit my job and booked my trip to San Antonio for nine weeks after calculating the latest possible date for game seven of the NBA Finals and needing a week for the celebrations. Guess what? I exactly had a week to celebrate after we won it all and I went back home having lived my dream.
To make it all complete I just HAD to get back for the ring presentation and David’s retirement gala. So I did. David Robinson’s NBA career was now officially over and done with. The only “thing” still on the agenda is the Hall-of-Fame induction in 2008.
So now what? I had been following David’s career for 11 years and there was no box score for #50 to check, no quotes to be read nor typical jokes to be laughed at anymore. Turns out the colour of my blood will never turn back to red after being overtaken by the classy silver and black the San Antonio Spurs have “infected” me with. I have been really lucky and so very grateful to have met so many people directly and in-directly involved with Spurs basketball making it the first class organisation that it has been for so many years. Being so spoiled with the team’s record that allowed me to just book the flights way ahead of time because we would/will be reaching the playoffs anywayz! Last season I was setting my alarm clock at 3AM for every Spurs playoff game so I could get in front of my computer and listen to Bill Schoening through the NBA Live feed, checking the live box scores and reading the comments from fellow Spurs fans in the Spurs chatroom.
When I went on that extreme emotional rollercoaster from Timmy making that “game winning shot” vs. The Fakers to Derek Fisher making an unreal shot I vowed that this would not happen to me the next season. Not being amongst all the great fans at the SBC like the two previous playoffs really hurt me even more than I thought it would now that David was not on the court anymore.
Now I will be back in silver and black to cheer on our Spurs live in person again like I was born to do in the first place! The cool personal thing for me is that we will play the Nuggets who are my second favorite team and have one of the two Dutch guys playing in the NBA on their roster (Francisco Elson). I never had a chance to watch Rik Smits play in the NBA so it will be really cool to see Elson on the floor for the couple of minutes he will play per game. Of course I am also looking forward to mingle amongst all the other hardcore Spurs fans. Especially the ones that I have gotten the pleasure to meet already. There are too many to name, but I am sure I will see all y’all again and meet a lot of new faces sometime when the Spurs will be in Denver and we gather around for those infamous FSP GTG’s.
Another thing I am looking forward to is that I will be making my third visit to the Carver Academy having been invited over by the head of school to come take a look how much they have expanded since the first time I paid them a visit three years ago. Furthermore I am still trying to find out on which Thursday David will be the one leading bible study at 6AM so I can try to attend. So you see I got things to do, places to go and people to see. Luckily the first game is scheduled for Sunday so first I can rest from my twenty hour trip and maybe get a taste from the last day of Fiesta.
Observant readers may wonder for how many weeks I booked this trip.............well I am only going to be in San Antonio for three weeks this time. So we will definitely get past the first round and from the time we hit the road to Sacramento I will be making my way back to those silent, dark nights in front of my computer.....cheering on the Spurs on the way to their third championship!
GO SPURS GO!!!
http://img19.echo.cx/img19/1379/pb0400372ip.th.jpg (http://img19.echo.cx/my.php?image=pb0400372ip.jpg)
A new season started with the Faker sweep in our minds, but far more importantly was the Admiral’s farewell tour and the opening of a new Spurs home; the SBC Center. Being one of the biggest D-Rob fans around I immediately had a feeling we would win the championship when David announced his retirement in the off season and it didn’t take long for me to figure out it was my destiny to be there to cheer on The Admiral on his way out.
First things first as I traveled to San Antonio at the beginning of the season to get my last chance to meet David in person because I had experienced myself the year before that it was just impossible during the playoffs. With the help of two of my dearest friends I got the chance to meet David after a Seattle loss (Barry’s buzzer beater) and having my dream realized. I told him to enjoy the season to the fullest and that I would be back to cheer him on during the last games of his career in the NBA Finals.
So I did. I went home and followed the season like I always do over here in The Netherlands. Reading recaps, analyzing box scores and talking in the fan forums with my fellow Spurs fans all around the globe. I quit my job and booked my trip to San Antonio for nine weeks after calculating the latest possible date for game seven of the NBA Finals and needing a week for the celebrations. Guess what? I exactly had a week to celebrate after we won it all and I went back home having lived my dream.
To make it all complete I just HAD to get back for the ring presentation and David’s retirement gala. So I did. David Robinson’s NBA career was now officially over and done with. The only “thing” still on the agenda is the Hall-of-Fame induction in 2008.
So now what? I had been following David’s career for 11 years and there was no box score for #50 to check, no quotes to be read nor typical jokes to be laughed at anymore. Turns out the colour of my blood will never turn back to red after being overtaken by the classy silver and black the San Antonio Spurs have “infected” me with. I have been really lucky and so very grateful to have met so many people directly and in-directly involved with Spurs basketball making it the first class organisation that it has been for so many years. Being so spoiled with the team’s record that allowed me to just book the flights way ahead of time because we would/will be reaching the playoffs anywayz! Last season I was setting my alarm clock at 3AM for every Spurs playoff game so I could get in front of my computer and listen to Bill Schoening through the NBA Live feed, checking the live box scores and reading the comments from fellow Spurs fans in the Spurs chatroom.
When I went on that extreme emotional rollercoaster from Timmy making that “game winning shot” vs. The Fakers to Derek Fisher making an unreal shot I vowed that this would not happen to me the next season. Not being amongst all the great fans at the SBC like the two previous playoffs really hurt me even more than I thought it would now that David was not on the court anymore.
Now I will be back in silver and black to cheer on our Spurs live in person again like I was born to do in the first place! The cool personal thing for me is that we will play the Nuggets who are my second favorite team and have one of the two Dutch guys playing in the NBA on their roster (Francisco Elson). I never had a chance to watch Rik Smits play in the NBA so it will be really cool to see Elson on the floor for the couple of minutes he will play per game. Of course I am also looking forward to mingle amongst all the other hardcore Spurs fans. Especially the ones that I have gotten the pleasure to meet already. There are too many to name, but I am sure I will see all y’all again and meet a lot of new faces sometime when the Spurs will be in Denver and we gather around for those infamous FSP GTG’s.
Another thing I am looking forward to is that I will be making my third visit to the Carver Academy having been invited over by the head of school to come take a look how much they have expanded since the first time I paid them a visit three years ago. Furthermore I am still trying to find out on which Thursday David will be the one leading bible study at 6AM so I can try to attend. So you see I got things to do, places to go and people to see. Luckily the first game is scheduled for Sunday so first I can rest from my twenty hour trip and maybe get a taste from the last day of Fiesta.
Observant readers may wonder for how many weeks I booked this trip.............well I am only going to be in San Antonio for three weeks this time. So we will definitely get past the first round and from the time we hit the road to Sacramento I will be making my way back to those silent, dark nights in front of my computer.....cheering on the Spurs on the way to their third championship!
GO SPURS GO!!!
http://img19.echo.cx/img19/1379/pb0400372ip.th.jpg (http://img19.echo.cx/my.php?image=pb0400372ip.jpg)