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Admidave50
05-19-2012, 11:31 AM
https://p.twimg.com/AtRTBroCQAAC025.jpg

As a brief intro, I’m a French Spurs fan who was born in Paris with Chinese origin. I’ve been living and working in China for the past 6 years now and it hasn’t been that easy to follow the Spurs…

http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68216


Origin of my Spurs devotion


First of all, I want to stop all the people whose eyes are caught by the French flag under my screename and thinking « god, again one of these annoying Frenchies and a TP bandwagonner fan ».

I have been a Spurs fan for 20 years now and guess what ? I’m the same age of Tony Parker so it may be hard for me to root for a guy that was 10 years old at that time.

I’ve been a hardcore Spurs fan because of David Robinson,
I live and die for the Spurs, my blood runs black & silver. The admirable Admiral embodies all the qualities I believe in a pro basketball player in and off the court. His years of greatness without a decent supporting cast, his work and generosity with the Spurs community are what made me a big fan of him and he’s been a role model to me.
I loathe arrogant, whiny, bitchy players such as Garnett, Carter, CP3 (respect his game still)…

https://p.twimg.com/AtRUvK0CMAIatHW.jpg


Being a French Spurs fan


Well in the 90’s, everybody was a Jordan fan ! The hype was high for the Bulls, Lakers and Magic when Shaq arrived.

You guys know that San Antonio Spurs is a small market in the NBA and that the team has little media coverage, so imagine what was a life of a Spurs fan in Paris !

Definitely not easy…

When I met french people that liked basketball, their first reaction was « Robinson who ? Spurs ? Isn’t it an English soccer team… ? » .

Most of the people preferred flashy players, they couldn’t understand how I could be a fan of the Admiral and the Spurs !

You guys need to understand that basketball is really not popular in France. By ranking, it’s Soccer first, then Rugby, Formula 1, Tennis and then you have Basketball that may be in the same position as freaking Handball ! France must be the only country in the world that has a professional league for Handball (supposed to call it « hand-balle », which is hand in french and ball in english, really don’t get the logic), so you should get my point on how low people were into basketball at that time.

The Spurs media coverage was abyssal here, I’m part of the French NBA junkies that got up at 2 am to watch the single game per week that was broadcasted live on cable tv (need to pay for it). We must have 6-7 games of Spurs basketball per year, so consider San Antonians lucky because it was extremely hard for a French guy to follow the Spurs…
At that time, we didn’t have internet. I remember that every Wednesdays, I rushed to the local bookshop to buy the weekly basketball newspaper (I think it was called « Basktnews ») with tiny boxscores in black and white of the previous week in the NBA. I was devoring each line of stats of every player of my Spurs team.

I’ve never been a big Tony Parker fan since he came into the league for two reasons. First, when I was in highschool I knew some people that were in his school and he had a bad reputation of being arrogant and cocky. Second, everytime I say I’m a Spurs fan nowadays people think I’m a huge TP fan or a bandwagonner fan.
Don’t get me wrong, I respect and like the game of TP9, I’m among a few Frenchies here that think he gets criticized too easily by some Spurstalk posters and that he’s underrated but my I’m a fan by order of David Robinson, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.

However, I gotta admit that thanks to him, Spurs had a much greater coverage in France and that he brought the Spurs in Paris twice, that allowed me to see them live in my country !

https://p.twimg.com/AtRQ1B7CIAAa5DT.jpg


In Spurstalk I believe !


https://p.twimg.com/AtRVkggCMAAVUOr.jpg

What can I say, I’m not Catholic nor Buddhist, I’m basically an atheist that doesn’t really believe in any gods. But, Spurstalk is the closest thing as the Bible to me for everything it represents, it gives me the faith and keep me on believing.

Nobody gives a damn about the Spurs worldwide, hopefully there are genuine and intelligent people on Spurstalk that knows basketball and have insightful comments on the Spurs, which ended my years of loneliness as a Spurs fan !

Timvp is the leader of the Spurstalk church, he’s the voice of reason when people lose faith, he gives us strenght to keep believing when it appears that there is no hope.

I gotta say that even though I’m definitely more a lurker, I’ve been connected to Spurstalk 24/7 since I joined in 2005 ! My first reaction when I open my eyes is to check Spurstalk on my iPhone and I keep browsing on it for almost an hour each night on my bed before sleeping. All my girlfriends were nuts and jealous of Spurstalk, one of my ex thought I was defintely chatting with some girls on internet and cheating because she couldn’t understand how I could stay up so late and stay on a sports forum. They couldn’t undestand why opinion of typical strangers on the net would matter to me, but Spurstalk gave me a mean to follow my favorite team, to join a community and share crazy love for the Spurs that I can’t find anywhere else, to interact and discuss with smart people that it seems we’re close friends even though I’ve never seen their faces but the fact that I followed day by day that would make me look as a crazy stalker !

Best of all is that with new technology, Spurstalk is always with me in my smartphone and I can follow it whenever and wherever I want.


San Antonio, Here I Come


https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/2219095948/spurs_fan_petite.jpg


The Spurs is the ultimate classy organization, it’s hard to hate this organization with all they have achieved during the last 20 years.

Some teams and fans have been chasing for a title for decades. I do acknolewdge that I have been a spoiled fan with 4 titles in a span of 10 years.

I’m willing to give back and pay my respects to the Spurs, I’m planning to achieve my ultimate fan deam since my childhood, which is to go to San Antonio watch the Spurs play live during the playoffs !

I’m preparing my trip to San Antonio for the Western Conference Finals, probably against Oklahoma, because to me it’s now or never as Duncan and Ginobili are not getting any younger. It will be my last chance to see the Big 3 play at the top and experience the ultime Spurs fan dream : to see Spurs playing chasing a title during the playoffs in at&t center !

If you guys have any tips for the following topics, it would be extremely hopeful :
1) San Antonio : hotels, restaurants, bars…
2) Spurs: good tips to try meet players (is it possible to get some autographs by waiting near the Training facility when they’re practicing… ?), where to buy Spurs apparel
3) AT&T Center : where to book Spurs ticket, which seat to book to hope getting autographs, what time to arrive

I would love to meet some of you for a coffee or a drink, or even better to go watch the Spurs live together when I’m there. I know that there used to be get togethers but I don’t know if you do it anymore...



https://p.twimg.com/AtRVVJPCAAEbqhu.jpg


Drive for Five ! :lobt2::lobt2::lobt2::lobt2::lobt2:

Believe ! Go Spurs Go

:flag::flag::flag:

spursfan09
05-19-2012, 12:02 PM
Wow! Thanks for posting your story! Let us know which game you are going to. My husband and I want to buy ticks to the next round so maybe we can meet at half time.

spurs4real
05-19-2012, 12:03 PM
Welcome to San Antonio. Im like you im more of a lurker and appreciate everything i read here. Spurstalk connects!

Welcome once again.

ElNono
05-19-2012, 12:06 PM
god, again one of these annoying Frenchies and a TP bandwagonner fan

ginobili fan
05-19-2012, 12:07 PM
Well im a french poster who was first a ginobili bandwagonner...
just strange huh ? you know cause i hated TP first too, i used to play in the same court as him near Vincennes (insep),(not against him) Im only 24.
then as as PSG fan I used too see PSG basket (at that time when it was called so) sometimes when I was young and TP was there...
When I firststarted to take big big interest in BBall I started with FNT in Euro and TP was there...
Then I followed LegA Italia cause my buddies were big italians bball fans then it started with Manu the Legend, so logically I followed him and the argies in world championship whatever that's called in 2001...
Then I was excited to see him in San antonio I didn't even know that The TP was there again...
Maybe that's why I hated him first...
Whatever it started like that with the Spurs and me, then I loved the Timmy, the Pop, The whole organisation of the Spurs, (I never liked NBa in general, that's weird but i was only into playground Bball, the crossovers , Iverson but that's all...)
Then I couldn't stop watching the Spurs and used to wake up at 2 am , sometimes not going to school , well i'll do it again, today canal+ is shit so I took NBA league pass I can see games in the morning with my coffee,(except if it's spurs games of course) ...

Today I'm not a TP hater cause he did well with FNT(you should be surprised by the numbers of persons who used to hate TP here in france at that time...cause he was a ballhog even in FNT...).
Whatever I expect again to see spurs parade on the net like a badass Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Lu ck_The_Fakers_.

go spurs go

ginobili fan
05-19-2012, 12:08 PM
and i forgot to say good story bro

Paranoid Pop
05-19-2012, 12:16 PM
"I hated TP before it was cool too."

/
http://lociol.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/hipster.jpg?w=420&h=504

ginobili fan
05-19-2012, 12:17 PM
"I hated TP before it was cool too."

/
http://lociol.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/hipster.jpg?w=420&h=504

:lol:lol:lol
Im a hater bro

timvp
05-19-2012, 12:39 PM
Awesome :tu

Cool to see that you will be able to live the prophecy from that other thread you linked to:


Nice story :tu

We need to bring in some die hard fans like you to the Spurs playoff games so that it is louder than a regular season game.

:smokin

SenorSpur
05-19-2012, 12:43 PM
Great story man. :tu

I know you're going to have a blast in San Antonio.

Enjoy your trip to the fullest and give us all an update summary on the back end!

Spurs and Mavs fan
05-19-2012, 12:57 PM
I used to live in Asia. Many of the kids around me, I think, were Lakers fans - many Asians simply get on the Kobe Bryant and Lakers bandwagon. It was still great to follow the Spurs though, and I was in Asia when the Spurs won all four of their titles.

spurs1990
05-19-2012, 01:03 PM
Great post brother.

I mean I'm still always entertained how people in other countries develop affinity towards this team. Especially in light of how the OP states bball is so low on the totem pole in France, and the Spurs being one of the more obscure squads in the 90's.

Just another reason to be ecstatic when the Spurs win it - satisfaction for devotees like the OP.

Mark in Austin
05-19-2012, 01:16 PM
:tu

Admidave50
05-19-2012, 01:20 PM
god, again one of these annoying Frenchies and a TP bandwagonner fan

I hate Manu! :ihit

Admidave50
05-19-2012, 01:25 PM
and i forgot to say good story bro

Interesting that you were following LegA Italia! Paris basketball team sucked at that time and I was a big Asvel fan with Moustapha Sonko.

When you think about it, France has some amazing basketball players with TP, Diaw, Batum, Noah!

I recall the ghosts of Olivier Saint Jean aka Tariq Abdul Wahad, Jérôme Moiso, Fréderic Weiss (Shame of France...)... We come from a long way!

Of course, there are still some disappointing limited players of the same mold such as Ajinca, Petro...

Admidave50
05-19-2012, 01:27 PM
Awesome :tu

Cool to see that you will be able to live the prophecy from that other thread you linked to:

:smokin

Haha, I was about to bump it! Amazing how many times you can be right, it's not even surprising anymore! :wakeup

Well, 2:30 am here in China and really excited for the game to begin in an hour! :flag:

senorglory
05-19-2012, 01:59 PM
:toast

CGD
05-19-2012, 02:02 PM
Awesome!

Whisky Dog
05-19-2012, 02:14 PM
That's some dedication to follow back when all you could get was a box score for the previous week's games. Do you get to watch all the games now?

I'm thinking of making the drive down for a WCF game provided the Spurs take out the Clippers. Went to game 1 against Utah in '07 and it was a sweet atmosphere. Good luck on your trip.

Danny.Zhu
05-19-2012, 02:38 PM
Nice post.

clambake
05-19-2012, 02:39 PM
don't forget to shit on eva.

Limguogolo
05-19-2012, 02:59 PM
About handball, it's a German sport (so the "balle") and it's professionnal at least in Germany and Spain. I think it's even professionnal for women in Danemark.

Bons matchs.

ginobili fan
05-19-2012, 05:31 PM
Interesting that you were following LegA Italia! Paris basketball team sucked at that time and I was a big Asvel fan with Moustapha Sonko.

When you think about it, France has some amazing basketball players with TP, Diaw, Batum, Noah!

I recall the ghosts of Olivier Saint Jean aka Tariq Abdul Wahad, Jérôme Moiso, Fréderic Weiss (Shame of France...)... We come from a long way!

Of course, there are still some disappointing limited players of the same mold such as Ajinca, Petro...

yeah that was good memories with this sonko's NT , the rigaudeau weiss and company with their silver medals at OG, still remembder i was 12 watching it in the morning...haha
and france has been lucky since with this amazing generation of Tony,Boris,Turiaf and Pietrus brothers..
I really wonder how these guys will manage the upcoming OG, I expect a lot.

JP le Requin
05-19-2012, 05:50 PM
if i can come with you...(but i really prefer to come back to san antonio for the nba finals...) we will show to spurs fans how do the wawe...sing la marseillaise...
tp & boris will laugh for sure or will be transcanded

a++++

Spurs Brazil
05-19-2012, 06:11 PM
Great!

Admidave50
05-19-2012, 10:34 PM
if i can come with you...(but i really prefer to come back to san antonio for the nba finals...) we will show to spurs fans how do the wawe...sing la marseillaise...
tp & boris will laugh for sure or will be transcanded

a++++

Yes l'ami! I'm seriously considering to come for the Finals now...

And it's so hard to plan and predict when the Conference Finals will begin!

sinok
05-20-2012, 10:58 AM
You guys need to understand that basketball is really not popular in France. By ranking, it’s Soccer first, then Rugby, Formula 1, Tennis and then you have Basketball that may be in the same position as freaking Handball ! France must be the only country in the world that has a professional league for Handball (supposed to call it « hand-balle », which is hand in french and ball in english, really don’t get the logic), so you should get my point on how low people were into basketball at that time.


Saw what you did there...

Actually, there are pro handball leagues in most countries of continental Europe... The biggest ones being Spain and German ones. In Germany, scandinavian countries, handball is really bigger than basketball...

And the logic behind the pronunciation of the word handball is that it is a german word...

Your general culture is really lacking, my friend...

Mais bon trip quand même, y'a de quoi faire ;)

Brazil
05-20-2012, 11:38 AM
even the French hate TP :lol

nice story bro hope you will enjoy your trip

I'm in the US since August, I probably watched something like 100 games this year. I'm starting to have an indigestion, I'll slow down next year and focus on the spurs only. I'm spending way too much time watching bb :lol

Admidave50
05-20-2012, 07:44 PM
And the logic behind the pronunciation of the word handball is that it is a german word...

Your general culture is really lacking, my friend...

Mais bon trip quand même, y'a de quoi faire ;)

Yeah it's true, I remember my Sports teacher telling me in Junior High, but who cares... bottom line is Handball is as equally popular as Basketball in France or even better covered or supported by French for the national team!

sinok
05-23-2012, 04:58 AM
Well, handball got some bumps from their wins or heroics during the last 20 years...
Plus they had some lovable/crazy guys (Richardson & all)
Barcelona 92 was a heck of a thing (coming from nowhere, going to the bronze medal in the olympics)
Then the winning streak in the last years made it obvious...

But actually, I don't care, both sports are of an equal interest to me ;)
Fast play, defense, looking for the open interval.
One is more prone to solo heroics, but rightfully played when ball movement is here (see current SAS).
The other is unplayable without ball movement given the lack of space...

But in any of the two, fundamentals are the basis...
Strong and intelligent defense, finding the open guy, don't let the ball stand still...

Cheers mate, have fun ;-^)

boutons_deux
05-23-2012, 05:32 AM
Great story.

Have fun in at the games.

DAF86
05-23-2012, 07:18 AM
Well im a french poster who was first a ginobili bandwagonner...
just strange huh ? you know cause i hated TP first too, i used to play in the same court as him near Vincennes (insep),(not against him) Im only 24.
then as as PSG fan I used too see PSG basket (at that time when it was called so) sometimes when I was young and TP was there...
When I firststarted to take big big interest in BBall I started with FNT in Euro and TP was there...
Then I followed LegA Italia cause my buddies were big italians bball fans then it started with Manu the Legend, so logically I followed him and the argies in world championship whatever that's called in 2001...
Then I was excited to see him in San antonio I didn't even know that The TP was there again...
Maybe that's why I hated him first...
Whatever it started like that with the Spurs and me, then I loved the Timmy, the Pop, The whole organisation of the Spurs, (I never liked NBa in general, that's weird but i was only into playground Bball, the crossovers , Iverson but that's all...)
Then I couldn't stop watching the Spurs and used to wake up at 2 am , sometimes not going to school , well i'll do it again, today canal+ is shit so I took NBA league pass I can see games in the morning with my coffee,(except if it's spurs games of course) ...

Today I'm not a TP hater cause he did well with FNT(you should be surprised by the numbers of persons who used to hate TP here in france at that time...cause he was a ballhog even in FNT...).
Whatever I expect again to see spurs parade on the net like a badass Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Lu ck_The_Fakers_.

go spurs go

Hey, that sounds familiar as a Messi fan.

alamo50
05-23-2012, 08:27 AM
Awesome Admidave50! How's the planning going?

Admidave50
06-04-2012, 06:32 PM
Just got my own personalized Spurs shoes yesterday!

https://p.twimg.com/AulRM8xCMAAoCSO.jpg

https://p.twimg.com/AulRG6FCIAAcnK5.jpg

Hope to wear it in San Antonio soon!!!

By the way, if Spurs win tonight! I buy Game 7 ticket for the game this Friday and I'll be in San Antonio until Game 2 of the Finals (hopefully we win the series against OKC)!

Go Spurs Go :flag:

B-E-L-I-E-V-E

JP le Requin
06-04-2012, 06:36 PM
hey ;-)

et l'agence?? as tu reçu mes emails?
si je viens c'est pour voir le game 1 et ou le game 2 des finales NBA, je pourrais pas venir pour les autres...et surtout je ne pourrais pas venir si je dois payer 900 euros de billet d'avion...snif...

je suis prêt a voir les 2 premiers games avant de rentrer en france...payer un game "cher" et l'autre au minimum histoire d'être dans la salle...

tiens moi au jus..
es tu sur facebook?

Admidave50
06-04-2012, 06:49 PM
Hello mon ami, just replied your email and sent a friend request on facebook!

Admidave50
06-02-2014, 12:57 PM
THIS IS IT ! I waited for 2 long years and I just booked my flight ticket for San Antonio, i'm supa dupa extra excited !

Me and JP Le Requin will be there for the Finals to represent the French Frogs Connection !

It will be a pleasure if some of you guys would be available for a Get Together this week or after Game 1 ! We will be in San Antonio from June 4th to 9th !

If you guys have good plans for Finals tickets, restaurants, sightseeing for Die hard Spurs fans, we are all ears !

Looking forward to go to San Antonio and try to meet a bunch of you guys !

Beaverfuzz
06-02-2014, 01:00 PM
Nice bump, have fun at the games! :flag: :lobt2:

JP le Requin
06-02-2014, 03:17 PM
YES D-2 !!!

hsxvvd
06-02-2014, 03:34 PM
I did the trip this year too.... I'm very tempted to return for the playoffs, but the travel 24hrs each way is simply impossible without taking days off work I don't have :(

JP le Requin
06-02-2014, 03:50 PM
oh NZ....so far from everywhere lol...
but u have the lord of the rings too ^^