duncan228
05-31-2008, 04:01 PM
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/30/lincicome-unfortunately-spurs-wont-be-missed/
Unfortunately, Spurs won't be missed
By Bernie Lincicome, Rocky Mountain News
Pause a moment for the passing of the San Antonio Spurs, a demi-dynasty, and even that would start an argument if anyone cared.
The Spurs were for a decade what the Nuggets are trying to be for a season, a side-pocket success that echoed no further than their own city limits, not hated for winning as much as ignored.
As the only sports flag in that part of Texas, the Spurs were over-worshipped locally, much as the Broncos used to be here, and probably still are.
They may now pass into native conversation, like Memphis, like Utah, and they may point out to any wandering strangers those four NBA championship banners, less obvious than San Antonio's hidden river.
This is too bad, because the Spurs were what every sports franchise should be, efficient, collaborative and decent, without rogues and rascals and rough edges, attracting neither light nor shadow.
In other words, dull.
The world pretends to want this kind of team, and coaches certainly do, a team with its mind on duty and one another, coloring inside the lines, a team so sporting that its coach will not whine or fester when his team is clearly misused by game officials.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did not see a foul at the end of Game 5, and so injustice and disgust would have to find another fertilizer.
And when the Lakers, the lead clown at the carnival, best the defending champs in five games, the Spurs concede that the better team won, something no other team ever conceded to them.
What fans and the press and the cameras want is not reasonableness, what used to be admired as sportsmanship. What we want is conflict and confusion, and the more freaks, the better.
When the example of the Spurs is given as a pattern to follow - and the Nuggets, for one, could be the Spurs if they did - the question remains: But where's the fun in that?
The NBA and its broadcasters clearly rooted for a Boston-Los Angeles final, as well they should, because the story comes prepackaged, with history and legends and extraordinary figures involved.
Had it been the Spurs instead of the Lakers, the reaction would have been: What, them again?
But there was Jerry West, who battled those Celtics in another age, the iconic figure on the NBA logo, giving his benediction to Kobe Bryant after the Lakers' victory, probably the final bit of dusting of the Bryant image, now completely restored.
The price of being boring is disregard, open disinterest, the lemonade stand on the midway, passed by for the fire eaters and the sword swallowers, the chaperone at the dance instead of the homecoming queen.
The Spurs were never sexy, never trendy, never cool, never the face of the NBA even as they disposed of the glamorous and the obvious, the Knicks, the Nets, the Pistons, the LeBron Jameses.
And that was part of it, not underdogs from nowhere overcoming odds, not flukes grabbing a moment, (ahem, no reference to the Rockies intended), but merely that solid and stolid bunch from south Texas, ruining the fun.
They were the brown suit at the fiesta, the hall monitors hiding in doorways, the uninvited guest at the table.
Other than Tim Duncan, and at the very beginning David Robinson, no Spur can be identified without a program or Eva Longoria on his arm.
The Spurs are too old to try it again, a bunch mostly over 30, and if they may linger awhile as Duncan quietly boxes up his legend, they will never be a factor again as they are.
It may be that the Lakers are now as they were with Shaquille O'Neal, again the standard in the West. It would seem to be true as long as Bryant is interested.
The Lakers are most of the glamour, ahead of the Nuggets not so much in personalities as in results. Should the Nuggets somehow merge Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony and a third nominee yet unnamed into a real team, they could rival the Lakers for appeal.
The NBA does not really want what the Spurs were, too tedious for school, unable to cause an argument or stop a yawn.
They will not be missed. More's the pity.
Unfortunately, Spurs won't be missed
By Bernie Lincicome, Rocky Mountain News
Pause a moment for the passing of the San Antonio Spurs, a demi-dynasty, and even that would start an argument if anyone cared.
The Spurs were for a decade what the Nuggets are trying to be for a season, a side-pocket success that echoed no further than their own city limits, not hated for winning as much as ignored.
As the only sports flag in that part of Texas, the Spurs were over-worshipped locally, much as the Broncos used to be here, and probably still are.
They may now pass into native conversation, like Memphis, like Utah, and they may point out to any wandering strangers those four NBA championship banners, less obvious than San Antonio's hidden river.
This is too bad, because the Spurs were what every sports franchise should be, efficient, collaborative and decent, without rogues and rascals and rough edges, attracting neither light nor shadow.
In other words, dull.
The world pretends to want this kind of team, and coaches certainly do, a team with its mind on duty and one another, coloring inside the lines, a team so sporting that its coach will not whine or fester when his team is clearly misused by game officials.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did not see a foul at the end of Game 5, and so injustice and disgust would have to find another fertilizer.
And when the Lakers, the lead clown at the carnival, best the defending champs in five games, the Spurs concede that the better team won, something no other team ever conceded to them.
What fans and the press and the cameras want is not reasonableness, what used to be admired as sportsmanship. What we want is conflict and confusion, and the more freaks, the better.
When the example of the Spurs is given as a pattern to follow - and the Nuggets, for one, could be the Spurs if they did - the question remains: But where's the fun in that?
The NBA and its broadcasters clearly rooted for a Boston-Los Angeles final, as well they should, because the story comes prepackaged, with history and legends and extraordinary figures involved.
Had it been the Spurs instead of the Lakers, the reaction would have been: What, them again?
But there was Jerry West, who battled those Celtics in another age, the iconic figure on the NBA logo, giving his benediction to Kobe Bryant after the Lakers' victory, probably the final bit of dusting of the Bryant image, now completely restored.
The price of being boring is disregard, open disinterest, the lemonade stand on the midway, passed by for the fire eaters and the sword swallowers, the chaperone at the dance instead of the homecoming queen.
The Spurs were never sexy, never trendy, never cool, never the face of the NBA even as they disposed of the glamorous and the obvious, the Knicks, the Nets, the Pistons, the LeBron Jameses.
And that was part of it, not underdogs from nowhere overcoming odds, not flukes grabbing a moment, (ahem, no reference to the Rockies intended), but merely that solid and stolid bunch from south Texas, ruining the fun.
They were the brown suit at the fiesta, the hall monitors hiding in doorways, the uninvited guest at the table.
Other than Tim Duncan, and at the very beginning David Robinson, no Spur can be identified without a program or Eva Longoria on his arm.
The Spurs are too old to try it again, a bunch mostly over 30, and if they may linger awhile as Duncan quietly boxes up his legend, they will never be a factor again as they are.
It may be that the Lakers are now as they were with Shaquille O'Neal, again the standard in the West. It would seem to be true as long as Bryant is interested.
The Lakers are most of the glamour, ahead of the Nuggets not so much in personalities as in results. Should the Nuggets somehow merge Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony and a third nominee yet unnamed into a real team, they could rival the Lakers for appeal.
The NBA does not really want what the Spurs were, too tedious for school, unable to cause an argument or stop a yawn.
They will not be missed. More's the pity.