"Counting out Spurs becomes a yearly tradition" article

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playof...e=Spurs-080427

By Adande

PHOENIX -- Those sneaky Spurs are still here. Even after the Air Force retired the F-117 Night Hawk, the NBA's version of the stealth fighter keeps flying on, never picked up by the radar until it's too late.

Not even the third-best record in the tough Western Conference was enough for the Spurs to cast a large shadow on the NBA landscape. The hype had already started for a Lakers-Celtics Finals, and Phoenix was the trendy pick to win the marquee first-round matchup against San Antonio.

The Spurs are jamming up all of those plans, grabbing a 3-0 lead over the Suns and looking serious about defending their championship. Even if nobody else saw it coming.

"I know everybody was saying that Phoenix was going to win, but it's OK with us," Spurs guard Tony Parker said. "San Antonio, they always forget about us. I got used to it now. We just play, and then when we arrive to the Finals it's like, 'Oh, San Antonio.'"

These guys? Again? It's like one of those old Droopy cartoons, where that damn dog keeps showing up no matter how many times you thought he'd been disposed.

It's time to recognize the Spurs for what they are: not only the most dangerous team in the league, but the most dangerous team to the league. They kill ratings when they show up in the Finals. And they keep diminishing the value of the regular season. And they do it through the hardest task in the sport: winning playoff games.

During this run as the NBA's best and most consistent team since 1999, they never had the best record in the league during a single year. They've won 60 games only twice.

This season's squad did little to distinguish itself. Normally teams announce their presence with impressive road victories. But this season the Spurs were only 3-9 at Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Utah, the Lakers, Phoenix, Boston, Detroit and Orlando combined. In March they went through a stretch in which they lost six of seven games (all against teams that made the playoffs).

But in the first game of the playoffs they battled back and made all the biggest plays to beat Phoenix in double overtime. Then they applied a second-half lockdown in Game 2. Friday they put together their best performance of the season, led by Parker's 41 points and 12 assists.

"You don't ever want to say that, 'Oh we're just waiting for the playoffs to start,'" Bruce Bowen said. "That's not our motto here. We weren't playing good basketball at [the end of the regular season]. We would have liked to have been playing good basketball. But we understand, more than any other time, now it's more important you're focused on what you have to do."

Tim Duncan and Tony Parker give each other a hand for more on-court success.

It's not that the Spurs are unprofessional. They don't mail it in from October to March. You don't hear about their players getting arrested, or smoking marijuana.

The only admission the Spurs have had to make is that no team can play its hardest every game. The owners who pay their salaries and the fans who buy the tickets might not want to hear it, but you don't get everything every night. Not even from a team as businesslike as the Spurs.

"You can't try to win all the games, you can't play your guys 40 minutes a game, you can't play at the highest level every night," Duncan said. "It's human nature. You're going to go out there, some games aren't going to be played at the same level as other games.

"With that in mind, the playoffs come around, it's great to see everyone focus in and turn it up."

The Spurs have even had lapses in the playoffs over the years. Just to make sure there wouldn't be a letdown after San Antonio took a 2-0 lead in this series, Gregg Popovich went so far as to bring up the franchise's most bitter playoff defeat.

"We even mentioned the 0.4," Popovich said.

Yes, he went there, to Lakers guard Derek Fisher's miraculous shot with half a second left in Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference semis, which was the pivotal point in their four straight victories to swipe the series.

"We won the first two, and we played like dogs a couple of games, then come back and all of a sudden 0.4 hits you right between the eyes and you're done," Popovich said. "That was on their mind [Friday]."

And so they responded with a demolition of the Suns that's forcing Phoenix to question everything from its roster composition to its coach. For now, the Suns' top priority is to find a way to keep Parker from torching them. But you know the Spurs will eventually find another way to win. Don't they always?

J.A. Adande is the author of "The Best Los Angeles Sports Arguments." He joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Times. Click here to e-mail J.A.

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During this run as the NBA's best and most consistent team since 1999, they never had the best record in the league during a single year.

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That's almost correct; he was only off by 2001 and 2003. Nice fact-checking, Adande.

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"We even mentioned the 0.4," Popovich said.

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Pop going to the big guns. Next up: the foul on Dirk.

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Originally Posted by timvp

Pop going to the big guns. Next up: the foul on Dirk.

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:lol Then maybe Manu goes for 40, too.

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Originally Posted by Shaolin-Style

It's time to recognize the Spurs for what they are: not only the most dangerous team in the league, but the most dangerous team to the league. They kill ratings when they show up in the Finals.

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That's not the Spurs' fault but the media's themselves. If they would stop calling the spurs boring or not even acknowledging them, I'm pretty sure the ratings would be higher. What goes around comes around.

Still no admission from Adande that he picked the Suns to win in 6. Ha!

Adande, stephen A, stu scott = all chumps

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Originally Posted by SRJ

That's almost correct; he was only off by 2001 and 2003. Nice fact-checking, Adande.

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What about 1999? I know we had home court the entire playoffs. Was someone in our path upset? Or did Adande blow another?

You know... I love how we are aweful for the league when Spurs/Suns is such a desired matchup...

Must be the Suns that everyone wants to watch in that series.... guess them playing anyone would be the most desired series of the playoffs?

A week ago they were saying that OUR little team was involved in the best/mostexciting first round series EVER...

It's not our fault that up to this point we are kicking the shit out of them... that's just what we do...

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Originally Posted by 5ToolMan

What about 1999? I know we had home court the entire playoffs. Was someone in our path upset? Or did Adande blow another?

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Good catch. Spurs 37-13 was the best record in '99.

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Originally Posted by timvp

Pop going to the big guns. Next up: the foul on Dirk.

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:lmao Pop will wait until Ginobili has a bad game to pull out that one...

BTW, These articles that call out the Spurs for being boring and consistent and flying under the radar year after year is what's getting boring! I could point to about 20 different articles over the years that have come out around this time that say the same exact thing.

Yet ironically, year after year, it still doesn't stop those same writers who WRITE those articles to give the Spurs a benefit of the doubt and actually pick them to win.

What's sad is that the only guy that works for ESPN that picked the Spurs to win the championship is Skip Bayless. Skip fucking Bayless.
If and when the Spurs do win it all this year, everybody who picked against them in every series should be fired. When you let Skip fucking Bayless be a better predictor than yourself, then you don't deserve to draw a paycheck for making predictions.

If anyone else picked the Spurs to win it all, I don't know about it.

Adande is a Laker mouthpiece. Someone needs to tell him that the Finals ratings are just down overall. Heat/Mavs was pretty unwatched in 2006, and that had the clown prince of the NBA, Shaq. We just get the blame for the overall slide because we're there so frequently.

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Originally Posted by Shaolin-Style

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playof...e=Spurs-080427


It's time to recognize the Spurs for what they are: not only the most dangerous team in the league, but the most dangerous team to the league. They kill ratings when they show up in the Finals. And they keep diminishing the value of the regular season.

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Indeed. But ya know... the NBA has a marketing department. And that marketing department needs to do its job and realize that the Spurs are probably going to be a championship caliber team for at least a couple more years. Therefor, perhaps it's time to get the word out...

The Spurs are NOT a boring team to watch anymore.

The Spurs are not locked into playing a lockdown, low scoring, half-court game through Tim Duncan. Not anymore.

How can anyone watch Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili do their thing and call this a "boring" team to watch?

Simple.

They're NOT watching. They don't know.

Time for the NBA to aggressively market Parker and Ginobili. Run more commercials with highlights of their plays.

As backwards as it may be, INDIVIDUAL play is what sells. The general public wants to watch a winning team, but they want to see great individual performances from great players. The Spurs are notorious for their selfless team play (those bums!).

But there is plenty of entertainment for the average (non-Spurs) fan. They just have to give the Spurs a chance. And it's up to the league to do what they can point out how exciting Parker and Ginobili are to watch. That is... if they want to pull their Finals ratings out of the toilet.

That's what you like about the Spurs. Although they won't admit it, but they don't care about getting 1st seed or best record. The Spurs are such an experienced and well-coached team that home court advantage isn't a big deal. They spanked the Suns in game 3 to prove that. The fans aren't going to break such an experienced team. Only inexperienced teams like Hornets would let home court affect their game. The Spurs will come out and spank you no matter where they are.

Anyway, that said, to the Spurs 8th seed and 1st seed are the same thing. Both are in the playoffs and have a chance to win it all. The team with more skill will prevail and Spurs have been doing that consistently.

I really believe Spurs probably say to themselves in pre-season "Meh, another year, another season" because they already know they will make it to the playoffs without playing their hardest. They save their intensity for the post-season. You can even see the change in them when the post-season starts. They obviously play way harder and with more intensity. Getting to the playoffs is easy for them. Now to win it, they play their best because the playoffs is what matters. Ring #5 on the way for Tim.

This guy is an IDIOT with big letters. that comment of the spurs killing the NBA puts him on that category at least. He needs to research the facts first, he looks like a mindless fan not an sports writer. Fucking ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by G-Nob

Adande, stephen A, stu scott = all chumps

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You realize Stephen A. picked us to beat Phoenix, right?

How does someone that stupid get a job covering the NBA for ESPN? Didn't they fire David Aldridge, who's probably the best guy in the entire business?

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Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan

You realize Stephen A. picked us to beat Phoenix, right?

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Stephen A is the first hater because he's publicly admitted he doesn't want the spurs in the Finals because their boring. He also said watch out for denver because he's iverson's yes boy. (he used to write for the philly paper) he's doesn't know crap about hoops and he's only on there because he's loud and obnoxious.

Kent in Atlanta sums it up perfectly. This is a stereotype that exists because some in sports media, mostly those at the Evil Mickey Mouse network, perpetuate the stereotype of the Spurs as boring. Where are those run-n-gun, exciting Warriors? Playing golf. Where are the Nuggets? Down 0-3 and playing like chumps. How 'bout the Suns? Oh yeah, right.

Why is good basketball painted as boring? Worse yet, done so by supposed experts. It's really quite pathetic. And watching TNT, it's obvious that the Disney drones are the ones carrying that boring banner.

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Originally Posted by Just Joe

What's sad is that the only guy that works for ESPN that picked the Spurs to win the championship is Skip Bayless. Skip fucking Bayless.
If and when the Spurs do win it all this year, everybody who picked against them in every series should be fired. When you let Skip fucking Bayless be a better predictor than yourself, then you don't deserve to draw a paycheck for making predictions.

If anyone else picked the Spurs to win it all, I don't know about it.

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if there's anything Skip knows, its the NBA playoffs.

- Mars

In Tim's years, what the Finals record for teams with best season record?

To the best of my knowledge, I could be wrong on a few of these:

'98 Jazz: Lost Finals
'99 Spurs: Won Finals
'00 Lakers: Won Finals
'01 Spurs: Lost WCF
'02 Lakers: Won Finals
'03 Spurs: Won Finals
'04 Timberwolves: Lost WCF
'05 Suns: Lost WCF
'06 Pistons: Lost ECF
'07 Mavericks: Lost First Round

This is guy is a complete and total idiot...


#1. The Spurs have had the best record in the NBA 3 times since 1999...

99, 01, and 03.

#2. Not only have they had the best record in the NBA...


They've had the best record in the NBA more times than any other team since 1999.


What's this idiots next great take? Look down to see the sky?


Since 1999, they finished with the best record in the NBA more times than any other team(Lakers and Mavs are all tied for second place doing it twice each)





This dude is a fucking idiot that shouldn't have a job.

#1. He doesn't know what he's talking about.

#2. He doesn't research his facts.


You want to know why ESPN is failing with the NBA? Because they have a bunch of fucking idiots from top to bottom in charge of their coverage.


Seriously...where is the quality control...where is taking the 5 minutes to go look at basketballreference.com and look up the records since 99...it takes actually only takes about 2 minutes to do it...and this idiot cannot even manage that before he starts opening his stupid fucking hole in ignorance.


Maybe...if these idiots wouldn't say shit like the Spurs are some underperforming boring regular season team every single time before they mention them,...people would tune into their finals coverage.

Fri, Apr 4 @ Utah L 64-90

Wed, Apr 9 Phoenix L 79-96

Sun, Apr 13 @ LA Lakers L 85-106

A lot of us were very down about those A P R I L! losses to WC playoff teams, 2 or 3 of which we'd see in the playoffs. Suns beat us badly AT ATT!

We're only in the first round, but it's been a weird season. Spurs' 56Ws didn't have many playoff teams' Ls in it.

ESPN as a whole really is trash. Not only is mostly hours of people screaming opinions, but the company is stupid. Why crap on a team so often that kills casual interest...when it's a team that is likely to play in a marquee series YOUR NETWORK BROADCASTS?! The whole "boring" thing isn't just a poor basketball opinion, it's a bad business decision.

The Spurs yearly tradition going on in the past 10 years trully be the best team. If you come to think of it they are a lot better this year compare the last year considering the won the championship having Kurt Thomas and Ime Udoka who made positive impacts for the team. No doubt the can win another championship this year. Next year they will be more dangerous adding the Euroleague playoff MVP this year Tiago Splitter (center) hopefully will replace Francisco Elson and Ian Mahinmi one of the top D-league scorer (forward) possibly replace Robert Horry to retirement. Having the Big Three with great supporting cast they will stay to be dangerous for the next decade.

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What about 1999? I know we had home court the entire playoffs. Was someone in our path upset? Or did Adande blow another?

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Good catch. Spurs 37-13 was the best record in '99.

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I read "since 1999" as "after 1999". If Adande meant including 1999, he's even less diligent than I first thought.

Greg Anthony's comments about the Spurs during last years Utah series summed things up nicely. It was one of the most well thought out commentaries from the "experts" that I've heard.

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Originally Posted by Pulgoso

The Spurs yearly tradition going on in the past 10 years trully be the best team. If you come to think of it they are a lot better this year compare the last year considering the won the championship having Kurt Thomas and Ime Udoka who made positive impacts for the team. No doubt the can win another championship this year. Next year they will be more dangerous adding the Euroleague playoff MVP this year Tiago Splitter (center) hopefully will replace Francisco Elson and Ian Mahinmi one of the top D-league scorer (forward) possibly replace Robert Horry to retirement. Having the Big Three with great supporting cast they will stay to be dangerous for the next decade.

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Already replaced. There's a guy named Kurt Thomas on our roster now........

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Originally Posted by G-Nob

Stephen A is the first hater because he's publicly admitted he doesn't want the spurs in the Finals because their boring. He also said watch out for denver because he's iverson's yes boy. (he used to write for the philly paper) he's doesn't know crap about hoops and he's only on there because he's loud and obnoxious.

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Stephen A. thinks you have to show your intelligence and prove your point by increasing the volume of his voice. He is a diminishing asset at ESPN - losing his talk show etc.