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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.
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, y players such as Garnett, Carter, CP3 (respect his game still)…
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 y. 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 !
In Spurstalk I believe !
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
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 le for decades. I do acknolewdge that I have been a spoiled fan with 4 les 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 le 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...
Drive for Five !
Believe ! Go Spurs Go
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.
Welcome to San Antonio. Im like you im more of a lurker and appreciate everything i read here. Spurstalk connects!
Welcome once again.
god, again one of these annoying Frenchies and a TP bandwagonner fan
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 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
and i forgot to say good story bro
"I hated TP before it was cool too."
/
"I hated TP before it was cool too."
/
Im a hater bro
Awesome
Cool to see that you will be able to live the prophecy from that other thread you linked to:
Nice story
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.
Great story man.
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!
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 les.
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.
I hate Manu!
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...
Haha, I was about to bump it! Amazing how many times you can be right, it's not even surprising anymore!Awesome
Cool to see that you will be able to live the prophecy from that other thread you linked to:
Well, 2:30 am here in China and really excited for the game to begin in an hour!
Awesome!
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.
Nice post.
don't forget to on eva.
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.
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.
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++++
Great!
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