Expectations Have Been Reached

[siraulo23]

b2b top 4 team, yes!

now just make the finals and thats gon be ing awesome indeed

[wildcardX]

I have not been able to enjoy the Spurs success over the years with other Spurs fans due to living in Hawaii. No pro team here so a lot of people are bandwagon fans that piss me off even more by trying to convince me that they were fans of that team for a long time. Seriously, I've never seen a Clippers fan here before the last couple years but people tell me how they were long time fans, irritating. THE WORST this year was when everyone jumped back on the Lakers bandwagon when Nash and Howard got signed then jumping off mid season and switching to the Heat or Clippers. My dumbass friend even said he can cheer for the Clips and the Lakers because they were the same city. I wanted to hit the bas . Sorry to say hardly any Spurs fans here, but my most proud moment was walking into my 6th grade class with a Robinson shirt in his rookie year and then go throughout the day telling the Lakers and Bulls fans how their teams sucked(not knowing any better), and the Spurs ruled. This organization may not have as many championships but I'm damn proud of this team throughout all those years and especially this year. Maybe expectations have been reached but I think this team is going to play their best basketball of the year soon and surprise some people by the end of this years playoffs.

[NRHector]

I have not been able to enjoy the Spurs success over the years with other Spurs fans due to living in Hawaii. No pro team here so a lot of people are bandwagon fans that piss me off even more by trying to convince me that they were fans of that team for a long time. Seriously, I've never seen a Clippers fan here before the last couple years but people tell me how they were long time fans, irritating. THE WORST this year was when everyone jumped back on the Lakers bandwagon when Nash and Howard got signed then jumping off mid season and switching to the Heat or Clippers. My dumbass friend even said he can cheer for the Clips and the Lakers because they were the same city. I wanted to hit the bas . Sorry to say hardly any Spurs fans here, but my most proud moment was walking into my 6th grade class with a Robinson shirt in his rookie year and then go throughout the day telling the Lakers and Bulls fans how their teams sucked(not knowing any better), and the Spurs ruled. This organization may not have as many championships but I'm damn proud of this team throughout all those years and especially this year. Maybe expectations have been reached but I think this team is going to play their best basketball of the year soon and surprise some people by the end of this years playoffs.

[Danny.Zhu]

championship-or-bust imho.

[Raven]

it is indeed a success, but tbh with a weschimpless thunderefs, this team has to win the conference, no excuses.

[thiste]

Been said before....but great ing time to be a Spurs fan. Love this team, regardless of whatever happens going forward.

Believe 2013.

It's been great for about 20 years though.

[lmbebo]

I think the le says all thats wrong with this thread...

Expectation is always championship. Happy with there achievement thus far, but I still expect them to win this series and win the championship.

[exstatic]

F.T.G.

[spurspokesman]

Proud spurs fan here.

[MVPCues]

Win or lose, Champions or not, I am and will always be proud of the Spurs.

Damn straight.

[TD 21]

Typical. Who cares about years ago or even the off season? Given how this season played out and who stands between them and the Finals, short of a debilitating injury to a significant player, there is absolutely no excuse for them to not reach the Finals. I'm not letting them off the hook that easily.

[Obstructed_View]

The Spurs are back to playing defense, they have a seven footer starting next to Duncan, who's moving well, dunking the ball and blocking shots ... and timvp is hanging from the shower rod.

Sad.

[ShoogarBear]

I know there are a lot of championship-or-bust fans but I want to take a timeout to congratulate the Spurs for at least hitting par on this season. I said before the season and again before the playoffs that the Spurs making it to the WCF in reasonable health would be a reasonable expectation. Less than that would be a failure. More than that would be success. So right now, even if things go south, the Spurs put together another fine season.

The aging legs and the accompanying injuries made it a difficult road to travel at times -- but they're here and they have a chance.

Congrats and thanks for another fun ride

Quitter.

[mingus]

The defense the we played last series after adjustments and in particular in game 6 told me were finally a serious threat to go to the finals. This is no longer the pretty offensive team of the last several years. We can legitimately play the grind-it-out type of basketball you need to play to go far. Kawhi and Danny Green, both question marks after last years playoffs and spearheading that, have really taken it to a new level. In addition, so have Splitter (still getting healthy) and surprisingly, so has Cojo. My expectations are pretty high for this team. I don't know if well beat Memphis, but anything less than a 6-7 series I'd view as a disappointment.

[SpurPadre]

I'm with those who will always be proud Spurs fans but to face a #6 seed in Rd. 2 and then the #5 seed in the WCF, we couldn't ask for a better opportunity to make the Finals no matter how better these teams have played than their seeding indicated.

[MaNu4Tres]

Losers mentality, tbh.

I guess Duncan should have just retired then in 2009. He already met expectations and won 4 les, 3 Final MVPs.

Love your stuff, LJ, but this may be one of your worst threads.

[z0sa]

Expectations have not been reached. When the Russell Westbrook injury occurred, they drastically changed. Anything less than a Finals berth will be failure.

[TE]

Expectations have not been reached. When the Russell Westbrook injury occurred, they drastically changed. Anything less than a Finals berth will be failure.

This.

[GrandeDavid]

The Spurs are the top seed in the conference and are better than Memphis. I do not think expectations have been reached and I'm sure the entire organization would agree with that statement. Sure, if the Spurs fail to advance they shouldn't be thrown under the bus. True, it would have been a very good season., nonetheless. But it's pretty weak to prepare for failure before a series has even begun.

[Spurs_Be_Beastin']

Church.

[benefactor]

You guys act like Duncan is supposed to be doing what he's doing. What he's doing at his age is unprecedented. There were all kinds of stats thrown out there during the season where no one had ever done it.

And I think you guys are overreacting a bit to what LJ said. He said it's a "reasonable" expectation...and it is...and that anything more would be "success"....which it would be. There will be homers on one side that think that the Spurs can beat Miami and doomsdayers that think the Spurs that don't have a chance against Memphis. Then there are those reasonable people in the middle...who think making the conference finals with Duncan at his age and Manu just a s of the dominant force he used to be is very, very good. There is no losers mentality in that at all. It's an appreciation for an unexpected outcome and a cautious optimism for what could potentially be. I know that there have been injuries and there is now a chance for more but that doesn't mean that making the conference finals and not going further is a failure. All the cir stance considered...it's quite the opposite. Now losing in the previous round, that would have been failure.

[TD 21]

You keep acting like it's '08 or '09 and you can't possible fathom how they could be where they are in '13, instead of taking the facts you have in front of you right now to decipher/determine whether not making the Finals (again, barring debilitating injury to a significant player) would be a disappointment.

With your mentality, Heat fans shouldn't be expecting another championship, because back four-five years ago, nobody suspected James and Bosh would join Wade and Grizzly fans, they shouldn't be expecting to get to the Finals, because back then nobody thought Gasol would be this good. None of that is relevant now.

[baseline bum]

Feels good that it's 2013 and we're still talking WCF. Back in the le days I always figured the good days with this core would have been done by 2010.

[benefactor]

What a horrible ing take...

So you are comparing Tim Duncan getting old to a team improving through trades or a player in his prime developing into a really good player? Wow.

And you keep saying giving up. No one said anything about giving up, dumbass. Quit making it what you want to make it and learn to ing read. He said it was a reasonable expectation and anything more would be success. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that statement.

[TD 21]

Not surprisingly, you missed the gist of the point. The point is, those were two completely unforeseen events, yet they happened and those teams are where they are today. The likelihood of them happening five years ago is irrelevant.

Everything is wrong with that statement, you fat, dumb, inbred hick. There's nothing reasonable about losing to this team and if someone would have suggested there was a few months back, damn near every single person would have criticized them. Health permitting, the only way it was reasonable for this team to lose was to an in their prime, all time great superstar. The Grizzlies not only don't have anything close to that, they don't even have one of the two best players in this series (Gasol is having a better playoffs than Duncan so far and it's not impossible he outplays him for 5-7 games, but I'm talking in general terms).