Championships Ain't Easy

[Juanobili]

What a season. See you all on draft day.

[MarCowMar]

Thanks to:

Duncan, for playing with heart and giving us solid defense.
Dice, for battling with Randolph possession after possession.
Manu, for battling through injuries and willing us to some wins.
Hill, Blair, and Splitter, for working hard and improving even though the consistency is not there yet. I hope we're able to keep these guys instead of packaging them in trades.
Tony, well you tried hard and maybe we underestimated Conley and Allen. For whatever reason the offense just wasn't working.
Bonner, for playing about as well as could be expected given your limitations and the matchups. You still make me cringe when you're in the lineup but I no longer have the impression that you can't perform in the playoffs.
Neal, for being fearless and giving us a shot to pull this out.

RJ had a rough time and it's tempting to berate him, but he just doesn't fit in our system.

Pop is a great coach but he might want to think about giving someone else a shot. Do like Pat Reilly and sit back for a while. Let someone else run the daily grind of the regular season. Our guys looked well-coached in many ways, but they looked dejected and tired in many others.

Props to the Grizz. Great team. Composed. Great defender in Allen. Great post player in Randolph. Gasol is a talent and is making many of us eat our words about the trade that shall not be named. Nice subs utions in the 4th there after we took the one point lead.

And thanks to SpursTalk--best sports forum on the web!

[Chomag]

We just won 61 games largely without Duncan. So yall are saying that in 5 months we're gonna be a 5-8th seed? C'mon...if we make the right moves, with another full year of experience to our young players and an off season for them to get better I really believe that we're going to be ok and relevant for the next 3-4 years. Call me crazy.

And those 61 games ment what in the playoffs?

[pooh]

The door has officially been slammed shut, goodnight now.

[baseline bum]

off, Pooh.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

San Antonio Spurs, thank you for a fun regular season. That was a blast. You worked hard for months to put yourselves in a position to win NBA championship #5. Though always a longshot to actually win it all, you were able to give us hope.

Nobody wanted this early of an exit in the playoffs. But I don't doubt the effort. I don't doubt the dedication. The heart was always willing even when the body wasn't.

Thank you for today. And I still believe in a tomorrow.

And to Spurs fans, thank you for being the most dedicated. We wanted it. That's why this hurts so much. But if winning a championship was an easy thing to do, the four championship trophies wouldn't shine as bright.

Thanks to everyone here. Enjoy the offseason, however long it lasts. I hope to see you around. And I hope you still believe in the cause. The fifth championship won't be easy but it is still attainable. Reinforcements, improvement, better strategy and better luck ... and that stone may very well crack next season.

Goodnight, for now.

Well said, sir.

This hurts even more than last season because this team was so cohesive and played such beautiful basketball for the first 60 games, then something changed (I'm not exactly sure what), they lost faith in their ability to win, and choked their way to this early exit. I could see it coming from mid-March, but that doesn't soften the blow at all. Horrible end to a mostly ecstatic season.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Can anyone explain to me what happened to this team from early-March onwards? One day they were playing incredibly clever, cohesive offensive basketball, and even had an extra defensive gear in the 4th Q when they needed it, then over night that all disappeared. WTF happened?

[DPG21920]

They played too many minutes?

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

They played too many minutes?

Maybe. Maybe it's as simple as that. ed if I know...

[angelbelow]

Wasn't all that fun after February.

[ElNono]

Can anyone explain to me what happened to this team from early-March onwards? One day they were playing incredibly clever, cohesive offensive basketball, and even had an extra defensive gear in the 4th Q when they needed it, then over night that all disappeared. WTF happened?

Other teams starting to gear up for the playoffs and peaking happened, while we just regressed...

[DPG21920]

Maybe. Maybe it's as simple as that. ed if I know...

It was a joke . They played very low minutes. I broke down that they played the equivalent of 6-8 less games than the other contenders big 3 minutes wise.

[DMC]

Meh. Coming into the season, I thought the Spurs had about a 1% chance to win the championship. Coming into the playoffs, I thought it was about a 10% chance. So, while it was a big improvement, it was always unlikely.

Losing in the first round sucks but it's not like it would have felt good losing in the WCF or the Finals. I don't really care about anything other than a championship at this point.

This is how I have felt since the end of last season. I was even glad we got past Dallas last year and considered our season pretty good because of it. We drew a bad card with Memphis in the 1st round, but like you said, it was going to happen at least in the WCF and expectations only build as you go along, rarely do they level out. So I would have been more disturbed by a WCF loss than this one.

I don't care about the "upset" thing. It's just talking points for the media and star struck fans.

[rwb]

This hurts even more than last season because this team was so cohesive and played such beautiful basketball for the first 60 games, then something changed (I'm not exactly sure what), they lost faith in their ability to win, and choked their way to this early exit. I could see it coming from mid-March, but that doesn't soften the blow at all. Horrible end to a mostly ecstatic season.

Pop went to All Star Weekend. As well as I can recall, that's when everything changed. He was useless as a coach because he didn't know what to do with all those stars on his team so he just gave them all carte blanc while he farted and burped on the bench. Blair showboated and partied and next thing you know he's either on the bench or chained to Bonner. Once the starting lineup dynamic and rotations went wacky, the team seemed like it didn't know how to work together anymore. Once Splitter was healthy he was too lazy to work with him so when he was needed he wasn't ready. In addition, Pop's, "It's just basketball," comment and lack of belief in his own team's chances in the media couldn't have given his guys a whole lot of encouragement. I can only imagine what his halftime speeches are like: "Okay, you fellows are adults and you know what you need to do to win so go and do it before the game is over." Probably no Win One For the Gipper heart-tuggers from this dude.

I think Coach has been awesome and the right man for the job for about 15 years but now he needs to go. Time to move to the front office and hire someone with some fire in his belly to motivate this team.

Oh well. I'm just glad they didn't lose at home. I can now not care about basketball until next year. Until then...

:

[Borosai]

San Antonio Spurs, thank you for a fun regular season. That was a blast. You worked hard for months to put yourselves in a position to win NBA championship #5. Though always a longshot to actually win it all, you were able to give us hope.

Nobody wanted this early of an exit in the playoffs. But I don't doubt the effort. I don't doubt the dedication. The heart was always willing even when the body wasn't.

Thank you for today. And I still believe in a tomorrow.

And to Spurs fans, thank you for being the most dedicated. We wanted it. That's why this hurts so much. But if winning a championship was an easy thing to do, the four championship trophies wouldn't shine as bright.

Thanks to everyone here. Enjoy the offseason, however long it lasts. I hope to see you around. And I hope you still believe in the cause. The fifth championship won't be easy but it is still attainable. Reinforcements, improvement, better strategy and better luck ... and that stone may very well crack next season.

Goodnight, for now.

True.

[baseline bum]

The Spurs won with incredible depth early in the season, but those role-players couldn't keep up once the games really started to matter and Tim and Manu are too old to make up for it. March and after it's your main horses that have to carry you, and but it's not 2007 any more.

[ElNono]

1st Rounds Ain't easy either these days...

[jjktkk]

This current Spurs team maxed out their potential imo. Although Duncan is still a force defensively, teams no longer fear Tim's post game. Besides Memphis being a matchup nightmare, with no consistant post game, the Spurs couldn't counter when Memphis starting taking away the Spur's 3s. Next year, unless Splitter drastically improves his offensive game, or Tim finds the fountain of youth, it will, unfortunately, be more of the same.

[Dingle Barry]

My friend, a 1990s bandwagon bulls fan holdover, was telling me in december that the spurs were peaking. I laughed in his face and did the whole SPAM thing. Sucks for me now.

[spurs10]

Thank timvp and Kori. It was a very cool send off. It's horribly strange to think about this season not being as good as the last. Who'd have thought that? All this is next to nothing compared to time you spend with your kids. All the best to you and yours.

[Obstructed_View]

Spurs Pummeled After March

[1Parker1]

Spurs Pummeled After March

[TJastal]

Pop went to All Star Weekend. As well as I can recall, that's when everything changed. He was useless as a coach because he didn't know what to do with all those stars on his team so he just gave them all carte blanc while he farted and burped on the bench.

So, basically he did the same thing there as he does when coaching the spurs.

[rascal]

I think you're kidding yourself if you honestly think its still attainable with this core. Its over.

You thought it was attainable this year a couple of days ago.

[20beastie45]

San Antonio Spurs, thank you for a fun regular season. That was a blast. You worked hard for months to put yourselves in a position to win NBA championship #5. Though always a longshot to actually win it all, you were able to give us hope.

Nobody wanted this early of an exit in the playoffs. But I don't doubt the effort. I don't doubt the dedication. The heart was always willing even when the body wasn't.

Thank you for today. And I still believe in a tomorrow.

And to Spurs fans, thank you for being the most dedicated. We wanted it. That's why this hurts so much. But if winning a championship was an easy thing to do, the four championship trophies wouldn't shine as bright.

Thanks to everyone here. Enjoy the offseason, however long it lasts. I hope to see you around. And I hope you still believe in the cause. The fifth championship won't be easy but it is still attainable. Reinforcements, improvement, better strategy and better luck ... and that stone may very well crack next season.

Goodnight, for now.

I will talk like everyone else. The fact is I LOVE MY SPURS. I yell,curse,gasp etc. on every single play in every single game in every single year. It's funny how people on Spurstalk dislike the talking about your own team....IT'S BECAUSE WE LOVE OUR TEAM!!!


I really would like to thank Tim Duncan. It took my Dad decades to see the spurs win a championship. You spoiled us with your phenomenal basketball skills. I will never forget what you did for this city!

TD21 is