Every once in awhile I write up a basketball article, usually surrounding the San Antonio Spurs, which in June became NBA champions for the fifth time in franchise history. Right now, I await the decision of a man named Carmelo and whether or not he will join my beloved Chicago Bulls, so basketball is just on my mind, I cannot shake it, like some great defender sticking to his match up in the post (see what I mean).
Although I will not have the answer I seek by the time I send off this column (but will by time it is published and hope I can look back at this with a smile not a sneer), there was too many bouncing basketballs in my head for this month’s Fish Out of Water to be about anything else.
So I figured I’d tell you guys why I am so adamant that the people reading this column take some Texas pride in the Spurs, because in the football heavy atmosphere that drifts across the Lone Star State like fog over the bay, basketball’s hair is red….deep red.
First off, before you guys get out the torches and pitchforks, there is nothing wrong with football. Besides being a Bear fan, which I am sure has me being mentally lynched by a couple of readers, it is a fine game and my second favorite team sport.
However, today a man named Lebron made the decision to go home to Cleveland to repair the damage left in the collectives mouths of NBA fans when the man spurned his own home town to chase glory in Miami in 2010 and although successful, his abandonment hurt his image.
Lebron also had an ESPN special devoted to himself to make this free agency choice, with his endorsers taking part. This TV special also made the fan bases of a few NBA teams holding their breath for thirty minutes. They did this only to find out he had chosen the easy route to a title, joining up with two other superstars to form a team that seemed more Hollywood the hard work.
Through all of this there was the Spurs, plugging along, never missing the Playoffs since the 1997-1998 season and doing it with an ‘old school’ sense of what makes a team, a way of looking at the game of basketball that has projected dedication, hard work and loyalty.
Being that these values seem to be in abundance throughout most of Texas to a degree, it is amazing that so many native Texans outside the San Antonio area do not hold the Spurs in higher regard.
Perhaps the Spurs are too good for their own good.
When an accomplishment is achieved time after time again, like the Spurs have been doing for well over a decade, people tend to forget about it because it becomes so commonplace. Only failure is acknowledged, like a mini bout of culture shock brought on by a constant becoming unstable, a small flux in the universe.
Maybe Texas is also spoiled by having three great NBA teams in the same state.
There is the Dallas Mavericks, which have a great owner and organization themselves and won the title in 2011, which was right before I moved back to Texas the last time. There are also the Houston Rockets, who besides being champions in back to back titles in the mid 1990’s, currently have a good roster and a shrewd front office, so there is an abundance of good pro basketball teams in Texas.
In my heart though there is a warm spot for the Spurs and I’d even go so far as to say they are my team after the Bulls. Some might accuse me of jumping on a band wagon, but honestly, I have said this before in this space at some point, but over the last month I feel a new kinship.
In a time when the NBA has become a place where one or two high quality players control the entire league, I am proud of the San Antonio Spurs for being champions built from the ground up.
They fit Texas like a boot…with spurs of course.
