Throughout the past 11 years, I have been a very dedicated fan to a basketball team that no one would ever think I even knew about. Based on my being a New Englander and my passion for the home teams around this area, you would think I'd be a diehard Boston Celtics fan.
Well, that actually would be my father, who has had his fair share of ups and downs this past decade watching Boston rise from the lowest depths of scrappy basketball play, to the championship caliber team they became in 2007.
No, my favorite basketball team is actually the San Antonio Spurs. Why? Because of one player- Tim Duncan.
Tim Duncan represents everything that an NBA player should be. He is a competitive athlete and a winner. Most importantly, there is a major difference between Duncan and any other star you can name in the NBA right now: he is a team player.
Tim Duncan didn't leave San Antonio for more money after he had an amazing season. Even if he did, he never would have broadcasted an hour long special on ESPN about it like some arrogant players.
No, Duncan and the rest of his teammates win games because they are the strongest unit in the NBA. In the last decade, the Spurs have won championships with players like Duncan, Bruce Bowen, David Robinson, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli.
None of these players would put up 40 points a game like Kobe Byrant or Lebron James, but they all did what they needed to do to win as a team. Since 2000 the Spurs have won four NBA championships.
They did this when the Western Conference they played in was still the major powerhouse in the league. They didn't always play basketball that was flashy or fun to watch but they did what they had to do in order to win the games.
The last championship for the Spurs was in 2007. This team was led by the three player force of Parker, Duncan and Ginobli. If any of these three players were to go to another team, they probably would not be nearly as effective. But when they work together these three all-stars can beat any team, any time.
Plenty of sports critics have said that the Spurs' time has come and gone. They will all say that what the team accomplished in the last decade was great, but that their stars are too old and injury riddled. The league is becoming younger and especially in the east, you can see that many of the stronger teams have talented, young players.
Take the Chicago Bulls, for example. They weren't making much noise after Michael Jordan, the best man to ever play the sport, retired. It was not until they drafted Derrick Rose that they began winning games again.
Despite what everyone seems to keep saying about the NBA nowadays and how you have to be a young athletic team to be successful, the Spurs continue to find themselves right in the middle of the playoff pack year in and year out.
I am going to contribute some of this to their head coach, Greg Popovich, who will no doubt be in the Basketball Hall of Fame some day. He continues to use effective strategies against teams and always seems to use their weaknesses against them.
He has a strict team player vibe about him that keeps money seeking all-stars, like Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, out of his locker room. No matter what people say about his team not making any power plays for these high level free agents, his methods seem to always work out for the Spurs.
That brings me to this season. The lockout between the players and coaches shortened the regular season schedule, forcing teams to play more games in a shorter time period. Many sports writers assumed that only the younger, athletic teams would be able to withstand such a brutal schedule, and that older teams, like the Spurs and Celtics, would not have the physical ability to succeed this year.
But as we approach the second half of the season, the Spurs sit in second place in their division with a record of 13-9. They have done all this without the help of one of their centerpieces, Manu Ginobli, who broke his hand a month ago.
Manu is almost healthy, and the younger players on the Spurs roster that not many people know of, are stepping their game up and giving the older veterans like Duncan and Parker a chance to rest.
Am I saying that the Spurs are going to win their fifth NBA title in the previous decade this year? No. But I am saying that they have just as much of a chance as any other team in the league. They will continue to play strong and fundamental basketball until Duncan, Parker and Ginobli retire. That could be soon or a few years from now depending on what happens down the road.
All I know is that the Spurs will always be my favorite basketball team and will continue to make critics eat their words by seasons end, just like they have all century.
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