Besides Your Own Team Winning, The Spurs Title Last Night Was The Most Enjoyable Championship To Watch Right?
So I asked this question last night on twitter and I can’t think of any other circumstance in any other sport where I would sit on my couch and enjoy a team that I don’t root for winning a title as much as I did the Spurs last night. Yes part of that is because they were opposite the Heat and Lebron, and any time you get to see them suffer you can count it as a good night. But it was more than that. That Spurs basketball team was one of the most fun teams I have ever watched. The way they moved the ball, the way they played so unselfishly, the way they all seemed to genuinely root for each other and were always looking to make that extra pass for that perfect shot in a league and era where most athletes are purely looking out for themselves. Add in Popovich being one of the best coaches in sports, Kawhi Leonard being a great story (wasn’t talked about much last night but winning NBA MVP on Father’s Day when his father was shot to death 6 years ago is a heart wrenching story), Duncan being an extremely likeable star, San Antonio being a city that no one really has any feeling on good or bad (minus Chuck), and the fact that they lost last year in the cruelest possible way and I have to think that was the perfect storm of happiness felt for a team that I have no actual investment in. When the Bulls play the Spurs next year I hope they smoke them, but last night I could not have been happier for a group of guys. Such an awesome scene from start to finish. Can’t think of another team in pro sports that I would actually be happy for.
PS
How crazy is it to think that the Spurs used to be the team everyone hated to watch. Remember the Spurs/Pistons finals when basketball essentially died? Pop completely reinvented their style of play and became an offensive juggernaut that plays the game in the perfect way. Finding those stretch guys like Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, which has quickly become the most important position in the NBA, and seamlessly working them into the core big three. Adapt or die.