Float, Spurs, Float
June 21st, 2007 at 11:24 am
From the nonpolitical section of the blog, some pictures from the San Antonio Spurs NBA championship parade this weekend, their fourth in the last nine years. Here Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen celebrate their continued ability to hit bank shots and shoot corner threes, respectively.
With all of 72 hours of perspective, it’s interesting to see how this title was different. The main thing was that it finally brought acceptance to the city of San Antonio that no one outside of S.A. was rooting along with them. After years of hearing about low TV ratings and other supposed indictments against our championship teams, the S.A. Express-News stripped a story across the top of last Sunday’s front page titled “We, alone, love the Spurs.”
The coincidence, though, is that at the same time, the rest of the basketball-watching public (or at least the media) finally seemed to come to a grudging respect for the Spurs. A column on ESPN.com by Jemele Hill is pretty typical: “A great team that fans don’t appreciate.”
That headline, though, is probably inaccurate. Most outside fans appreciate what the Spurs do, it’s just that the team’s workman-like style and lack of off-court soap operas don’t excite them. Oh well, for the Spurs rowdies (the author included), as long as our team keeps taking June floats down the Riverwalk, we’re fine celebrating by ourselves.
June 21st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Well put, Matt. I’m sorry to say that the Spurs won’t draw that marquee player fascination. But they will continue to be a top contender, so hopefully the rest of the NBA world gets used to it.