Has it been a mere five days since our San Antonio Spurs clinched their second NBA Championship? Is it really over? The celebration, the anxiety, the parade, the party?
Surely there has got to be something else. Another get together, another D Rob tribute, another chance to dog Bill Walton?
Yes, it is over and when you woke up this morning, your Spurs were still champs. It is over and we finally have time to breathe. Time to relax and begin a long and happy summer filled with memories of Steve Kerr's timely shooting, Tim Duncan's complete domination and the Admiral's farewell cruise. Yes it is over and we survived.
We survived bouts of Sun-burn and wrote a new ending to the L.A. story. We out-dueled our North Texas cousins for a conference title, and traded shots with the best from the East. When the dust finally settled and the battles were done, it was the Black and Silver who finished number one.
San Antonio did what was needed to win. They outran the Lakers and stonewalled the Mavericks. The Spurs spread the attack for the most part, and leaned on the MVP when needed. Tony Parker matured, Manu Ginobili shined and Stephen Jackson took turns angering and thrilling us. Help came from all possible sources. In game two of the Phoenix series after the overtime buzzer beater that gave the Suns a shocking 1-0 series lead and with an ailing David Robinson and suspended Kevin Willis out of action, Danny Ferry stepped in with a playoff career-high 10 rebound effort. When Parker struggled under the pressure of the Finals and the eyes of the world on his game versus Jason Kidd, Speedy Claxton came in and the team did not skip a beat. Malik Rose battled Shaq and dunked on Dikembe and of course we cannot forget the most exciting 13 minutes in franchise history when Steve Kerr showed he was not a mere mortal.
The most significant development in this two-month odyssey that was the NBA post-season was the emergence of Tim Duncan as the best player in the solar system. The domination of Duncan was reminiscent of the man himself. Quiet, unassuming, lethal. Play him one-on-one, he will close you out with a 37 point, 16 rebound game like game 6 against L.A. Double and triple team him and you may hold him under 20 points like Phoenix did twice, but he will grab 20 points and 23 boards. Try and prevent him from clinching a title and he come within two blocked shots of a quadruple-double. Byron Scott is still seeing TD in his nightmares.
The final goal of this post-season was the same goal that the team had in October -- make sure Dave goes out with a ring. The Admiral saved his best for last. The Finals produced Robinson's best series of the playoffs including a 13 point, 17 rebound effort in his final game of his career. More on Big Dave in next week's episode of Confessions.
This was the week that Spurs fans all over the world -- and yes we have gone global, kids -- have been waiting for since the 20th century. The basketball world knows that the Spurs first championship was real, but thanks to the ramblings of Big Chief Triangle and his Jacksonian philosophy of "If I didn't win, it must not be real", a vocal and uneducated minority have been taunting Spurs fans with their asterisk drivel. Oh, you will hear the unevolved try to spew out oral diarrhea about injuries and such, but these are just attempts to make themselves feel better after being dismissed this time. Well, no more. No asterisk this time. No strings, no guilt, no preservatives. 2003 will be woven into the tapestry that is the history of San Antonio alongside such historic dates as 1836, 1968 and of course 1999.
You can call us boring.
You can call us soft.
But you have to call us Champions.
And get used to it World, because it's only the beginning.
