After six years, San Antonio clearly was ready for the Spurs to return to the NBA Finals. Inside the sport itself, it’s always been a given that the Miami Heat would represent the East, but few if any of pro basketball’s talking heads picked the Spurs to be number one in the West – even though we sported the best win-loss record for much of the season.
Well, here we are, leading the series, 2-1, after a near-record demolition of LeBron James and his supporting cast Tuesday night at the AT&T Center. It may have been the least stressful NBA Final game I’ve ever watched.
We have no doubts about your loyalty as fans. We know the Spurs unite San Antonio like nothing else can, as noted in in our recent story, “Franchise Primer: Why the Spurs Unite San Antonio.” What we question, however, is your faith.
Office slackers who are taking a pause can watch this slow motion video of Tony Parker as he makes his Game One miracle shot, or return to our home page and enjoy the Annette Crawford’s slide show of Spurs spirit from downtown towers to front yards in the barrio
Here’s our survey, entirely unscientific, utterly dependent on you telling the truth. Here at the Rivard Report, we pride ourselves on the quality of reader comments posted on the site and our Facebook page. But this will be the test:
How many of you Spurs fans were afraid of facing the Heat and instead found yourself desperately rooting for the Indiana Pacers to beat the Heat for us?
How many of you Spurs fans expected San Antonio to win Game One in Miami and then come home and seize a 2-1 lead?
How many of you believe the Spurs will finish the job and claim a fifth trophy and set off the biggest downtown party in this city’s history?
Tell the truth, people. It’s okay to admit a moment of doubt or weakness. You can post your comment here or on the Rivard Report Facebook page (comments from Facebook are imported to our site).
Follow Robert Rivard on Twitter @rivardreport or on Facebook.
Related Stories:
Slo-Mo Video: Parker Chills the Heat
Franchise Primer: Why the Spurs Unite San Antonio
Gallery: Go, Spurs, Go! by Annette Crawford
San Antonio Goes Major League — It Started With the Alamodome
The Alamodome, Now 20, Made San Antonio a Bigger, Better City
I didn’t think #LosSpurs had a chance to make the finals, much less being up 2-1.
This coming from a former ball boy for them (’76-’77 / ’77-’78)
I’m not saying anything until it’s over. lol
What did I think before the series started? That’s a fair question. Even before the Pacers-Heat series closed out, I wrote in the “Franchise Primer” article, “The Spurs have played in four NBA Finals and won all four times. It can happen again.”
Great teams will beat a great player, and I’m hoping LeBron James still has doubts in his head dating back to the Spurs championship sweep of Cleveland. It won’t be easy, but this seems like the Spurs time to me. –RR
The idea of “lucking out” and facing Indiana was dreadful to me. It would be another forgetful NBA Finals that would only leave an impression on Spurs history. We finally face the best, and with that is an opportunity to force ourselves forevermore in the conversation of “dynasty” and “greatest team.”
And their chance of defeating Miami was never at doubt in my mind. The Heat do have the greatest player currently in the world, but their role players are among the league’s oldest, and I would choose a great team over a superstar player any day. Miami’s spectacular season is misleading as they thrived only in a historically weak Eastern Conference. Now in the Finals, Miami faces a superior coach who leads with a “team-only” mentality, while the debate in Miami is obsessing over James himself needing to do more in order to win.
Spurs and Heat are two great teams and it could go either way, BUT I must say that I’m a thorough believer in the Spurs and fully expected they’d win at least two at home. My HOPE is that they don’t return to Miami. My EXPECTATION is that we’ll go back to Miami to close out the series as a WINNER in six.