The Popovich Spurs are unlike anything we've seen before in the NBA for several reasons. But the most prominent is the five titles with the long gaps. Duncan and Popovich with titles together 15 years apart, never changing teams.
Yeah it's the distance between the rings, which has happened before for players but usually on different teams. It's also the greatness of such a long time frame without dominating the time frame championship wise. It's a really unique scenario but will go down as one of the greatest runs in NBA history. They should try again next year (hint hint Duncan don't retire)
Not the same, but still the first . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Salley Tim Duncan doesn't need those extra stuff though. He's Tim Duncan.
Also the way they play unlike any other team and the way they scout and acquire players unlike any other team. The reason the systems work and you have all the great ball movement is the players. And a lot of that was acquiring foreign players, because you don't often find that type of player in the US. As for the Heat, this Finals was partially a referendum on the East (the worst conference in recent history), and partially a referendum on them. Everything about them got worse from last season, and the entire supporting cast came apart at the end. The biggest single guy to blame is Wade. It's unbelievable that he sat for so many games and played limited minutes in a lot of others (and got long breaks before and during the playoffs), and was complete trash in the Finals. He was a huge negative for them, and for this Miami team to win it all, they needed him to actually contribute.
Byz.. Sox.. Congrats guys, enjoy it for everything it is. Buy the DVD set, T-shirt, hat, and everything else. The right team won it this year. I hope next year it's my turn.
Yeah, I mentioned earlier, reading stuff about the 70s Knicks and hearing Clyde talk about them, their play seems like this. The reason it works/worked is also because Tim Duncan haha. You are completely right about the Heat. Everyone got worse except Lebron. Kind of amazing, Spurs were the better team and nightmare matchup for them.
Well done spurs , happy for the old blokes but happier for mills and brynes. I posted yesterday a video of mills being interviewed 8 years ago, he got his wishes hard work paid for patty over last summer
Definite "hit the open man & play defense" similarities between the two team's philosophies which is why the two teams were likeable and a pleasure to watch. Good as Reed (and later Lucas) were, the Spurs have a more dominant player at the '5' in Tim Duncan.
This title validates their greatness. When people look back, its going be hard to explain how this big 3 was able to win a title 7 years after their last one. Its crazy, imagine the Heat big 3 having a 7 year gap between their titles? or how about the Celtics big 3 (thats now dead)....
Oh definitely Tim Duncan is one of the GOATs but hit the open man the ball never stops. There were dominant players but they didn't need to dominate the ball. It's rare in basketball in gerenal.
Yeah I was just on NBAstore.com Probably will spend about $200. Its not like ill see any of my other teams win anything soon and I always said if I saw my team win I would buy the Hat, Flag, T shirt, stickers, DVD, etc.
Amazing feel good night, wonderful to finally see somebody other than Miami win when I'm really, really into basketball.
That is an absurd comparison. This Spurs team was home-grown and built. Duncan, Parker, Leonard, Ginobili, Splitter, etc. were only Spurs (their only team, IOW). Then they acquired a few supporting players like Diaw, Green... The Heat and Celtics were not. So no I can't imagine the Celtics big 3 winning titles many years apart because Paul Pierce was the only original Celtic and he was an overrated fraud who needed several other stars (along with a crucial injury to Andrew Bynum that cost LA the series) to even win one title. As for the Heat, they were a few stars in their respective primes who wanted to play together. Vastly different situation.
I think ill look back at this title as just pure determination. Its what it was, the mental scar of game 6 has been lifted. To me 2014 was just a continuation of 2013, it was a 2 year run and its finally over.