The NBA has never known what to make of the San Antonio Spurs. They’re two wins from their fifth title in 15 seasons, and yet their first four seemed to register less — with the masses, if not basketball cognoscenti — than the Boston Celtics’ 2008 championship or the Miami Heat’s coronation last June.
The NBA got big by marketing stars, not teams. The Spurs remain a team powered by a star who doesn’t act the part. Tim Duncan, a professional since 1997, has proved sizzle-proof. He says nothing interesting. He does nothing interesting except play great basketball, and he plays it in a way that frustrates highlight collators. If it’s not a 3-pointer or a Viral Video dunk, does ESPN even bother to air it?
Speaking of which: Even superstars kowtow to the Worldwide Leader. The Spurs kowtow to no entity. During a playoff game, coach Gregg Popovich offered a one-word answer to Doris Burke’s between-quarter questions. The word: “Turnovers.” (Says someone who knows the man well: “Pop HATES that stuff.”)
These NBA Finals offer a collision of cultures. The Heat were assembled for the express purpose of satisfying superstars’ thirst for validation; the Spurs were built simply to win. Tuesday’s Game 3 was epic in its contrast: The Heat’s Big Three (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh) outscored the Spurs’ less-heralded-but-more-accomplished triumvirate (Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili) 43-25; the Spurs won 113-77.
The Heat are a caste system: There’s the Big Three and a Supporting Cast. The Spurs are, and have always been, a team. No one among them cares if the postgame Talking Point is about whether Parker is the NBA’s best lead guard (probably) or whether Duncan is the greatest teammate since Bill Russell (definitely). By paying no mind to anyone’s legacy, they’ve built a shining collective one.
Is it a coincidence that none of their Big Three was a product of the me-first AAU system? (Parker is from France, Ginobili from Argentina. Duncan grew up in the Virgin Islands and was a competitive swimmer until Hurricane Hugo wrecked his pool.) Is it surprising that four of the top six Spurs were born outside the continental United States?
In Game 3, Duncan was his team’s fourth-leading scorer; Ginobili and Parker ranked seventh and eighth. Danny Green, a second-round draftee cut by the Cavaliers, scored 27 points. Gary Neal, who wasn’t drafted and who played in Turkey, Italy and Spain, scored 24. Kawhi Leonard, who arrived in a 2011 draft-night trade with the Pacers — he was a non-lottery pick — scored 14 points on 10 shots while limiting the famed James to 15 points on 21 shots.
There are no Human Highlight Films on this roster. Duncan’s staple is a culled-from-the-’50s bank shot. In the neo-NBA, his nickname — the Big Fundamental — is essentially a backhanded compliment. It’s a way of saying, “He’s good, but he’s not fun like Shaq.”
You want fun? Try this. Take Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing. Now count the NBA titles among them. You’ll get four. To less fanfare than any of the above, Duncan has that many himself.
That the Hawks are modeling themselves after this model operation is the best news Hawks-watchers have received since Lenny Wilkens was hired as coach on Memorial Day 1993. General manager Danny Ferry played and worked in San Antonio; Mike Budenholzer, just hired as coach, has been a Spurs employee longer than Duncan. This isn’t to suggest they’ll win a fistful of titles here — without Duncan, the Spurs wouldn’t have won any — but they should know a bit about excellence.
Neither is this meant to crown the 2013 Spurs after three games. Parker has an iffy hamstring, and Miami has, as you might have heard, the world’s greatest player. The Heat could still take this series. So far, though, these finals bear the look of the 2004 edition: The hugely favored Lakers — Shaquille O’Neal was by then ponderous, but Kobe Bryant was ascendant — were beaten in five games by the Detroit Pistons, who had no superstars but who played, as coach Larry Brown kept saying, The Right Way.
The Spurs have played The Right Way for nearly two decades. (They beat those Pistons in the 2005 finals.) That San Antonio is no media hub — geographically, it’s closer to Mexico City than to New York or Los Angeles — is why we could watch this team win four titles and still underrate it. In the history of sports, there has never been a more subdued shade of greatness.
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