Karen’s Spurs t‑shirt
It has been ten days now. I am almost over it, but not quite. On the Wednesday morning after game six, I woke up at 4:37. It all came surging back, like a punch in my gut. Manu’s free throw, Kawhi’s free throw. Kawhi’s almost rebound. The ball to Ray Allen in the corner. (I knew that sucker was going in before he caught it.) Timmie on the bench. Manu getting raped as he drove the lane. I lay in bed and fought the inexorable truth that that was our chance.
On the Friday morning after game seven, I woke up at 4:48. The first thing I thought was that it was over. Then I thought about game six. All I could remember of game seven was Manu on the right side above the three-point line, close game, make something happen, ball through his hands, out of bounds. Followed by Manu at the top of the key, still close game, guarded, pass to the right, no one there, ball out of bounds! Manu! Manu will forever be my favorite Spur, the bravest soul in a pantheon of heroes. I was crushed.
I’m better now, still wounded but recovering, out of danger as they say. It took therapy. I didn’t watch PTI or Around the Horn for the entire next week. Didn’t open the sports page. Didn’t watch local news. The only King James I wanted anything to do with was the biblical one.
Now I realize how wonderful it all was, even given how it ended. Part of my appreciation is purely selfish. NBA playoffs start in the mid-April and go through the middle of June. The end of the school year! I can’t begin to describe what a balm it is as you limp through one of those final school days knowing that the Spurs play that night. A tonic for burn-out syndrome. (Not always easy to get up the next day, though.)
Facebook is more fun when the Spurs are in the playoffs. Spurs fans are knowledgeable, zealous and sometimes almost rabid. I’m shocked at how many women I know who are die-hard sports fans when it comes to Spurs playoff time. And I love it when I see someone I had pegged as a gentle, dignified soul go ballistic over a blown call or moronic comment by a television analyst.
This year I discovered a new pleasure that coincides with Spurs playoff games. As the game gets underway, I start a message board with my two sons, my daughter, and several other committed Spurs fans that I am close to. As the game proceeds, we shoot comments back and forth, expressing joy, outrage, passion, and mostly rather sick senses of humor. So much fun. It’s like watching the game with your family and friends, only you don’t have to buy extra beer and snacks.
Another great thing about rooting for the Spurs is that playoff fever seems to permeate every level of existence in San Antonio and the surrounding area. It’s not just people who go to sports bars. The other night I was running a tennis clinic, and I was talking with three girls, one fourteen and the other two sixteen. Typical teenage girls—except they were talking basketball! “Kawhi always comes up with that rebound,” one girl said. “We should have had Timmie in the game,” another stated. “Chris Bosh is probably the ugliest man on the planet,” the third opined. Knowledgeable basketball talk!
A common concern seems to be that this was our last shot, one final stab at the fifth ring. Heck no! My friend Sean, who keeps up with such things, assures me that we have the right people signed, we have cap space, we have free agents interested in coming here. I say we have Pop and R.C. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we were talking about our Big Three five years from now, and it was Tony and Kawhi and Livio.
Houston has the Rockets and the Astros and the Texans. Dallas has the Mavs and the Cowboys and the Rangers and the Stars. They can keep them all. I am content to cheer for the soundest, classiest, most dignified organization in all of professional sports—win or lose.
Pain gone now! Spurs are 2014 NBA Champions! Summer in San Antonio but no Heat in sight.
Planning to write my 2014 review this weekend–check it out if you get a chance!
Reading this blog for a second time and it is a lot more enjoyable now! By the way, that Sean guy is a genius. Happy retirement and Go Spurs Go!
Genius–maybe. Full of himself–definitely!
While I am not the die hard Spurs fan that you are, I did watch the finals playoff. So close-yet so far away. But, I do agree, the Spurs are one classy team.
Awe, how sad you only have one team for which to root and Dallas has four. (You can now tear apart my poor sentence structure and choice of words — LOL.) I was hoping the Spurs would win, too! I can’t stand the Cowboys, barely care about the Mavs but must say I have a soft spot for the Rangers and the Stars. But your one, humble team is much loved.
Yep-tee-shirt goes back into the drawer until next year, but then…look out…Go Spurs!