I am Not a NBA Fan, And The Only Time I Will Watch A Game on TV is When San Antonio is Playing

I am not a big N….ot B….Basketball….Anymore Fan, and the only team that I will watch is the San Antonio Spurs and that is because of something Hubie Brown once told me when I was with him at a Basketball Clinic at Eastern Maine Technical College back when Michael Jordan had left the Bulls to go play baseball.

I asked him with Jordan gone which team would win the NBA Championship the very next season.

He replied”, the Team Whose Best Player is the Best Human Being of the Best Players on each team in the League. I asked, “who is that”? He said Akeem Oalugwon of the Houston Rockets.

Hubie was right in his prediction as the Rockets won 2 straight NBA Crowns until Jordan came back.

I always remeber his statement and using that as a reference point I have always rooted for the team who I thought best player was the best human being of the best players on each team.

Ever since Tim Duncan came into the NBA 14 years ago I have always rooted for the San Antonio Spurs, because in my mind he is a better human being then a basketball player and the best human being of the best players on each team in the NBA.

Also, the Spurs owner runs his team on the philodsophy that has high standards for all of its players. They are and have been very fussy about who they draft and who they trade for and who they sign as free agents. They have very high ethical and behavorial standards. If they make a mistake on a player in that regard then they will “them like a hot potato”.

The owner hired Greg “Pop” Popovich as the head coach because he believed in the same philosophy as the owner.

The Spurs do not have the best athletes in the league but they have the best Human Beings starting with their best player Tim Duncan along with Chris Parker and Manu Ginobili have been the solid foundation of a very successful NBA franchise that has won 4 NBA championships.

Playing in the tough Western Conference they have been saddled with injuries come playoff time the past few years.

However. this season they are right there with the Chicago Bulls for the best record in the strike shortened NBA season and are currently on a 7 game win streak,

The Bulls are 46-16 and the Spurs are 47-16 as this is the last week of the regular season.

Let’s look at why the spurs are having such a great season. First of all, and cross my fingers, they have been relatively injury free for the first season in a long time.

They are averaging 103 points per game, shooting 47% from the floor, 39% from 3 point land, 75% from the foul line and are averagingn 22.9 assists per game to 13 turnovers per game.

Duncan leads the way with 18 points a game and Parker is averaging 15 and Ginobili is averaging 13. They have 5 players scoring 9 points a gamne, 2 scoring 8 a game, 1 7 a game and 1 6 a game, very good balance for these9 players.

When you read down the list of the other names on this scoring list such as Jefferson, Bonner, etc. they have very good basketball players playing basketball, just as their big three are very good basketball players playing basketball, They are not a team made up of athletes playing basketball.

There are no headcases seeking attention and the limelight on this roster, their are no poor role models and no selfish I first players. The owner has made sure of this by hiring Popovich, drafting Duncan, Parker and Ginoboli and picking up other good solid human beings and basketball players.

When players come to the Spurs there are high expectations that the player will be a team oriented and good human being of high character.

Here’s hoping San Antonio can stay injury free and also the fact that the season is shortened by 15 games should help those old legs of Duncan to be fresh for the playoffs.

With 8 teams making the playoffs in each division this makes for 4 rounds of best of 7 which means there could be anywhere from 16 to 28 games played to win the NBA Title this year.

I wll be watching and cheering on the San Antonio Spurs. This franchise is a role model for what every other NBA franchise should do if they really wanted to be a role model.

It is just to bad that none measure up as it is all about the MONEY first, winning second, and anything else third.

Thank goodness there is one franchise that gets it and we can thank the owner, Greg Popvich and Tim Duncan for that.