I LOVED THIS GAME


maybe my nba heart still beats.

Though they're losing late in Game 4 as I write this -- and though my decision to write this will almost certainly curse them and ensure their defeat -- I must admit that I am, for the first time in many years, rediscovering a little of the old joy and rekindling a little of the old passion for watching NBA basketball, thanks to the San Antonio Spurs and their delicious, delirious combination of sudden flash and solid fundamentals. They shoot. They pass. They play defense. They always seem to remember that there are always five guys on the court, and that there are seven more on the bench who can contribute at any time. They pick. They roll. They box-out (at least occasionally).

They actually play the game. The game I used to love.

It's been a true pleasure -- and a bit of a blast from the past of a once-great league -- these last two weeks, tuning in to see Tim Duncan turn and pivot and pass and shoot, to play with cool remove and calm precision, to move and work without the ball, to set great picks, to sweat and hustle on both ends of the court; to see Tony Parker, one of the quickest, fastest guys I've ever seen on the court, run and rush and dance and dart and dash and cut, then stop, bob, weave, hesitate, and reverse field, all in a flurry so fast you'd swear you missed a couple of frames of the video feed; to watch Manu Ginobili whirl and swirl and twirl like some Argentian Tasmanian devil, throwing hair and caution and wild, reckless abandon to the winds of the lane and the baseline, flipping, flopping, flying his way from end to end, side to side, ground to air and back again, and always, somehow, almost miraculously at times, managing to make the play; to watch Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry and Brent Barry and Nazr Muhammed know and play their roles to perfection, content to be the men who work and toil and hope and hustle on the margins of the play-by-play glory, doing more than they're asked to do when most of the rest of the players in the league seem perfectly willing to do less than they have to do.

I will root deeply and passionately for this team, this collection of game-players and hard-workers and non-showboaters, the rest of the way. I want them to win for themselves, for the future of the NBA, and for the spirit of the game and the league I carry somewhere in my longing heart.

Posted: Mon - May 30, 2005 at 11:02 PM          

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