Faith in a Resurrection

Editor's Note: To inaugurate the launch of Black & Silver: theSanAntonioSpurs blog presented by theLeftAhead, I am posting an article that I wrote during the first round of the 2011 NBA playoffs when the Spurs were trailing the Memphis Grizzlies 3 games to 1. Luckily, this year the Spurs are off to a better start! They are leading the Utah Jazz 1 game to 0 after defeating them in the playoff opener last Sunday. Stay tuned to Black & Silver throughout the Spurs' playoff run as I will be regularly posting Spurs related content with theLeftAhead flavor that you have come to expect. Also, we will tag all San Antonio Spurs posts on theLeftAhead which predate this Black & Silver blog series launch so that they also appear on the feed. Enjoy.

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Faith in a Resurrection: True Spurs Fans Will Celebrate Easter Next Sunday

...and the national sports media, the heretics, and the faithless will gawk in disbelief as they stumble upon an empty tomb.Today the San Antonio Spurs were buried. Headlines across the country spoke of the end of a dynasty and compared the Spurs to sports heroes such as Muhammed Ali and Willie Mays stumbling in the twilight of their careers. Radio commentators, having already advanced the Memphis Grizzlies to the second round, speculated on how far they can go in the playoffs. Critic after critic lined up to get a turn to throw dirt on the grave of a once proud champion. Generic hacks chuckled at their extraordinary gravitas as they bemused the symbolism of Tim Duncan's poor performance on his 35th birthday as the tour de force of their pathetic attempts to creatively contextualize the demise of the Spurs. A committee was formed, invitations were sent out via the airwaves and the AP wire, and a bandwagon that stretches from Beale Street to the TNT Studios in Atlanta was boarded by all.

The Memphis Grizzlies, with one spectacular half of basketball, have turned an evenly played playoff series into a funeral procession. Zach Randolph is quite the magician. He sure does have a lot of tricks. First he disguises his slightly above average career as an NBA journeyman in the cloak of the most dominant post player in the NBA playoffs since well, the 2007 version of Tim Duncan. Then he magically transforms a lucky shot to appear to the masses as the work of a seasoned NBA three point marksman. Now, apparently, Zach Randolph has mastered the greatest trick of all; the ability to travel back in time. It seems that Zach has magically transported his team and the rest of the country back to 2002. Back then, the first round of the NBA playoffs was only a five game series. A team needed only win three games to advance. Judging by today’s reaction of the Spurs inability to win either Game 3 or Game 4, such is the case once again in 2011. Smoke and mirrors can only take a player, a franchise, and a city so far. Memphis has won the first three playoff games in franchise history. Great, congratulations. Tomorrow night they will get their first true test of what the NBA playoffs are all about.

Winning their fourth playoff game in franchise history and eliminating the four time champion Spurs in the process will not be easy. Just ask the 2008 New Orleans Hornets. In the second round of that year's playoffs the similarly inexperienced Hornets blew out the Spurs in New Orleans three times before succumbing to the pressure of closing them out by losing Game 6 in San Antonio and Game 7 in New Orleans. The Spurs will dig deep tomorrow night in San Antonio and tap into their pride and anger to find the energy to win Game 5 against Memphis. Should the series extend back to San Antonio for Game 7, the Spurs will be heavily favored to take the advantage of the frenzied home crowd that they worked all season to earn and eliminate Memphis. That puts an awful lot of pressure on the Memphis Grizzlies to close out the Spurs in Game 6 on their home court. And considering that they will be working to achieve something that the national media has already convinced America they have already achieved, it is quite possible that those free flowing jump shots might have tightened up a little bit by Friday night.

Do the Spurs need to play better? There is no question that they do. And true Spurs fans have no doubt that they will. True Spurs fans have faith that the champions that have delivered in these situations for years and years are not going to start lying down now. Most of the Grizzlies' confidence-building runs in this series have been a direct result of uncharacteristic unforced Spurs turnovers. These careless mistakes have prevented the Spurs from delivering to Memphis thus far the only thing the Spurs need to deliver in order to break the Grizzlies and win the series. One overpowering and suffocating six minute stretch of well executed Spurs playoff basketball. It will only take one of these six minutes stretches and the Memphis Grizzlies will fold up their tents, put back on their "happy to be here" eighth seed hats and go away. Had the Spurs been healthy for Game One and already delivered such a blitz, this series would already be over and the Spurs would be game planning the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Grizzlies have still not yet beaten a healthy Spurs team in San Antonio this season and the Memphis Grizzlies have never closed out a playoff opponent. The Spurs have won countless pressure filled playoff Game 6's on the road. Memphis is riding high on being the national media darlings and the sheik new in playoff pick. They have played well thus far in the series and earned their two game advantage. Tomorrow night with one thunderous Manu Ginobili dunk a new wrinkle will enter into their playoff experience; doubt. It will be subtle, but everything will begin to change. One by one the jump shots they have been hitting all series will begin to rattle out and the foul calls they have relied on to fend off the Spurs in close games won't be made by the referees any more. Before they know it, the Grizzlies will be staring down a Game 6 fourth quarter deficit on Friday night and Zach Randolph will reach into his bag of tricks and realize there is nothing left.

Next Sunday, the Memphis Grizzlies bandwagon will come to a screeching halt in San Antonio. The gathered masses who yesterday booked their easy ticket to lay the Spurs dynasty to rest will instead discover an empty tomb and quickly repent as they bear witness to a resurrection. The first ones off the wagon will be the national media, they will scramble to quickly replace the words "old" and "done" with "experienced" and "savvy" so they can dust off their tired, clique stories about how you never count out the heart of a champion. Next off the wagon will be the heretics. They are the Spurs fans who have allowed a little adversity to shake their faith in the team. As of yesterday, they have written off this team. As we speak, they are complaining about the refs, or the coaching, or the lack of fight in the players and quietly shopping for a new team to cheer for throughout the rest of the playoffs. Next Sunday, they will be beating their chests loudly and telling anyone who will listen how they knew all along that the Spurs would prevail. Deep down in their hearts they will know that their testament is false but we'll welcome them back anyway.

Last off the wagon will be the faithless. These are the apostates. The people who stopped believing in the Spurs in 2009. The fans and analysts who said then that the Spurs were no longer a championship contender. The people who have whole heartedly given up on the notion that another river parade will come to fruition in the Tim Duncan era. They have dismissed this team and their exceptional record all year long but next Sunday they might begin to have their faith restored. We will welcome them back as well. As for the true Spurs fans, the one's who have never stopped believing, we will quietly and reflectively enjoy Easter next Sunday when the San Antonio Spurs eliminate the Memphis Grizzlies from the NBA playoffs. Tonight as the rest of the basketball world laughs, we remain steadfast in our faith that sometime this June our beloved Spurs will be NBA champions once again.

Written April 2011 in San Antonio, TX

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Featured & Headline Image Source: United Church of God

Message to Spurs Sports & Entertainment L.L.C. Chairman Peter Holt

Mr. Holt:

I am a life-long supporter of the San Antonio Spurs and have been a frequent attender of Spurs games at each the AT&T Center, the Alamodome, and Hemisfair Arena. One way or another, I try desperately to never miss a game. I have been in attendance at many wonderful moments in Spurs history, but I experience the vast majority of the team’s games through the organization’s media outlets on television and radio. While I would like to watch every game on television, because of various professional and social commitments I often find myself listening to the radio broadcast on WOAI 1200 AM (a Clear Channel radio station). Even though I thoroughly enjoy the broadcast performance of Bill Schoening and believe the coverage of the games is second to none, I have long had a crisis of conscience reconciling the association between Spurs Sports & Entertainment L.L.C. and WOAI 1200.

While I understand the value of broadcasting the Spurs games on WOAI’s 50,000-watt signal (I’m always glad that I can receive a decent signal while traveling hundreds of miles away from San Antonio), I have long been disheartened to purposely contribute to the financial success of WOAI 1200. The reason for this is that I am morally opposed to the views and opinions that are disseminated during the station’s daytime programming. It has long been my belief that much of the rhetoric disseminated on The Glenn Beck Program, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Sean Hannity Show, and The Joe Pags Show is reckless and destructive. I find the misinformation propagated by these talk show personalities on a daily basis poisonous to the public discourse in our community. In particular, I find the utter lack of respect for President Barack Obama reprehensible. I believe that this rhetoric is clearly endorsed by WOAI 1200 because they continue to broadcast and market it as part of their programming. Furthermore, I believe that this rhetoric is also endorsed by Spurs Sports & Entertainment because your company indirectly associates with it by also broadcasting on WOAI 1200. At the very least, for many who do not agree with this rhetoric, this association with WOAI 1200 puts a black eye on an otherwise stellar reputation that the Spurs organization has worked extremely hard to cultivate in our community. For many years, I was willing to overlook my dissatisfaction with this association and continue to listen to Spurs broadcasts on the station because I tried to compartmentalize my disgust with the daytime programming and my passion for the San Antonio Spurs.

However, because of comments made last week on the Rush Limbaugh Show, I can no longer continue to reconcile listening to Spurs programming on WOAI 1200 with my personal moral opposition to contributing to the station’s financial success. I’m sure you are well aware of the comments that Mr. Limbaugh made on your team’s flagship station last week directed at Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke. In my opinion, these comments crossed the line of reckless political rhetoric into the realm of poisonous hatred that has no place on the public airwaves. I find these comments offensive and I am extremely frustrated that I have indirectly supported their dissemination by supporting your company’s relationship with the station that broadcast them in our community. You should be concerned that Spurs fans are making a direct connection between the values that Mr. Limbaugh promotes and the values that Spurs Sports & Entertainment promotes.

I’m urging you to take one of the following actions in the coming weeks in order to send a clear signal to Spurs fans that Spurs Sports & Entertainment does not endorse the values promoted last week by Mr. Limbaugh.

1. Announce the termination of your company’s relationship with WOAI 1200, effective immediately following the end of your current contract with them.

2. Announce that any future contract between Spurs Sports & Entertainment and WOAI 1200 will be contingent upon WOAI 1200 first ending its relationship with The Rush Limbaugh Show.

3. Follow the lead of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and announce that you are pulling all Spurs Sports & Entertainment advertisements from the airwaves of WOAI 1200 while The Rush Limbaugh program is on the air.

Until Spurs Sports & Entertainment makes a statement repudiating Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, I will assume that the company shares those values. Until your company makes a decision that clearly establishes a distinct separation between Spurs broadcasts and The Rush Limbaugh Show, I will not listen to another radio broadcast of the Spurs on WOAI 1200. I believe that you can find precedent for taking swift action by the stellar example provided by one of your employees. In 2007, Greg Popovich swiftly cancelled his appearances on the Ticket 760 after personalities on that station made offensive comments about Denver Nuggets players Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony. Popovich clearly understood that he did not want his name associated with values that were in conflict with his organization’s hard earned reputation in the community and across the country. The work that the Spurs organization does to uplift our community is commendable. Why risk tainting that legacy by continuing to associate with values that a great portion of our community find irreconcilable with our own? Being a San Antonio Spurs fan should not be a political issue. I greatly appreciate your careful consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Ted James

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Featured Image Source: Manolith

Spurs Deal George Hill to the Pacers

The San Antonio Spurs have tradeed 6th man George Hill to the Indiana Pacers for the draft rights to 6-7 San Diego State forward Kawhi Leonard, 6-10 Latvian forward Davis Bertans, and 2005 second round pick Erazem Lorbek, a 6-10 center playing in Spain. Leonard the cornerstone of the Spurs end of the deal is an athletic, tough-minded small forward who can play lockdown defense and rebound. Perimeter defense and rebounding were both areas that the Spurs needed to improve upon coming out of this year's embarassing first round playoff elimination to the Memphis Grizzlies. However, George Hill has been a fan favorite in San Antonio. He had been a solid contributor at both the point guard and shooting guard for the Spurs and is a good defensive player in his own right. Hill still has so much potential improvement and upside to his game, I would not be surprised if he develops into an all-star caliber player in Indiana where he will most likely be a full-time starter. During the 2009-10 season, George was dubbed by Spurs Coach Greg Popovich, "My favorite player." While I generally keep faith in the decision-making ability of Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford, this trade is a pretty tough pill to swallow. Leonard is going to have to bring some nasty athleticism, have a nose for the ball off the glass, and channel the second coming of Bruce Bowen on defense to make me forget about George Hill anytime in the near future.  The one saving grace to losing George is that he is returning to Indiana, his home state where he played both his high school and college ball. So where does the rest of theLeftAhead Spurs Nation come out on the trade? Was this a good move?

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Headline Image Source: Pounding the Rock

Tim Duncan Is Still Setting the Bar

Evaluating the Greatest NBA Players in the Post-Jordan Era - With the news last week of Shaquille O'Neal's retirement from the Boston Celtics and in the mist of an entertaining NBA Finals, I thought this would be an appropriate time to open up a debate here at theLeftAhead about the best NBA player in the post-Michael Jordan era. I don't mean since 2003, when Jordan limped off of the court as a Washington Wizard. I mean the true Post-Jordan era, since his retirement from the Chicago Bulls in 1998.

As we speak, Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James are doing battle trying to seize an opportunity to erase their names from the list of best NBA players to never win a championship. But the question at hand is who has been the greatest player in the NBA since 1998. For the purpose of being thorough, I will open up the debate by ranking every player worthy of consideration from this era. Needless to say there are only three players on this list that someone could make a legitimate argument for being the greatest. They are, in no particular order, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan. So please, do not come at us here in the comments and make an argument that any player besides these three is the greatest of the era because we will be forced to put you in the penalty box for two weeks.

Let me begin by saying that my list is not subjective. It is based on a simple mathematical formula for determining NBA greatness. For the sake of keeping things entertaining, I will unveil my list first and then present the mathematical formula that determined it afterward. Let the blood boiling begin.

Greatest NBA Players in the Post-Jordan Era

18th - Jason Kidd
17th - Derrick Rose
16th - Allen Iverson
15th - Dirk Nowitzki
14th - Ray Allen
13th - Steve Nash
12th - LeBron James
11th - Kevin Garnett
10th - Pau Gasol
9th - David Robinson
8th - Chauncey Billups
7th - Paul Pierce
6th - Dwyane Wade
5th - Manu Ginobili
4th - Tony Parker
3rd - Kobe Bryant
2nd - Shaquille O'Neal
1st - Tim Duncan

Before you start typing your profanity laced responses about me being an idiot, let me lay out a couple of clarifications. First, this is a ranking of the "greatest" players of the era, not necessarily a ranking of the "best" players of the era. Obviously, a ranking of the "best" players of the era would have LeBron James much higher than Tony Parker, for example. I define greatness by winning championships and so my mathematical formula is heavily weighted towards players who have won rings. Secondly, whether my formula skews Chauncey Billups ahead of Dirk Nowitzki, for example, is irrelevant to the task at hand. As I stated before, there are really only three players in the conversation and I think that my formula gives a good perspective on how to determine between the true great players of the era. Consequently, I will show later that my formula puts Michael Jordan vastly ahead of all three great players from this era which should add some levity to the debate and perhaps muffle those of you who are foolish enough to argue Bryant is better than Jordan. So without further ado, let me present my mathematical formula for determining NBA greatness.

The complexity of this formula wll shock you.

1 point for each NBA MVP award won (regular season)
2 points for each NBA Championship won
2 points for each NBA Finals MVP won

According to the formula:

18th - Jason Kidd = 0 points (I put Kidd on the list because he was the only player I could think of in the era that should be on the list of greatest players but has not earned any points according to the formula. Perhaps that will change in the next week.)

17th - Derrick Rose = 1 point (2011 NBA MVP)

16th - Allen Iverson = 1 point (2001 NBA MVP)

15th - Dirk Nowitzki = 1 point (2007 NBA MVP)

14th - Ray Allen = 2 points (2008 NBA Champion)

13th - Steve Nash = 2 points (2005, 2006 NBA MVP)

12th - LeBron James = 2 points (2009, 2010 NBA MVP)

11th - Kevin Garnett = 3 points (2004 NBA MVP / 2008 NBA Champion)

10th - Pau Gasol = 4 points (2009, 2010 NBA Champion)

9th - David Robinson = 4 points (1999, 2003 NBA Champion - I put Robinson on the list for work done in the post-Jordan era, his career point total under this formula is actually 5 [1995 NBA MVP])

8th - Chauncey Billups = 4 points (2004 NBA Champion / 2004 NBA Finals MVP)

7th - Paul Pierce = 4 points (2008 NBA Champion / 2008 NBA Finals MVP)

6th - Dwyane Wade = 4 points (2006 NBA Champion / 2006 NBA Finals MVP)

5th - Manu Ginobili = 6 points (2003, 2005, 2007 NBA Champion)

4th - Tony Parker = 8 points (2003, 2005, 2007 NBA Champion / 2007 NBA Finals MVP)

3rd - Kobe Bryant = 15 points (2008 NBA MVP / 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010 NBA Champion / 2009, 2010 NBA Finals MVP)

2nd - Shaquille O'Neal = 15 points (2000 NBA MVP / 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 NBA Champion / 2000, 2001, 2002 NBA Finals MVP)

1st - Tim Duncan = 16 points (2002, 2003 NBA MVP / 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 NBA Champion / 1999, 2003, 2005 NBA Finals MVP)

Here are a couple more notes about my ranking system. First, I did not include ranking role players, so that is why Derrick Fischer, Bruce Bowen, Robert Horry, Lamar Odom, ect. are not on the list. Every championship team of the era (with the exception of the 2004 Detroit Pistons) has had either two or three "great" players, so those are the players I ranked. Secondly, players with tie scores I made subjective determinations about their resumes to decide who I ranked higher. For example, in my opinion Shaq is second and Kobe is third because Shaq was the dominant player for three championships and a side kick on only one whereas Kobe was the dominant player on only two championships and the sidekick on three.

You could argue that Shaq should be tied with Tim Duncan in first place based on the point system because he was robbed of the 2005 NBA MVP which was given to Steve Nash. I would respond that you could make the same argument to give Tim Duncan two more points for the 2007 NBA Finals. Duncan was still the dominant player for the Spurs in 2007 and the only reason Tony Parker won the NBA Finals MVP trophy is because Cleveland did not put up a fight and got swept.

The bottom line is that Tim Duncan has been the dominant player in winning four titles, Shaq has been the dominant player in winning three (Dwyane Wade was in 2006) and Kobe has only been the dominant player in winning two (Shaq was in 2000, 2001, 2002). This is why Tim Duncan is still setting the bar for greatness in the post-Jordan era and the formula bares it out.

By the way, for that perspective I alluded to earlier. Shaq is now retired with his 15 points under this formula.Tim and Kobe have a long way to go to try and get in the Michael Jordan conversation of greatness. Here is an evaluation of Michael Jordan based on this formula.

Michael Jordan = 29 points (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998 NBA MVP / 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998 NBA Champion / 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998 NBA Finals MVP)

Hence, the phrase the post-Jordan era.

Let the official theLeftAhead debate begin.

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