I’m Rooting for the Bad Guy?
I cannot believe it. With a never-ending contingent of truly good guys, I have had the benefit of rooting for a team i loved and a bunch of people I truly liked. How could anyone ever say a negative thing about Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Avery Johnson, Terry Porter, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, or any of the other big names the Spurs have had over the past 12 years. Sure we had our brief stints with sordid characters, Rod Strickland was a mess as a Spur, David Wingate actually had criminal charges brought against him while he was a Spur, but after the Dennis Rodman debacle, the Spurs made the decision to avoid any and all questionable characters. Even when Stephen Jackson was in San Antonio, he was a model citizen. He could drive us bonkers with some of his pouting, but he was fearless on the court. During his tenure with the Spurs, there was not a chirp about any off-the-cour issues. Keep in mind, the Spurs worked out at Incarnate Word and then my school, Trinity University, so I had more than enough time to see these guys in action. Other than parking illegally outside of the gym, which we all did anyway, there were no transgressions whatsoever. We even had the opportunity to talk to these guys in the weightroom, in the training room, and in the gym. Steve Smith was incredibly nice, and my roommate Caz actually had a 45-minute conversation with Avery Johnson after one of our football practices. Caz loved him, and he was a Rocket fan. These guys were and are truly nice guys.
But now, in light of the Phoenix series, I apparently root for the new bad guys of the league. Can it be possible that people hate the Spurs for rattling off fundamentally solid 60+ win seasons? I have heard detractors before, but that was all because the Spurs were boring and never ran. This team can get up and down the court with the best of them. Now, though, the Spurs are a dirty, physical team. Ha. I laugh at such nonsense.
I can only hope that the Spurs will finish this series tonight, so the world will have an opportunity to watch a truly physical series between the Spurs and the Jazz. The Jazz are coached by one of the toughest men in the league, and they play the most physical brand of basketball in the NBA. That will be exciting to watch. I’m sure the frontrunner fans (you know those guys who put their Laker and Maverick jerseys in the attic and purchased a Suns and Warriors jersey after round 1) won’t enjoy the series as much, but I think it will be awesome to watch.
