One of many nice joys about being a fan of a crew is sharing the expertise with different followers of your crew. That’s the reason many people put on our crew’s gear round city – a “Go Spurs” greeting from a complete stranger who sees your Spurs hat signifies that the 2 of you’re not whole strangers, a minimum of for that second. And that second can turns into minutes, or extra, if the 2 of you flip that greeting right into a dialog. Most of you studying this reside a lot nearer to San Antonio than I do right here in LA, so my “Go Spurs” encounters are few and much between – and that rather more particular. Final winter I had one on a bus getting back from snowboarding in Park Metropolis with my super-daughter. I additionally nonetheless keep in mind one in Cancun, Mexico the place a man in a #21 Duncan jersey was thrilled to run into somebody who wrote for Pounding the Rock.
That shared connection is why followers collect at one another’s homes, or at outside watch events, or on the residence stadium when the crew is on the highway to look at on the Jumbotron. In fact, better of all is being on the sport itself, even when some contributors within the entrance row spend the sport trying down at their telephones, and even worse, go to sleep of their luxurious suites. If all goes extraordinarily properly, all of the followers of 1 particular crew get to assemble one final time for that season with a victory parade.
Knicks followers had been the fortunate ones who had their victory parade. Apparently, two million followers attended the parade. Two million! There have been extra folks on the Knicks’ victory parade than all the inhabitants of the cities of twenty-five of the NBA’s thirty groups.
Maybe as a result of New York is the media capital of the nation, the media was all-in celebrating the Knicks victory, whether or not on the nationwide nightly information, morning speak reveals, or late night time TV. In fact, that the Knicks had not gained since 1973 mattered too. That was a very long time in the past: The highest track of 1973 was “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Ole Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando and Daybreak. The best-grossing motion pictures had been The Exorcist and The Sting, and the most well-liked TV reveals had been All within the Household and The Waltons. Put one other manner, the automotive I drove in legislation faculty was a used maroon 1974 Chevy Vega.
That automotive had not been constructed the final time the Knicks gained the NBA Championship. Neither that automotive or I attended the Knicks’ victory parade.
I watched the video games at residence with pals, household and meals – all superb, apart from the outcomes of 4 of the 5 video games. However whereas these outcomes, and the general final result, had been very a lot not good, sharing these video games with others introduced the identical sense of camaraderie that sports activities followers like to share. Lengthy-time Laker season-ticket holder Mike jumped on my Spurs bandwagon early, and sat subsequent to me for the video games speaking out what “we” (the Spurs) must do within the subsequent quarter, the subsequent possession of (after a loss) the subsequent sport.
Two ladies who sit close to my workplace at work would say “Go Spurs” as I left early to get residence in time for that night time’s tip-off – and all of us then prevented speaking about Sport 4 till very late within the afternoon the day after. An extended-time good friend known as me close to the top of the sequence to inform me that though his mom and the remainder of his household had been from New York and Knicks followers, he was rooting for my Spurs as a result of he wished me to be glad. That meant quite a bit.
Many post-series conversations with sympathetic pals ended with how brilliant the Spurs’ future is. And whereas all of us acknowledge that the longer term will not be promised to anybody, I do just like the “future is brilliant” mindset. Often called The Lil Ol Band from Texas, ZZ High sings:
Issues are going nice, they usually’re solely getting betterI’m doing all proper, getting good gradesThe future’s so brilliant, I gotta put on shadesI gotta put on shades, I gotta put on shadesI gotta put on shades
Different end-of-season ideas
Some commentators have in contrast the 2025-2026 Knicks to the 2014 Redemption Finals Spurs’ championship. The comparability is predicated on (1) each groups “placing all of it collectively” for a magical 5-game Finals victory and (2) an enormous scoring margin all through the playoffs. From my recap of the Redemption Finals in 2014:
“After successful the NBA Championship Sunday night time, a number of Spurs went out of their option to say that this glorious season, and the way in which they dominated the Finals, made final yr’s loss OK. Basically, final yr’s defeat gave them a typical ache. That widespread ache certain the Spurs collectively in a typical objective. They determined to do every little thing they may to make this season’s ending completely different. Maybe included in that was the will to play so properly that the Spurs wouldn’t lose on the form of freak performs that led to the Sport Six loss final yr – which implies not permitting shut video games. Because of that widespread objective, this yr’s Spurs crushed groups within the playoffs. It takes 16 wins to grow to be NBA Champions. In 12 of the Spurs 16 wins, the margin of victory was 15 or extra. The Spurs basically eradicated the margin of error that results in shut losses. One missed shot, funky bounce or dangerous name (or one Ray Allen step again three from the nook) doesn’t matter as a lot if you end up successful by 20 factors.”
I might like to see the 2026-27 Spurs take that very same perspective. This season, Spurs and their followers actually loved the journey, however the crew simply missed reaching the vacation spot. Subsequent season, the Spurs hope to once more benefit from the journey, after which attain the vacation spot.
Lastly, as is my custom, like “One Shining Second” on the finish of March Insanity, I’ll finish this season with a listing of Favourite Reminiscences. I hope these Favourite Reminiscences will maintain me (and also you) throughout the barren wasteland of the NBA offseason — some from the distant previous, some from the current current. Upon additional reflection, many of those are each Favourite Reminiscences and issues I sit up for seeing once more when NBA play begins anew.
