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basketball revolution
When Adam Silver presented the Larry O’Brien trophy, his first as NBA president, on the night of the Spurs’ championship, he told the Spurs team, “You showed the world how wonderful basketball is.
Head coach Tubby Smith, then in his second year at Texas Tech, was holding a youth basketball camp in Lubbock, Texas, during the championship game, and noticed a change in the camp’s participants’ style of play as the week went on. “I think (the Spurs‘ win) will help college and high school coaches, and the Spurs showed how basketball is really played,” he said. He said.
“I think that’s the hope for all of us, to get the ball game back the right way,” Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “It’s a lot more fun to play and coach, and frankly, it’s a lot more fun to watch when you’re playing as a team like the Spurs.
The Spurs don’t really think about it that much, they just want to win.
“If people like the way we play, I think that’s great,” Popovich said. Popovich said. “If people think we’re playing well enough to learn from it and use it as a model, that’s great, too. We just do what we can to be good and play good ball.”
Warriors general manager Bob Myers just hired former Spurs guard Steve Kerr as his new coach on the eve of the 2014 championship game, and he watched the Spurs‘ “point five” style of play and will to beat James and the Heat. When you defend a system like this, you feel helpless, just helpless,” Myers said. After five passes, you have to throw up your hands in surrender because your defense has rotated seven times, and that way it can be very discouraging for the defending team.
James, who was denied a three-peat by the Spurs, had nothing but respect for the Spurs: “They move, they cut, they pass… they do everything for the team, not for the individual. Everything they do is for the team, not for the individual, that’s their brand of basketball, they show what team basketball is.
THE END
For Popovich, while he admits it feels great to see all the new records in the Spurs championship game, he cares more about seeing Duncan reduce the number on the break room chalkboard to zero.
“The championship battles are always great,” Popovich said. Popovich said. “But because of the situation we’re in, watching these guys persevere all year and finally get another chance, that’s the most satisfying for me, the most satisfying of my career, whether it’s as a player or a coach, this is the most satisfying.
“Nothing compares.”
The Spurs blew out the Heat, making James choose to return to his hometown and leading to the end of the Heat’s four-year heyday. In contrast, Heat president Pat Riley believes the Spurs’ comeback is a rare story: “They found nirvana in the face of adversity, which doesn’t happen very often, and when you go through a loss like that in 2013, it usually destroys a team and takes a different path, especially considering their age. They played three of the greatest games of all time, and they did it, and it takes that kind of adversity with great players, and most importantly, maturity, and they have a group of experienced players who have been in the league long enough to take the game to another level, and they just did it.
With the Heat disintegrating, it seemed like the good old Spurs basketball could continue, but what Popovich calls Summertime was also fleeting. In 2014-15, the reigning Spurs, plagued by injuries, lost an epic seventh game in the first round of the playoffs to the Swiftboats.
Ginobili was asked earlier about his great performance in 2014, and he regrettably admitted that it will probably never be replicated. “If you keep comparing yourself to those last three games last year, you’ll never be happy,” Ginobili said. Ginobili said. “That’s not doable, it’s frustrating, and I’m not going to compare it. Because that was probably the best basketball performance of all time and nothing compares.” Hall of Fame forward Larry Bird agreed with the Argentine, saying Bird believes the Spurs’ 2014 performance was the best ever and can’t be duplicated. “I know Popovich doesn’t want to say too much, but he was absolutely thrilled to death (for those three games), and I’m pretty sure their whole team said, ‘God, we can’t top that.
Yet while it can’t be surpassed, it can be replicated. “Everyone in the NBA who has seen San Antonio play has decided they want to play that way, too,” Then-Sun general manager Ryan McDonough said. “It’s a league that copies each other, and it’s a good strategy: extra passes, offensive and defensive switches, and making threes before the other team’s defense falls in line.
San Antonio’s 2014, the Spurs‘ summer moment, didn’t carry over, but the impact on the league continues: teamwork, high blocking, three-point firepower, each in their own way.
“It’s the best basketball I’ve ever seen in my life. Colin Stanton, the Youtube clip of “The Beautiful Game,” said of the 2014 Spurs. “They’re more like an elite European soccer club than an NBA team.
Open that more than 6 minutes of the film, you can still hear the sound at the beginning, is the magic Johnson interview a few years ago.
“For years, we’ve been marketing personal performance.
“Wow, LeBron, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, but the one thing we left out that’s really unique and special is the ‘team.
The 2014 Spurs, deservedly so.
