Regardless of how many more years Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan continue their careers, it’s hard to imagine the latest of their five championships together not being the most satisfying.
The Spurs were broken, their spirits crushed after last year’s NBA Finals. They had come close and fallen short before, but never like that. No team had. Entering the offseason another year older, it looked like San Antonio’s championship window was finally shutting.
Good run, Popovich. Nice career, Duncan. Both have enough rings to make any player or coach jealous. What’s losing out on one more in the grand scheme of things?
Of course, Popovich, Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and the rest of the organisation didn’t view it quite the same way. But that’s why the Spurs are who they are.
You don’t become one of the most successful franchises in all of sport by settling or accepting the narrative. Instead, San Antonio came back and had their revenge.
How fitting then that the last two teams they had to go through to conquer their demons were the two teams that ended their run in consecutive years.
Oklahoma City were supposed to be a nightmare match-up with their length and athleticism and Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook’s own sense of destiny, but this was a different Spurs team and the Thunder weren’t getting in the way of what San Antonio was hoping for all year – another crack at the Miami Heat.
When they finally got their chance to avenge last year’s result, they broke out their absolute best.
This wasn’t a beat-down of a bad squad. This was the Spurs reaching a transcendent level they could only attain by having all of the motivation in the world.
They took down the league’s best team of the last two years and the best player on the planet in his prime with teamwork, unselfish play, beautiful passing, smart basketball, great coaching, contributions from the supporting cast and an overall desire to reclaim what they felt should have been theirs.
If there ever was a championship run that epitomised the team that won, it was this.
Duncan is the foundation, Parker the motor and Ginobili the spark. But those three often took back seats to the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Boris Diaw and even the most unlikeliest of players, Patty Mills.
This was a true team in every sense of the word, which is why it was so appropriate that the identity of the Finals MVP was still in question until Bill Russell handed over the award to Leonard.
It could have easily been another Spur, that’s how collective an effort it was to reach the pinnacle. Duncan and Popovich have now won titles in three different decades.
When all is said and done and these two legends of basketball ride off into the sunset, the longevity of their success will be up there with the greatest accomplishments in all of team sport.
Heading into the Finals, Duncan didn’t mince his words when he confidently declared: “We’ll do it this time.” It might be the last time for two surefire Hall of Famers, but it certainly will be the sweetest.
