Phoenix: Where Crybabies Happen

I like it when people complain about the Spurs. They call the team dirty and cheap and obnoxious. They complain that the team is boring. The make cute videos like this:



There is some merit to all of the qualms. Manu flops. Bowen puts his hands all over the place. No team yells at the refs more.

But that is not why they win games and series and championships. They win because they are a better team. A guy like Michael Finley resolves to come off curls and shoot 12-footers endlessly if that's what the other team can't stop. He doesn't freelance or decide he's going for his or whatever else. Brent Barry seems to feel good about only being asked to hack Shaq. Manu and Duncan and Parker execute the shit out of simple plays like pick-and-rolls. They are just so well assembled, so rhythmic (in their own way), and so focused. I am not going to launch into a lengthy praise of the Spurs because it's all been said before. But it remains a marvel to behold, and the proficiency with which they operate almost comes to mock the desperate insults hurled by losers (i.e., everyone else in the Lig) and their fans. And this comes from someone who doesn't root for the Spurs beyond enjoying how well they play together.

So moan away, Suns fans. Continue to curse the day that Robert Horry did or didn't do something that sneaky-in-his-own-way Steve Nash does all the time. Tell yourselves that it will all be better in Phoenix, or that Game 2 was only Game 2 because the Suns weren't hitting their shots. Whatever you need to say to neglect the fact that as each day goes by, Shaq and Nash get a little older, the team still can't defend a pick-and-roll, and that window closes more and more.

I will continue to enjoy what the Spurs do.

UPDATE: Suns fans like to cry about being depicted as lachrymose. That's so meta!