I must admit: I didn’t pay much attention to the NBA for a long time. I tend to zone out in the summer regardless. When the lockout news started heating up and the potential existed for an entire season to be lost, I completely shut it out and tuned out the noise. It’s not that I didn’t care. But secretly, part of me was excited to maybe miss the season. My life as a musician was heating up, and I was enjoying not obsessing over every little detail of the NBA or the Spurs. I thought about all the things I might be able to accomplish with an entire Winter and Spring to myself.
And then the lockout was magically and quite stunningly resolved. And the season was upon us. Having already missed the beginning of the season and my usual habits of reintroduction, I was a bit flummoxed. I felt lost, adrift in the NBA world, with seemingly no time to catch up.
Slowly I started reading about the Spurs again. I remembered we had traded George Hill for Kawhi Leonard…and that I needed to learn how to spell “Kawhi”. I remembered James Anderson’s early season promise from last year, and how excited I was to see him in his second season. And Tiago Splitter’s late season promise, and how excited I was for that.
I still didn’t know just how enthusiastic I was going to get. And with the season starting on Christmas Day, and my travel plans taking me on vacation from Christmas through the first week of January, I didn’t even know when I would be able to start watching games. Busy with family, I followed the scores on my phone. Wow, we beat Memphis that handily? And the Clippers? Yup, saw that loss in Houston coming. Another big victory against the Jazz? I was reading box scores, game recaps, quotes…suddenly I was further in than I realized.
But last night was the coup de grace: I finally got around to watching the season opener against Memphis. There was Leonard, throwing up wild shot after wild shot, but impressing with defense, hustle, and offensive rebounding; there was Splitter playing some stout interior defens (something we surely could have used the last time we played Memphis); there was Parker, zipping in and out of every little nook and cranny; there was Richard Jefferson, suddenly looking like a competent and important player (good thing we didn’t amnesty him…at least that’s the story for the time being); there was Duncan, our rock; and there was Manu, doing Manu things, and reinvigorating my love of basketball and the Spurs.
And like that, I was back.
So bear with us, Spurs Dynasty readers. We had a long off-season, a shortened training camp, and probably a rocky start to the season. Just like the real NBA. But we’re going to work our way into game shape, and we’re going to ride along on another great Spurs season.
Go Spurs Go.
