Well, just when we thought San Antonio's window had closed
Okay, let's not kid ourselves. Let's not even say, "Knock. Knock. Who's there?" and pretend it's the Spurs. They are not championship contenders, except that they kind of are. The joke is cliche. The story is old, but we can't stop telling it.
In my parents' neighborhood, there's this man who drives around in a pick up truck older than I am. He drives at about 5 mph, peering, maybe even glaring, out his rolled down passenger window, a window that still has to be cranked Model-T style. Then he stops his truck at the top of the driveway, and he saunters down the steep cement incline and knocks on the door. The first time I looked into his face I was in middle school, and his face said to me, "Your parents home, son? 'Cause they got some dead trees I remove for 'em at the right price." His face looked as rough and worn as the dead trees he wanted to remove, and my parents were rarely home when he came by the house. He stopped by about three times within the next week. My parents weren't home for any of his visits, and I'm positive he thought I was lying to him. Eventually, he just left his card, which appeared like he'd just written his phone number on the back of a cigarette carton. I gave the number to my parents. I'm not sure if they ever called it, but I do know that there are less dead trees on the property.
So what does this story have to do with the San Antonio Spurs and yesterday's game with the Lakers? I'm not entirely sure. Yesterday, on Easter, the Spurs looked like they walked out of the tomb that the basketball world buried them in months ago, only this resurrection began earlier than Holy Week. Since March 1st, the Spurs are 14-5, with wins against Orlando, OK City, Cleveland, Boston, and now LA. Tony Parker is still out, which means that the elder statesman of San Antonio's big three powered this surge. Manu Ginobili, like a Biblical cripple, appears to have been lowered into the crowded house and touched with the powers of rejuvenation. Duncan, meanwhile, continues to lay down stat lines that read like familiar jokes. We see the punch lines coming, yet, somehow, he still gets the numbers to laugh. On Sunday, these two combined for 56 points, 16 rebounds, and 9 assists, and Manu baited Ron Artest into silly technicals, uttering afterwards, "he got into me, so I got into him."
Now, I don't know if my parents called the grizzled tree removal guy, removed the dead wood, and let life continue, or if the old trees somehow came back to life; but, somehow, someway, every tree in their yard is green. And the old man still comes by the house, looking more impoverished than ever, knocks on the door, and asks about the dead trees; and, as long as he comes by, that door remains open, begging the question: "what has gotten into these Spurs?"
Links of interest:
Game Recap
JA Adande's Thoughts on the Game
LA Lakers' Perspective
A breakdown of LA's Horrible 4th Quarter
The Basketball Jones
This post originally appeared at The Faster Times on April 5, 2010.
Okay, let's not kid ourselves. Let's not even say, "Knock. Knock. Who's there?" and pretend it's the Spurs. They are not championship contenders, except that they kind of are. The joke is cliche. The story is old, but we can't stop telling it.
In my parents' neighborhood, there's this man who drives around in a pick up truck older than I am. He drives at about 5 mph, peering, maybe even glaring, out his rolled down passenger window, a window that still has to be cranked Model-T style. Then he stops his truck at the top of the driveway, and he saunters down the steep cement incline and knocks on the door. The first time I looked into his face I was in middle school, and his face said to me, "Your parents home, son? 'Cause they got some dead trees I remove for 'em at the right price." His face looked as rough and worn as the dead trees he wanted to remove, and my parents were rarely home when he came by the house. He stopped by about three times within the next week. My parents weren't home for any of his visits, and I'm positive he thought I was lying to him. Eventually, he just left his card, which appeared like he'd just written his phone number on the back of a cigarette carton. I gave the number to my parents. I'm not sure if they ever called it, but I do know that there are less dead trees on the property.So what does this story have to do with the San Antonio Spurs and yesterday's game with the Lakers? I'm not entirely sure. Yesterday, on Easter, the Spurs looked like they walked out of the tomb that the basketball world buried them in months ago, only this resurrection began earlier than Holy Week. Since March 1st, the Spurs are 14-5, with wins against Orlando, OK City, Cleveland, Boston, and now LA. Tony Parker is still out, which means that the elder statesman of San Antonio's big three powered this surge. Manu Ginobili, like a Biblical cripple, appears to have been lowered into the crowded house and touched with the powers of rejuvenation. Duncan, meanwhile, continues to lay down stat lines that read like familiar jokes. We see the punch lines coming, yet, somehow, he still gets the numbers to laugh. On Sunday, these two combined for 56 points, 16 rebounds, and 9 assists, and Manu baited Ron Artest into silly technicals, uttering afterwards, "he got into me, so I got into him."
Now, I don't know if my parents called the grizzled tree removal guy, removed the dead wood, and let life continue, or if the old trees somehow came back to life; but, somehow, someway, every tree in their yard is green. And the old man still comes by the house, looking more impoverished than ever, knocks on the door, and asks about the dead trees; and, as long as he comes by, that door remains open, begging the question: "what has gotten into these Spurs?"
Links of interest:
Game Recap
JA Adande's Thoughts on the Game
LA Lakers' Perspective
A breakdown of LA's Horrible 4th Quarter
The Basketball Jones
This post originally appeared at The Faster Times on April 5, 2010.
0 comments:
Post a Comment