A Sleepless Night In 200.4

The Spurs recently beat a Lakers team that isn’t even a shadow of what they used to be. In the days before the dynasty was built, the Lakers were always the team to beat. They won three championships in a row following the Spurs’ first title in ’99 as their dominance proved to be stable. San Antonio had its first taste of success the year before Los Angeles was swimming in it.

That’s part of what made the 2003 championship so sweet. We dethroned the Lakers in the second round with a rookie Manu Ginobili and a David Robinson in his final season. This was when Bruce Bowen’s corner 3 was lethal and Tim Duncan could completely take over a game. The veterans were strong and the potential of the team was even stronger.

I was only eight; probably upstairs playing with Legos and slightly annoyed the party below me was so loud. We beat the Lakers so what? Why is everyone so drunk? Well, I would come to understand this growing rivalry was one of the biggest roadblocks to the Spurs’ championships.

The Lakers were the Anti-Spurs. Shaq and Kobe were showman and it was easy to hate them in San Antonio. After the second championship, my parents started watching the games more and I would join them every once in a while. I remember the Spurs v Lakers games became an event. Family friends would come to the house or we would go to their house. I was cool with it because their kids were my friends and we would hang out while the adults screamed at the TV. But when the games were close in the final seconds, we were all together. 

It was just something we had to do—beat the Lakers together. It was a classic battle of good versus evil. If we won there would be peace and a general feeling of celebration, even among my childhood friends. Our parent’s happiness rubbed off on us, and they let us be loud and run around for a while because that’s what they wanted to do. But if we lost there was a lot of cursing, and us kids were usually taking refuge at that point.

Fast forward to round two of the 2004 playoffs. It was game five against the Lakers with the Spurs’ backs against the wall as they had just lost two straight in LA. They were in the exact same position last year and came out on top of the NBA—San Antonio was confident.

It was another tight game and I was watching as Tim Duncan hit a fade away jumper to put the spurs up 73-72 with 0.4 seconds left to play. We won! They couldn’t possibly get up a shot in time! Then Derek Fisher lobbed up a hail mary over Manu that splashed in mid-buzzer. The Lakers ran off the court so it couldn’t be disputed. There was still another game to play, but it felt like we lost everything.

I couldn’t sleep that night and I’m not even sure why because I barely watched the spurs all season. I literally could not stop thinking about that shot and it overwhelmed me with sadness. The heroes of my city fell hard while the villains literally jumped and screamed out of our building. At nine years old, I didn’t really know how to deal with defeat. I could only go to my parents at 2 am in tears and ask why I couldn’t sleep and why Derek Fisher ruined everything.

My parents were calm and told me that I loved the Spurs. I guess I didn’t really know I loved them because I hardly watched them, but I didn’t need to. They brought so much happiness around me in my childhood that such a defeat was unimaginable.  It was like superman going to the hospital.

The great thing about the Spurs is they let those moments of defeat fuel them. They came back with a vengeance in 2005 with Tim Duncan leading the way to another championship. I wore my “Obi-Wan Ginobili” shirt as I watched the spurs take down the Pistons in game seven of the finals. They would again rise from the ashes after a bitter loss to the Heat in 2013 with a historic finals performance in 2014. The Spurs have experienced their fair share of crushing blows, but like Tim Duncan’s face, the franchise always remains calm and focused on the goal.

Kobe is the last remnant of a successful Lakers team, and it’s likely to remain that way with his max contract excluding the possibility of recruiting talented free agents. While it seems like the Lakers’ best days are behind them, Tim Duncan’s selflessness has opened the door for guys like Kawhi Leonard to give the Spurs hope in the distant future. Even when Timmy is gone, he still won’t let his city cry for too long.