I have been a San Antonio Spurs Fan ever since I was first introduced to basketball as a young child. I used to play EA Sports NBA Live ‘09, which featured Tony Parker on the cover. Even though seeing a Spurs player on the cover of that game influenced my fandom, I developed an appreciation for the Spurs’ style of play. Their selfless, pass-first style of play has always paid off, and their ability to develop underdogs and convert them into fruitful role-players is impeccable.
I can make a long list of what I love about the Spurs, but there is one thing that has bothered me about being a Spurs fan throughout the years. I just hate that they are seen as a boring franchise.
There are many reasons why the Spurs are considered boring, and whether they were making a championship push or not didn’t make a difference.
For starters, the Spurs never really had an interesting storyline, and that roots in the fact that the Spurs do not typically draft players with large personalities. They have always drafted humble players that were willing to buy into their system. Because their players are so humble, they work as one unit, so there’s never been a player that had a superstar personality that stood out.
Kawhi Leonard was the closest thing to giving the Spurs a competitive storyline, but him sitting out a season and departing from the team put that to an end. The Spurs system also overshadowed how great Kawhi was because people only saw him as a system player. That is why his departure from the team was best for his legacy going forward.
Average Rating/Viewership by Year (1974-present)
San Antonio may be a big city, but it is still a small market team.
Despite the Spurs having a good regular season audience, their ratings have been among the worst in the NBA Finals. Casual NBA fans could be the main contributor to those ratings because they usually anticipate watching superstars battle it out in the NBA Finals.
So since the Spurs are known for having “no-name” players on their roster, it’s not surprising that casual fans would not tune in to watch them.
The first Spurs’ Finals that I witnessed was the 2014 NBA Finals win against the Miami Heat. There were so many people I knew that were rooting for the Heat, and I was honestly so annoyed. What really got me was how biased the media was during this championship series. Ideally, media outlets should just report on a good game, and not express their favorites at all throughout the series. Because the media was rooting for Miami so heavily in 2014, they really downplayed the talent of the Spurs’ roster and made them out to be some scrubs.
It is also disappointing to know that the Spurs are not an interesting free agency location. A lot of players like to be flashy in games and have a say in their team’s style of play, and San Antonio would not be the best location for that. It took me a while to realize that because I always thought that the biggest free agents would kill to play for Coach Gregg Popovich, one of the greatest coaches in sports history.
Spurs fans must find a way to mature and gain more knowledge of the business of basketball to understand why the Spurs don’t land the big free agents. Some free agents choose their next destination for financial opportunities, and the city of San Antonio doesn’t have much to offer in that area either.
At the end of the day, players have the freedom to go where they please, and fans can’t be mad when it is not San Antonio.
I will always love the Spurs, and I just wish that more people will grow to love them as well. There are just so many things to appreciate about the team. I like those moments where every player touches the ball during a play and they still score.
I like how the Spurs will send their rookies to the G-League and they’ll come back in the last few games and go crazy.
I miss seeing Tony Parker’s crossovers, Manu Ginobili’s saucy left-handed layups and Tim Duncan’s dunks.
I’m even more excited for the future with the team’s young core that consists of Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker, Jakob Poeltl and Keldon Johnson.
As disappointed as I am that people do not root for the Spurs, that is just one bad thing compared to many good things about that franchise. I have to let that disappointment go because it is going to steal the joy I have for the team, and that is not okay. I cannot say that a lot of things gave me joy, but the Spurs did. Watching them play was an outlet for me, especially during my depression, and I have to keep the excitement I have for them close to my heart.
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