Play Boring, Play to Win

Winning 50 Games In Style

While checking out ESPN on my phone this morning I noticed an NBA milestone just reached by the Spurs that is nothing short of remarkable. After beating Cleveland (obviously not that remarkable) the Spurs have improved their record to an NBA best 50-11, giving them their 12th straight 50 win record. The only other franchise to match a streak of this duration is the Lakers, who achieved it between the 1979-80 and 1990-91 seasons.
Not to take anything away from a Lakers team that at the time included multiple hall-of-famers and won multiple championships, but in today’s NBA a streak like this is much harder to accomplish. For one thing, it is rare that premier players stay on one team anymore and the biggest key to the Spurs success in this era has no doubt been Tim Duncan. While most players either look for the max contract in a big NBA market or attempt to leave their original teams to join forces with other all-stars, Duncan won a championship in his second season with the Spurs and never looked back. Another big reason the Spurs have been able to produce so many winning seasons is their supporting cast. This franchise has done an incredible job of finding talent where others don’t look, both overseas and here in the United States. Obviously, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli are two of the greatest international players to ever join the NBA but the Spurs also have an incredible ability to find talent that other teams overlook. The fact that ignored players such as George Hill, Chris Quinn and Matt Bonner make consistent contributions to a championship contender is a credit to Greg Popovich and the Spurs coaching staff and a big reason why they have been able to keep their franchise players healthy and continuously have such winning records.
Other NBA franchises should look to San Antonio as the example of how to win consistently and be successful in the league. Their ability to retain their big talent players and keep them healthy, utilize their supporting cast to the fullest of their abilities and win NBA championships all while remaining drama-free and maintaining a strong fan base make them the premier example of a successful NBA franchise. Even though they have been playing some of the most boring basketball to watch over the last 10 years, this milestone is the gold standard that every team should aim for.

Where Is The Love?

"When I Open My Eyes I'll Be in Dallas"
The All-Star game sucks. It has particularly sucked for the last five or six years, but in general it’s always just been a showcase for dunks and unrealistically long range shots, which is kind of awesome, but only up to a certain point. Every year I lose interest about halfway through the second quarter, but the game does serve a captivating purpose. The All-Star team selections serve as a midseason milestone to remind us of the elite players and fan favorites within the NBA. This is an interesting method of marking history in the league and the system in which fans choose the starters and experts choose the reserves creates a balance that usually results in the best representation of top players. This system, however, is flawed. For one, players like Yao Ming, Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson have been named to too many All-Star teams simply because they are popular, not necessarily because they are having a good season. This is generally ok because those that choose the reserve players judge performance alone, but when elite players are overlooked because they are not necessarily popular and then also denied a bench spot, the only thing that redeems the All-Star process is lost. Let’s look at who is supposedly leading the NBA this season:

Eastern Conference
Starters:
LeBron James – Miami
Amare Stoudemire – New York
Dwyane Wade – Miami
Derrick Rose – Chicago
Dwight Howard – Orlando
Reserves:
Ray Allen – Boston
Chris Bosh – Miami
Kevin Garnett – Boston
Al Horford – Atlanta
Joe Johnson – Atlanta
In my opinion the Eastern Conference has a pretty accurate breakdown, probably because there is less talent to pick from. There are only a few teams represented here which is unfortunate but the truth is there are only a few good teams in the Eastern Conference to choose from. I don’t know what they were thinking with the West though:

Western Conference
Starters:
Kevin Durant – Oklahoma City
Carmelo Anthony – Denver
Kobe Bryant – Los Angeles (Lakers)
Chris Paul – New Orleans
Yao Ming – Houston
Reserves:
Tim Duncan – San Antonio
Manu GInobili – San Antonio
Pau Gasol – Los Angeles (Lakers)
Blake Griffin – Los Angeles (Clippers)
Dirk Nowitzki – Dallas
Russell Westbrook – Oklahoma City
Deron Williams – Utah
I don’t care how much of a national hero he is, Yao Ming needs to be banned from the voting at this point. There’s no way he’s going to play in this game and frankly I almost forgot that he is even still an NBA player. Most notably, the reserve selectors made a huge error in ignoring Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge. How could they possibly give Tim Duncan the spot over Aldridge who is averaging 21 and 9, let alone Kevin Love who is averaging 21 AND 15 REBOUNDS. If that isn’t All-Star caliber play, I don’t know what is. The selectors have done more than just ignore a great player in Love (who will probably get a spot when Yao Ming decides he can’t play) but have left out a player who might not be that popular but more than deserves the recognition that comes with an All-Star spot. They have failed to perform their role in the only even semi-important aspect of the All-Star game, a roster of players who represent the best and most popular players from the season and will be remembered as the top performers of 2010-11.