Why The Spurs Are Bad For Basketball
The San Antonio Spurs are good. They’re not just good — they’re scary good. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard perfectly balance intelligent veteran leadership with speedy and willful youth.
They have an amazing coach who can see the game through a unique lens. I’m almost certain no other human eye can see the game in the same way Gregg Popovich does. As a young coach, I admire his talent.
With a team containing potential hall-of-famers, a legendary hall-of-fame coach and a chemistry among the team people envy in their own relationships, it seems clear this team is on the path to an NBA title. They are electrifying and fun to watch.
So why do I think the Spurs are bad for basketball?
They Don’t Need Help
As I already noted, the spurs are scary good. In fact so good, very rarely do they need any help from anyone else.They can play great on the road with amazing poise so they don’t need the fans.
They can finish great on the perimeter and at the basket even when they’re fouled so they don’t need any extra help from the officials. Yet they constantly and consistently complain to the officials and often get rewarded for it.
The latter statement is really the reason why I don’t believe the Spurs are great for the sport of basketball.
Now it’s obvious this isn’t the only team in the league that complains to the referees, but I still think it’s tacky. Yes, tacky; these are professionals. This is the highest level of competition and the players and coaches are doing a great job to entertain us.
Whining and complaining isn’t very professional and it is very tacky. More importantly, it sends the wrong message to young coaches and players, especially when they get rewarded for that type of behavior
Man In The Mirror
Now I say this with a thick prescription lens I used to examine myself.
As a first year high school basketball coach I yelled — a lot. I yelled at my players and at referees. I yelled when we were still undefeated midway through the season. I lost my voice when we were winning games by twenty in the fourth quarter. I yelled in empty gyms when no fans came to our games at tournaments. I thought I was coaching, but I wasn’t. I was just complaining because nobody did what I wanted them to do exactly the way I wanted it done.
After my first year I noticed the negative impact I had on my players. Many of my players were okay, but could have been good. The good players could have been great. But they would be more concerned with pleasing me that they didn’t play for each other. They played to get a positive response from me.
In this past year, when I decided to tone down and focus on developing the player rather than only winning games I noticed an entirely different problem. Players were concerned with forcing a call from the officials rather than just playing the game.
This is where I believe the Spurs come into the mix. I would love to tell my team “hey guys, look at how the Spurs play basketball. Look at their chemistry. Look at how they just play the game and don’t complain about the calls they don’t get in their favor.” But everyone knows I can’t say that last part.
The majority of calls on Tim Duncan seems to warrant a blank look like “I know you didn’t just call that on me!” Ginobili falls to the ground any time he is touched on a shot instead of just finishing strong at the rim. And gets the call. Tony Parker has something to say even if he’s not involved in the play.
But why? They don’t need any extra help. If they focused on their gameplay rather than the calls they do or don’t get we could possibly be talking about the best team ever. If not the best team, then certainly a top three in the discussion. They very well could still be there, but an unnecessary focus on elements they can’t always control holds them back.
Set A Great Example
I guess the biggest reason it bothers me is because I know my players watch these guys. And when the officials reward them with unnecessary calls when they constantly whine my players take notice and it makes a coach’s job much harder to teach discipline and toughness.
Players get into games and think they can question referees calls, but they get technicals.
They think they can throw the ball in the air, flop and still get the call, instead of just finishing hard at the rim and not worrying about if they get the foul called for you or not. Instead they get hurt — physically and emotionally.
Coaches think they can virtually say what they want to officials, but instead we get thrown out of games.
I am not oblivious to personal responsibility. In life, we all need to hold ourselves accontable to the truth instead of blaming it on our heroes. But that doesn’t mean players and coaches who perform at the highest level of professionalism can’t be reminded of their impact on the game as a whole.
Former Golden State Warrior coach Mark Jackson said it best during the Heat-Pacer game Saturday night:
“…don’t get caught up in complaining about calls. It’ll balance out. Referees make great calls, they make bad calls. At the end of the day players are going to make mistakes, coaches are going to make mistakes, and so are refs.”
If the San Antonio Spurs played like they understood this they’d not only be a better team than what they are now, but they’d also be the perfect template of what NBA, high school and college teams alike could model.
