King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Spurs win NBA title. Paint dries. Grass grows. San Antonio's fourth championship provides all the thrills of a well-prepared tax return.
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June 15, 2007 | How fitting that these NBA Finals ended with the San Antonio Spurs winning the championship on the road.
The celebration was muted and whocaresified, barely any crowd noise tainting the ceremonies honoring a team that's made its way into the conversation with the Celtics, Lakers and Bulls in terms of basketball success, and of Eeyore, Les Nessman and Kelly Clarkson in terms of excitement.
The Spurs finished a sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers with an 83-82 win Thursday night that featured about as little entertainment value as it's possible to have in a game that finishes 83-82. The Cavs were in it in the final moments, but the Spurs had turned back Cleveland's reasonably spirited fourth-quarter rally -- three San Antonio players actually put their BlackBerrys down when the Cavs briefly took the lead -- and the end came down to whether the Spurs would miss free throws. They didn't.
Cleveland pulled within one when Damon Jones hit a meaningless three at the buzzer. This was a close game, but not that close, and about as thrilling as a well-prepared tax return.
There's value in a well-prepared tax return, of course. Let's not fall into the trap of hating the Spurs because they're boring. They're not always boring. They were pretty exciting when they were playing the Phoenix Suns in the second round, at least until the league's asinine suspensions of two Suns players took the air out of that series.
The Spurs are sort of the Zeligs of the NBA. They don't become their opponents, but they always seem to be no more or less exciting than their opponents.
Their opponents in these Finals had one exciting player, LeBron James, but the Cavaliers are a defense-first team that doesn't have nearly the complementary parts James needs to make the offense exciting beyond the occasional drive-and-dunk moment, when his athleticism can simply take your breath away.
At one point Thursday, James drove the baseline and dunked, and it looked like he could have dunked on a 12-foot basket if he'd wanted to. But beyond him the Cavaliers, like the rest of the Eastern Conference, didn't have the horses to compete with the Spurs.
Still, it's not the Spurs' business to be exciting. Their job is to win games and championships -- they've now won four in the last nine years -- not to become beloved beyond the boundaries of their hometown.
Good thing.
Next page: ABC analysts look stricken on the air. Plus: This column crows over preseason prediction
