Even now, it's hard to count Spurs out

We may have witnessed the end of an era.
It happened Saturday night. And it had nothing to do with a hugely-hyped boxing match in Las Vegas.
Hours earlier, and about 270 miles to the southwest, the San Antonio Spurs lost 111-109 to the Los Angeles Clippers in the seventh game of their opening-round NBA?playoff series.
It’s rare that I?have a significant rooting interest in a game in which one of my teams — mainly the Cleveland teams — is not playing. But on Saturday, I was rooting for San Antonio.
Why?
Because the Spurs, in general, have done it the right way.
They have a history of drafting quality athletes, on and off the court. And they’ve had a knack for pulling players, like Danny Green, off the scrap heap and turning them into productive pieces of a champion.
I know there are some who find the Spurs’s style of play boring. But if doing virtually everything right and being the most fundamentally-sound team in the league is boring, I’ll gladly watch boring basketball any day of the week.
San Antonio has been the picture of excellence since Tim Duncan was drafted in 1997. It has won five NBA?championships, including last season, and been in the playoffs in each of his 18 years.
Gregg Popovich has led that run. He might be the most unlikely coach to do so, and may never have gotten the opportunity had he not given it to himself.
Prior to joining the San Antonio Spurs as an assistant in 1988, he had been the head coach of NCAA Division III school Pomona-Pitzer. He left the Spurs for four seasons before returning as general manager in 1996.
After a 3-15 start, Popovich fired Bob Hill and named himself head coach. Nearly two decades later, he’s won more than 1,000 career games and five NBA Championships.
But given the age of the Spurs’ superstars — Duncan is 39, Manu Ginobili 37 and Tony Parker 32 — it seems unlikely they will make another run to the NBA?Finals.
San Antonio’s 2007 NBA?title came at the expense of my Cleveland Cavaliers.
I was in the stands for game four of the NBA?Finals that year at Quicken Loans Arena. By that time, it was clear the Spurs were the better team. Cleveland fans were just hoping to avoid the sweep.
But San Antonio held on for a one-point win, claiming its fourth Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Though my team lost, it was still incredible to experience an NBA?Championship. Forever I’ll be able to say I?witnessed one of the great teams in league history winning it all.
Two years later, a top-seeded Spurs squad lost to Memphis in the opening round in six games. Many thought then that their championship era was over.
So it’s possible Saturday’s loss in southern California marked the end of the Spurs’ era with Popovich, Duncan, Parker and Ginobili as the centerpieces. But it’s hard to count them out.