While the war between those who want to see the Spurs win vs. those who want to see the Spurs lose rages on (only ten days left, thank fuck), I think I’ve discovered something we can all rally behind.
And in other/better news, MANU GINÓBILI IS A HALL OF FAMER, BABY!
Let’s start with the playoff/play-in/draft lottery nonsense.
An appeal to reason
I, as you may know or have inferred based on the fact that I write here, am a San Antonio Spurs fan. My wife and her family are Angelenos, card-carrying Los Angeles Lakers fans.
We get along on a wide variety of topics, beliefs, and values. Basketball is not one of them. They’re wonderful people, but when I’m outnumbered I very quickly become a second-class citizen if the NBA comes up in conversation.1
When we flew back to the States for our wedding last October, the first thing my wife did after landing at LAX was run to the bathroom to change into her (lol) Kyle Kuzma jersey. She and her dad had tickets to the game that night. I, predictably, was not invited.2
It was like, “Hey Trace, nice to see you, okay gotta go it’s time for the Lakers game, do you have a ride back to the house? You could call an Uber, right? Okay yeah sorry we really gotta go, bye!”3
So I think, if for no other reason than spite, you should be rooting for the Spurs to finish the season ahead of the Lakers. Especially if that means the Spurs play in the postseason while the Lakers and their “star-studded” roster aren’t even invited to the party.
Actually… we should be cheering for NOLA to implode so the Spurs can host the play-in game vs. the Lakers as the 9 vs. 10 seeds. Imagine Dejounte Murray punctuating the Lakers underwhelming season with a swipe, steal, and slam against his mentor LeBron James on the Fiesta court? You can’t tell me that isn’t worth cheering for.
Then think of me, lording over my in-laws and wife after a few too many drinks at the next family gathering, cackling as I toss back another sangria to the tune of, “Y’all had LeBron and AD, and you couldn’t even finish 8th in the West?!"
I’ve worked really hard at endearing myself to these people. All I ask is that you help me destroy all that work over the course of one evening by doing the absolute bare-minimum and cheering for your team, for fuck’s sakes.
What draft pick is worth losing to the Lakers? Not a single one! Ever!
Ginóóóbiliiiiiiiiiiiiii
You’ve surely heard the news already, but Spurs legend Manu Ginóbili made the basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, which seems to have made a lot of Twitter haters upset.
I’m not going to give those folks any air time here.
Instead of engaging with any of that noise, I’m just going to enjoy these supercuts of Manu highlights, and I encourage you to do the same.
…And of course:
I dunno about y’all, but I only got through like 2 minutes of that first video before I started bawling all over my desk.
Happy Friday! Thanks for reading, and please be kind to each other out there.
Which is almost always
I would happily go to any NBA game if you offer me a ticket, fwiw, don’t care all that much who’s playing who. Also my father-in-law always gets box seats for games at Staples and I wanna live that bougie life, y’know?
I maayyyyyyy be embellishing this story, but you get the point :)