SAN ANTONIO — The takeoff began from 15 feet out, a web of forearms and torsos cluttering his path. Manu Ginobili darted past Udonis Haslem through Ray Allen, planted his right foot outside the semicircle and launched himself toward the rafters, taking flight once more on those old legs.How many times had we counted out those legs? How many times had we bid farewell to Ginobili? How many eulogies had been written for the San Antonio Spurs dynasty?How many times had the Spurs themselves wondered if their time was up, only to defy expectations, defy age, defy gravity once more?
With the NBA Finals hanging in the balance Sunday night, and history in reach, Ginobili powered through Allen's forearm and launched himself over Chris Bosh, unleashing a dunk so fierce that it may have rattled that rack of Larry O'Brien trophies on the plaza level."Oh man," said the Spurs' Danny Green. "It was shocking. It was shocking."Shocking, because Ginobili will soon celebrate his 37th birthday. Shocking, because one year ago this week, Ginobili looked finished—his legs shot, his spirit deflated after a miserable Finals performance against the Miami Heat.
They all looked shot and deflated then, after the heartbreak of Game 6 and the concession in Game 7. This proud Spurs dynasty had grown old and frail. Its time had run out.If we had not learned the lesson then, we surely have now: These Spurs are ageless, timeless, refusing to abide by any known laws of physics.
So Ginobili gritted his teeth and flushed that dunk over Bosh on Sunday night, then followed with a three-pointer, and soon the Spurs were pulling away for another stunning rout of the Heat, 104-87, and, at long last, another NBA championship.Fifteen years after Tim Duncan and David Robinson lifted the Spurs to their first title, another Duncan-led lineup guided San Antonio to its fifth, with a stunningly lopsided 4-1 victory over LeBron James and the star-powered Miami Heat."The sweetest one," said Tony Parker, who joined Ginobili and Duncan for the last four championships.The sweetest, because the Spurs came so agonizingly close last June, within seconds of clinching the title in that fateful Game 6. The sweetest, because they just repaid the Heat for that anguish. The sweetest, because every Spur's legacy is now indisputably secure.
Duncan has his fifth ring, tying him with Kobe Bryant for the most by any star in the post-Michael Jordan era, and burnishing his case as the greatest power forward ever.Gregg Popovich has his fifth, tying him with Pat Riley and John Kundla for third all time.Parker and Ginobili have four apiece, guaranteeing their place one day in Springfield, Mass.The Spurs were the first team to win a championship after the breakup of the Bulls. All these years later, they are still the class of the league, with a dramatically different formula.Since Duncan's first title, the entire NBA power structure has changed, many times over. The East has sent nine franchises to the Finals in the last 15 years, powers rising and falling before we even learn the name of their backup centers.
The Spurs earned their five titles against five different challengers: the Knicks, Nets, Pistons, Cavaliers and Heat.The Spurs endure. They outlast, outthink, outmaneuver. They are the envy of the league—the most admired, the most copied, the most poached. Spurs alumni now populate staff directories in Oklahoma City and Orlando, Salt Lake City and Philadelphia, Atlanta and New Orleans.
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