Christmas Day will be here Thursday and with it, the latest chapter in the Suns/Spurs storied rivalry. As we all know, the Spurs have really done a number on the Suns these last few years, especially in the playoffs. So much in fact, they’ve blurred the lines on whether this matchup really constitutes a rivalry.
This year’s game feels different though, and even if the Suns had come out on top in just one of those playoff series, the grudge still wouldn’t be quite as intense.
Coach D’Antoni left for the bright lights of New York City, and took the soul of this rivalry with him.
Suns/Spurs was much more than two teams with a mutual dislike for each other, their matchups coming when the stakes were highest. The rivalry wasn’t Tim Duncan hitting the most improbable three of improbable threes, or Robert Horry hip-checking Steve Nash into the scorer’s table with the game well in hand.
To be sure, these were memorable moments and plays none of us will soon forget, but the rivalry and grudge stemmed from style more than personnel.
D’Antoni’s running and gunning Suns were the polar opposite to Popovich’s slow and methodical Spurs, the yin to his yang, the oil to his water, the Kramer to his Feldman.
With D’Antoni now gone, the Suns/Spurs sizzle isn’t the same. D’Antoni’s exile to New York signaled the final death knell to :07 or less, along with the Suns/Spurs fireworks we’ve grown so accustomed to.
While the moving away from the pure style matchup was more gradual than one would think (trading for Kurt Thomas, loosening the reins on Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli, trading for Shaq, the marginalization of Bruce Bowen,) the philosophy clash is no longer the story here, and that is a shame.
Good vs evil, raw, powerful talent (Amare Stoudemire) vs fundamentals (Tim Duncan,) and score at all costs vs defend at all costs were the reasons we tuned in every time the Suns and Spurs faced off. We’re now left with Suns Lite vs the same old Spurs. Yes, we’ll most likely be treated to a hard fought game, with Nash and Amare doing their thing, and Tim Duncan grabbing every rebound in site and kissing turnarounds off the glass, but it won’t feel the same.
Not without the foot-stomping, mustachioed coach. He and Steve Kerr saw to that.
I guess Lord Helmet was right after all: “evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.”
What do you think? Did Coach D take a piece of this rivalry with him to New York? Or are things the same as always? Poll on the right.
