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"FacebookPinterest\n\nThere were twenty-one seconds left in overtime during Friday night's Warriors/Spurs game, and the Warriors were clinging to a three-point lead. During a timeout, ESPN's cameras captured Golden State coach Mark Jackson delivering a rousing motivational speech to his troops. \"I used to sit where you sit,\" he rasped, \"and after all that work a coach would take me out and bring in somebody to stop; somebody to defend. It was disrespect to me. You earn the right to win the game. You earn the right. Alright, let's go get it.\"\n\nThe Warriors won the game, their first win over San Antonio in five years, and Jackson's talk has understandably received a lot of play in the aftermath. But there was another moment the game that was, to me, even more revealing regarding the participants, though not as obvious. It happened with 3:05 remaining in the third quarter, and even after watching it about a dozen times on my DVR, I'm still not sure what got Spurs coach Gregg Popovich so fired up.\n\n After Manu Ginobili missed a pull-up transition three, the Warriors pushed the ball back, and as they sped past half court, Popovich could be seen standing near the midcourt line, screaming at someone on the other end of the floor (presumably either one of the refs or one of his players). As the Spurs settled into defensive positions, Warriors PG Jarrett Jack dribble-penetrated into the lane and dished out to Steph Curry at the three-point line. Ginobili ran at Curry, and Curry dribbled around him, into the paint, jumped into Tim Duncan, who had rotated over to cut off his path, drew a foul on Duncan, and converted the layup on the play.\n\nWhen Curry made the accompanying free throw, Pop called a timeout. If smoke could have billowed from his ears at that moment, it would have. As the broadcast went to a commercial break, we saw Duncan walking to the bench, arms extended gently from his sides in the universal symbol for \"Huh?\" Pop looked back and affid Duncan with the fiercest of death-stares, the slow-burn look he normally reserves for sideline reporters. Pop was clearly furious at his superstar, for some unclear transgression. And just as a showdown seemed imminent, the Spurs turned their backs to the cameras and huddled, and we saw ads for Denny's, Heineken, ESPN's coverage of the Daytona 500, Ford, and \"The Book of Mormon\" on Broadway.\n\nI've been thinking about this and re-watching it ever since it happened, and I can't get it out of my mind. To me, the lesson wasn't about the cause but the effect. Whatever made Pop livid was not some obvious, major breakdown. Maybe it was the way they switched a pick or the pace with which they had picked up their defensive assignments. Whatever it was, it was amazing to see an NBA coach light into his best player in full view of everyone in the arena and watching on TV. And it was just as surprising to see the superstar seemingly accept the criticism with some sort of grace and understanding of the bigger picture.\n\nThis is a major part of The Spurs Way, a system of basketball that includes an ethos derived from a Danish reformer and a trio of stars as committed to perfection as their coach seems to be. For a basketball junkie, watching the Spurs can be a captivating experience. They don't make a ton of highlight dunks, but they do just about everything else and do it so well. Defensively, they switch things up and present different looks--occasionally springing a full-court press, like a good college team. When a guy gets hot they run plays for him, over and over. They exploit mismatches. Needing a bucket at the end of regulation against Golden State, they ran a simple but perfect give-and-go inbounds play that resulted in a game-tying layup, without having to waste a single dribble.\n\nIt has become a common refrain around this time of the NBA season to say, \"Don't forget about the Spurs!\" Of course, we have to say this each time each year because we DO always forget about them, like they are Valentine's Day or the SAG Awards. Did you realize that as of today, the Spurs have the NBA's best record (45-13)? That they haven't lost more than two games in a row all season? That even though they started the season 18-6, they've since gone 27-7 after Pop moved Stiffler-lookalike Tiago Splitter into the starting line-up? That even as good as they've been all season, things now get easier and they finish the season by playing 17 of their final 24 games at home?\n\nThese stats are all amazing, but in some ways, the Spurs have made themselves ancillary to the national conversation because of their recent lack of success in the Playoffs. It's pretty easy to mistake competence for tedium. I was a Braves fan throughout the '90s and watched them destroy the rest of the National League over and over, but eventually all that winning without the requisite accompanying championships became such a wearying ercise that we very nearly tuned them out.\n\nThe difference in the Spurs and Braves, of course, is that the Spurs actually racked up rings, winning four titles since 1999 and 2007. And now they have to figure out how to keep the dynasty going. Since winning that title in '07, the Spurs have won 316 regular season games and lost 136, for a winning percentage of nearly 70 percent (.699). But they have also not made it past the Western Conference Finals during this time frame. They are doing all of this in a small market with the slimmest of margins for error--they've been balling on a budget for a while now--but they keep making correct decisions. And they keep winning...regular season games, at least.\n\nThere is a clear difference in having the best record in the League and being the best team in the League. Perhaps as good as the Spurs are as a team, they just don't have that single player who can completely take over a game in the postseason the way a LeBron can or a Kobe can. Maybe Tony Parker has developed into that player, considering the remarkable season he is having. Can they get past a team like Oklahoma City? Miami? This season they are 2-1 against OKC and 0-1 against Miami (in the infamous game where Pop sent everyone home early). As much fun as it is to see the Spurs dismantle all comers, that looming postseason business lends a bit of shade to the proceedings, but shouldn't color the experience of being a Spurs fan, or detract from the sublime joy a basketball fan can find watching a team in the middle of a long road trip ecute a pitch-perfect pick-and-roll. Is there not some enjoyment in the journey? Ecs and GMs can set high standards, but as fans we have to be able to lower ours to discover some middle area that allows us to find some satisfaction a couple of times a week. Championship or bust seems like an awfully high, maybe even unfair, standard.\n\nYet even as I argue that winning championships shouldn't be a completely blind pursuit, the DNA of the Spurs allows for nothing else. That Pop/Duncan contretemps was in the third quarter of a 62-57 game on the second night of a back-to-back toward the end of a killer twenty-day road trip. Most coaches pick and choose their spots, but Pop seems to know no other way, and his Spurs seem to know no other way. For the Spurs, winning isn't the only thing, it's everything, and nothing.\n\nLang Whitaker is GQ's NBA blogger as well as the editor-at-large at SLAM Magazine and a regular contributor to NBA TV. Follow him on Twitter @langwhitaker."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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