Best of the Spurs Still to Come

There’s a time for the San Antonio Spurs. It’s just not now.

A year ago, the Lakers took home-court advantage away from them and ran them over like road kill. This season, the Spurs took home-court advantage from the Lakers, and the Lakers turned around to win the next three, however agonizing, two of them in the Alamodome.

There’s a lesson in there:

The Lakers are better.

The Lakers have two superstars, one 30 and the other 23. The Spurs have one, 26, and a former one, 36.

Of course, the Spurs have a 19-year-old who looks pretty good ... and rights to a good-looking Argentine guard now playing in Italy ... and a lot of cap space coming in 2003, so, while they’re leaving us now, they showed the Lakers they’re still viable rivals and they may be back.

The 19-year-old is, of course, Tony Parker, their rookie point guard from Paris, who just completed a postseason that was even more amazing than his remarkable regular season.

Rookie point guards are not supposed to thrive in their first playoffs, let alone 19-year-old Parisians. If Parker’s name had been Kenny Anderson, and he’d been the No. 3 pick in the draft, instead of the No. 28 pick, and he was from Brooklyn, instead of Europe, this still would have been an astonishing performance.

“Outstanding,” said Magic Johnson. “His IQ of the game and his quickness....

“He knows how to make you a shot. What we lost in the game today, guys don’t make other guys shots, in terms of driving, makes you have to help, knows when to kick it. There’s only a couple guys left that can do that and he’s amazing.”

Parker started almost from the get-go, a tipoff he was special, since the Spurs are a veteran team and an elite one, and Gregg Popovich is anything but a young players’ coach.

Of course, Parker hit the wall at midseason, as rookies often do but then, he kicked it up another notch at the end of the season, and in the postseason, another notch still.

“Well, I didn’t wonder that [how Parker would handle playoff pressure] at all,” said Popovich. “Because, if I did or didn’t wonder it, did it matter? He was still going to play.

“I think he’s been great, considering the position he’s in and the experience he has, both in life and in the league with these players. I think he’s been fantastic. Couldn’t ask for any more. I will, but, you know for right now....”

With Parker at the point, everything seemed to change.

Tim Duncan, who almost went to Orlando as a free agent in 2000, has an out in his contract in 2003, and before this season, when the rest of the roster seemed old and/or mediocre, there was speculation, within San Antonio and outside, that the next time, when David Robinson was old, Duncan would actually leave.

Now, the general suspicion is that Duncan will stay, since he, Parker and a prime 2003 free agent would add up to a pretty fair contender.

Game to the end, the 2001-2002 Spurs sucked it up after their Game 4 giveaway, labeled the Mother’s Day Choke in their hometown paper, and made Game 5 a contest, leading by 12 points in the second quarter and 10 in the third before succumbing to the usual Kobe Bryant-led rally.

“Well, it’s a tough loss and as much as it hurts at the time it happens, they’re a pretty resilient group,” Popovich said before the game. “Very intelligent, very mature, and they were able to come back and work at it the next day and understand what went on.

“Because we went through the film and faced our demons. You know, you can’t just ignore it and say, ‘Oh, bad break, fellows, let’s go on.’

“That doesn’t work. At least, not with our group. we face what we do well and what we do poorly and move on. They’re used to that so I expect them to come out tonight and play just as they have.”

That’s what they did, professionals to the end, just out-gunned professionals

“The Lakers played like champions the last four, five minutes of every game they played and took the series,” Popovich said afterward. “Hats off to them....

“This isn’t a situation--we’ll put it in perspective when we prepare for next season, but I’m very happy with the competitiveness we showed on the court ... against that basketball team. I can’t fault the guys.... But it doesn’t make the loss any easier.”

So now it’s summer in San Antonio.

“I’m going to get a Shaq Pack,” said Popovich, pride and sense of humor intact.