The Monday Stack – Spurs Take Down Thunder

We start the week looking back at a Game 7 that told us that San Antonio is back again.

We knew it wouldn’t take too long for that kid to show his franchise-level quality. We just had no idea it would be this fast. We just had no idea that Victor Wembanyama would be able to take a team all the way to the Finals and maybe plan a parade at 22. We know the normal ages for first titles in this sport amongst the titans, and it is not normally this early.

Michael Jordan was 28 in 1991. LeBron James was 27 in 2012. Yes, Magic Johnson was 20 with the 1980 Lakers, but he joined a ready-made team that already had its own 31-year old league MVP in Kareem Abdul-Jabber. The same goes for Kobe Bryant at 21, who also joined the 27-year old league MVP Shaquille O’Neal for that 2000 title. Bill Russell was 23, but yes, he joined 28-year old league MVP Bob Cousy for the 1957 Celtics.

Maybe the best comparison is actually Tim Duncan in 1999 as the 23-year old was in his second season and won the title as the best player on those Spurs, but the next SEVEN players on that 1999 team in terms of minutes played had all had their 30th birthday: Avery Johnson, David Robinson, Sean Elliott, Mario Ellie, Steve Kerr, Jaren Jackson, and Jerome Kersey. So, again, he was young but the 1999 Spurs were absolutely not.

The 1981 Celtics had 24-year-old Larry Bird, but they also had plenty of heavy lifting done by 32-year old Tiny Archibald and friends. The 1971 Bucks had 23-year-old Kareem dominating, but with 32-year old Oscar Robertson riding shotgun and as their second-best player. It seems that we have seen two types of teams. Either you are part of a ready-made cast of vets or you wait until you are much older. But, Wemby might be on the brink of something we haven’t really seen.

Amongst those “best players of all-time” – the idea of showing up in the NBA and leading a team as their clear best player and being surrounded by mostly guys at your age or younger is incredibly rare and unique. Depending on how you rank De’Aaron Fox (28) and I rank him as probably the third-best player on this team but not really having a big playoff at all, the Spurs are scary young. In fact, if you take the seven players who play 15 minutes a game for them or more, Fox is easily the oldest and the average age of the other six is 22 years of age.

Incredible.

Now, in beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals in that Game 7 on Saturday, they get a chance to play for the NBA Title and a shot at yet another title for that franchise that has won more than their fair share. In the era since the Chicago Bulls ran off six titles in eight years that ended in 1998, the Spurs trail only the Los Angeles Lakers in titles won. The Lakers have six since then and the Spurs have five.

A win in this final round versus the New York Knicks – which is no cinch by any means – would pull them fully even. That is crazy, but as Kobe would tell us, “the job’s not finished.”