Summer showdown, Transformers vs. Spurs

July 9, 9:20 PMSan Antonio Spurs ExaminerMichael Chartier

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He is the master of explosions and making movies that don’t make sense. I get lost in them and not in the good way. Three days on the set of Pearl Harbor was enough for me, too, so unless Megan Fox sends me a personal invitation, I’ll wait for HBO.

Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen isn’t this summer’s movie blockbuster.

It’s a fitting title for the upcoming edition of the San Antonio Spurs.

As we settled into our seats this offseason, we heard Manu Ginobili declare himself 100 percent healthy.

As the previews began, we saw Richard Jefferson’s 6-7 frame flash across the screen with his 18 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists per game.

We watched rebounding machine DeJuan Blair in a complete freefall, only to be snatched from the sky by the Spurs’ quick hand.

Then came a Cannes submission and it wasn’t Medellin. It was Marcus Haislip and a redemption story. Once a lottery pick, the athletic 6-10 leaper went overseas to learn how to play. He returns to show the world he has.

And just when you start thinking - bring on the movie, I'm ready - there’s always one more.

It’s a battle scene, and Antonio McDyess turns from the chaos, looks to the camera and gives a glare, like - I got this.

But before you get too excited about the upcoming feature presentation, San Antonio Spurs: Episode 5, don’t forget the prequels and a time when winning a championship seemed like a galaxy far, far away.

The Spurs have always been good, but greatness has been far more difficult to attain.

When San Antonio entered the NBA in the 1976-1977 season, they reeled off seven straight playoff appearances. But they couldn’t win the big one, including blowing a 3-1 lead in the 1979 Eastern Conference Finals to the Washington Bullets.

The 80's saw trouble with Houston and Los Angeles. The Lakers being the requisite nightmare flashback, holding an 8-3 lifetime playoff series advantage, including a 34-18 edge in wins.

The Spurs did have one flop and it came later that decade. For a franchise that has missed the playoffs only four times in their NBA existence, the Spurs did it three times between 1984 and 1989.

That timeframe also marked the transition from George Gervin to David Robinson, one leading man to another.

Upon arrival, The Admiral quickly took hold of this franchise by the hull, steering the club to the greatest single season turnaround in NBA history and another run of seven straight playoff appearances. But those Spurs, along with Robinson, got the ridiculous tag of soft when they couldn’t beat their contemporaries of that time.

The string of playoff appearances ended in the 1996-1997 season when 11 different players missed games due to injury, the biggest being Robinson, who missed all but six. The Spurs finished 20-62, the worst record in franchise history.

However, that injury-riddled season became the winning ticket in the Tim Duncan lottery and the Spurs haven’t missed the playoffs since.

The lockout season followed a year later, and the NBA resumed to play a 50-game regular season with a full playoff schedule. There, Robinson, Duncan and a host of experienced, proven veterans lifted San Antonio to their first NBA Finals' appearance and their first NBA Championship.

San Antonio did it in dominating fashion closing the regular season with a 31-5 mark and followed that with a 15-2 postseason run that included 12 straight wins.

However, LA reared its head again, when Kobe, Shaq and Phil teamed to win three straight titles to start the decade. Even worse, they beat San Antonio twice along the way, decisively.

LA’s threepeat built up the talk of asterisks and whispers of soft resurfaced.

But thanks to the import market, two dynamic, athletic, skilled scorers emerged with the arrivals of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The 2002-2003 Spurs all but ended that Lakers’ dynasty behind, arguably, the most talented and versatile roster in Spurs’ history. So shaken was LA, they brought in future Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton to keep up. And although the Lakers put it back together winning last season's NBA Championship, the Kobe-Shaq Lakers never recovered.

In the process of winning three titles from 2003-2007, the Spurs rendered the asterisk meaningless, and you haven’t heard the words soft and Spurs spoken together since.

More recently, it’s been replaced by genius.

But all movie franchises come to an end (except maybe Friday the 13th) and it’s no different in sports.

It happened to the Celtics, Showtime, the Bad Boys, Batman and Robin, Kobe and Shaq – and it will happen to the Spurs.

But just when you thought the curtain was closing – with an aging roster, brittle stars and lack of depth – the Spurs went to the editing bay to add experience, athleticism, length and talent. They did it with few assets and on a budget. And they didn't lose any of their biggest stars in the process.

It's a versatile cast, now, and a different one. Don't expect Popovich to declare, San Antonio is going nowhere without Manu, again - even if he's watching games from the green room.

This team looks special because it's supposed to be. It's okay, go with that feeling.

Not every critically acclaimed blockbuster disappoints - Saving Private Ryan? Slumdog Millionaire? The Dark Knight? Forrest Gump?

This isn't some cookie-cutter retread being throw out there to sell tickets. This version is Oscar-worthy.

Granted, nobody seems to criticize the Spurs these days except the fans. But in a two-week makeover, the Spurs went from standing outside the ropes trying to give Fox a rose, to preparing for their own red carpet strut. The cameras will be rolling and not just on Eva.

The Spurs summer should send shockwaves (say that 3 times real fast) through the NBA with this fan advisory warning:

"What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is!"

That kind of attitude isn't just bravado. Not when you're the only team in the league with a core group holding multiple NBA Championships. This is a franchise transformed and for those who wrote them off - this is the revenge of the fallen - and it's coming to an an arena near you.

Fall 2009