Age before beauty?

For all the talk about how the Spurs need an "injection of youth and athleticism", one thing keeps standing out in my mind, and it's something every Spurs fan (at least those who have been fans for 10 years or more), should remember: The 1994-95 Houston Rockets.  This was a team of old, slow, banged up guys who limped into the playoffs as a 6th seed in a Western Conference not that dissimiliar to its 06-07 counterpart.  Utah and Phoenix, along with your San Antonio Spurs, were the powerbrokers in the West, and they were in many cases younger and quicker than the poor old Rockets.  Relying on savvy veteren performances coupled with the unworldy dominance of Hakeem Olajuwon (think '03 Duncan), they made the Finals, where they faced a team that everyone KNEW was younger, quicker, and better.  The Magic had Penny, who once upon a time was called "the next Magic", and they had Shaq in his mid-20s, a guy who made Wilt look like a pussy.  What happens?  Rockets. Sweep.  There were a couple of close calls in game 1, but essentially utter dominance by Houston of a team almost unanimously regarded as "better", much like the Spurs, Suns, and Jazz before them.  

I point this out because it illustrates a principle.  Younger teams do better in the regular season, but older teams win championships.  Think about it, when was the last time an "old" team lost to a "young" team in the Finals?  If they did, it was before I was born.  The only exception I can stir up in the cobwebbed recesses of my skull was when the Bulls beat the Lakers in 91.  Then again, Michael Jordan was involved in that one, and there is no Michael Jordan now (certainly, he does not play for Dallas or Phoenix or Detroit or Miami or Cleveland...yeah, I said it).  I guess you could make a case for the '04 Pistons being young, but they didn't play in the mold of a Phoenix or Dallas, so it was their hungriness, coupled with the fact that nobody expected them to win, that drove them more than youth or quickness.  

Anyways, history is stacked, especially in the last 10 years, with older teams prevailing over younger teams.  The Rockets, the Bulls (especially in '96), the three-peat Lakers, who are probably the youngest champions in the past decade, but still relied on a collection of veterans like Fox, Horry, and Brian Shaw.  The Spurs in '03.  And, oh yeah, I think last year's champion was regarded as being a little on the geriatric side as well, but they beat a team that was far younger and more physically capable.  

Now, am I saying that just throwing a group of veterens together will bring you a championship?  Some seem to be accusing Pop of doing that, but that's not the case.  It didn't work for the Blazers earlier this decade, and it didn't work for the Lakers in '04 (although they still had Kobe).  What each of the teams I've mentioned had in common was a veteren foundation, and a handful of younger guys that facilitated the games of the older guys.  Think about it.  You have Cassell and Horry in Houston, Timmy for us in '99, Kobe for the Lakers, Tayshaun Prince for Det, Tony and Manu for us in '03 and '05, and Dywayane Wade (or however you spell it) for Miami last year.  Sometimes these young guys facilitate, sometimes they take over, but they are as essential as the veterens.  That's what the '06-'07 Spurs have.  We have old guys with playoff experience who seem washed up (i.e., Drexler in '95), and we have young and relatively young guys that help keep them going.  

Compare that to our rivals.  Dallas has a token old guy on the bench (Anthony Johnson) and a head case as a sixth man(Stackhouse), but largely relies on the fragile psyches of Josh Howard and Jason Terry (along with Dirk's arguably fragile pschye that occassionaly confuses him into thinking he's a soccer player and hapless exercise equipment is his futbol).  As an aside, imagine Howard in the place of Nick "The Brick" Anderson in '95. . .it's eeire isn't it?  Plus, he'd probably try to call an illegal time out after missing the 3rd free throw.  The Suns are the opposite of what I've described, a collection of young guys with one veteren facilitator (Kurt Thomas doesn't count because I'm not convinced that he isn't a robot).  

Now after saying all this, I realize that the Spurs are still old and slow in a fast league, and that it's not 1995 anymore.  To even get to the Finals, which is the situation I'm describing, we will have to run a gauntlet in the playoffs like the Rockets did twelve years prior.  If we get to the Finals, we'd be lucky to face a "young" team like Cleveland rather than an old one like Detroit.  But I'm still not worried.  Miami beat Dallas last year, and they were a team that many compared to mid-90s, slow it down, grind it out teams.  Is there a single person on this site who believes, had it been us with the little gold trophies on our uniforms last June, that we would not have totally beaten the crap out of Flash and company?  Of course you don't.  

Don't get me wrong, I realize that to win our fourth title this year will likely take doing something the Spurs have never done before: play at least two series in which they don't have homecourt advantage (if we absolutely mirror the Rockets, we'd play four).  But here's why there's hope.  We have our Olajuwon (Duncan), we have our Drexler (Ginobili), we have our Bob Horry (Steve Martin voice: "who also happens to be the actual Bob Horry").  The Rockets didn't even have a Tony Parker.  We even have a Mario Elie of sorts, the guy who other teams hate to see on the court (Bowen).  Add it all up, and throw in a dash of that "heart of a champion" stuff, along with a pinch of luck (i.e., Manu not fouling anyone in the closing seconds of a game 7), and you have this decade's 1995 Rockets.  Dum-da-da-dum!

Call me crazy, but I'm convinced we can win the title with the team that we have, as long as two things happen: 1) We stay healthy, 2) We don't screw up.  I don't mean get beat, I mean screw up, like last year.  That responsibility largely falls on the guy I haven't mentioned, Pop.  I admit he may be losing his touch, but he may also be a genius.  My personal jury is out on that one.  We'll see.