I'm sorry, ok?  I have been busy, and if it makes you feel any better, my life is more or less miserable.  It's not that school is hard.  It's not.  It's just not what I was expecting.  I'm not doubting my (new) choice of careers, but I thought it the experience would be more enjoyable.

Many thanks go out to AusTechSpur for keeping this place up and running.  I need to call you and stuff.  I owe you some Thai food at the least.

So, the Spurs.  I tried to get into them once during the preseason.  I was in the car, trolling for something to listen to, when I remembered AM radio still exists.  So I flipped over to WOAI and lo and behold, the Spurs were on!  The announcer mentioned Jacque Vaughn.

I turned off the radio.

I have no interest in watching (or listening to) Jacque Vaughn play basketball.  The same goes for Finley, Thomas, Bonner, Oberto, Bowen and Udoka (though part of me is intrigued that he might FtFO and shiv somebody).  Watching the Spurs has, to me, become like watching a small Tennessee town's production of Rent.  You know it's going to be absolutely atrocious in parts, but you watch it to see how horribly they butcher and bastardize the intent of the musical.  You could have the original cast members playing Mimi, Roger and Mark, but it wouldn't matter because they would cast some preacher's wife as Maureen and take Angel totally out of the show.

You remember my "Problem with the Spurs" post?  My reaction to the comments from that post made me realize something:  I don't write this blog as a Spurs fan.  I am a Spurs fan, but my writing is more an (possibly poorly executed attempt at an) analysis of the Spurs / NBA.  I'm not saying you're going to learn anything reading this blog; I'm saying you're not going to see me writing about the silver lining.  I'm just not much of a liar, except when it comes to my family, but that's only because I'm morally obligated to tell them what they want to hear.

The Spure ain't winning shit this year.  That doesn't mean you shouldn't watch / root / hope / pray that they will.  But they're not.  I don't know exactly how it's going to go down, but here's an outline.

1.  Pop continues to rely on his older players, with Finley, Oberto, Bowen and Kurt Thomas getting way too many minutes.  Mason will play early in the season and get screamed at more than he deserves.  He'll then get a minor injury, which will lead Pop to say something like:

“He's hurt again,” Popovich said, “and those 35 minutes, or so, that I wanted to see him play each game isn't going to happen. They're doing an MRI again today to see if he can take the cast off and go the next step. Obviously, at this late date, he's not going to be ready to do anything in the playoffs.

“It will be tough for him, because once we start the playoffs, interjecting players who haven't been in the program really is difficult. That's a disappointment, without any doubt.”

2.  Duncan starts the season slow, leading to Tony carrying too much of the burden.  He'll get dinged up and spend the reason of the season at 85-90%.

3.  George Hill plays about as much as I do.

4.  Ginobili comes back when expected, doesn't look right, and gets sat back down for a couple weeks in Februaryish.

5.  Both Parker and Duncan will spend some time on the DL.

6.  There will be some stretch of games in the second half of the season where Manu plays totally out his fucking gourd for a couple of weeks, and we'll all hope.  (Except for me, of course.  Because I'm here to make you all miserable.)

7.  The Spurs will be lingering around the 6th seed in February, and Pop will start with the whole "You have to win on the road in the playoffs anyway" bullshit, and he'll go into disguised tank mode.   We'll start seeing Vaughn, Bowen, Udoka, Bonner and Oberto lineups in non-blowout situations.

8.  Michael Finley ups his fiber pill intake from two to four per day.

9.  Pop says "We're just trying to get everybody healthy for the playoffs."

10.  Spurs fans start talking about the real season starting.

11.  The Spurs finish with 48-49 wins and the seventh seed.

12.  The Spurs lose in the first round in six games to either the Lakers, New Orleans or Houston.

That's how I see it going down.  I still plan on watching, and I still am looking forward to the season.  Seriously.  I'm going to try and not think about the waning years of Tim's career, and how they're being squandered.  Instead I'll relish the games where Tony gets all pissy and decides to embarrass the opposing PG for four quarters.  And the games where Tim gets 24 and 15 and doesn't break a sweat, or the times when Manu reminds me how much better he is than Ray Allen.  It might be all the season affords us, but gosh dang it, it's something.