Much to my chagrin i fear the NBA finals have already been played.

With that said I have to say that after reading through a recent post by my man Bri Moore, I feel that I can safely make the assumption that no one outside of South Texas is dissapointed the Spurs are not representing the West in this year's finals.  With Moore's post and the comments thereafter to back my assumption, its evident that there is a general feeling amongst almost everyone that the Spurs are boring

But why?

Outside of the Dallas' game two thrashing of San Antonio, which I unfortunately payed to witness, was the west semifinal not one of the most riveting and epic 7 game series' in recent memory?  Two overtime games, including game 7!  The other four games being decided by a grand total of 9 points.  Of those four two being decided by only a point.  All four were still any team's game inside 2 minutes  I was literally emotionally drained after almost every game in the series.  This is the first time in my life that I was ever happy to see a series end with my team coming up short, simply because these nail-biting, down-to-the-wire, "balls to the wall" contests were more than i could take.

Is this something that only a Spurs fan can appreciate?  Can one person look me in the eye after watching that series and tell me that they were not entertained by every game save game two?  I will concede to the fact that the Spurs don't put up a lot of points.  Does this make them boring?  What really matters in an NBA game?  Is it not the fourth quarter? 

What the Spurs did in game 7 was incredible.  After weathering lights out shooting by the Mavericks in the first half, and being down by as much as 20 at one point, they were still able to somehow claw their way back into it. 

How about the boring Tim Duncan.  41 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 assists.  He gave everything he had in that second half.  He was so cramped and dehydrated after the game that he literally went straight from the press conference to the trainer's room and was put on IV's for several hours to rehydrate himself.  Isn't this what its all about?  He and his fellow teammates showed more heart than I have ever witnessed.  I have never been more proud of my team.  Not when we won our first title in '99, or after finally getting past the Lakers in '03 to take the title, or even last year after winning the finals in a hard fought game 7.

As a Spurs fan it hurts to see my team not in the finals, but as an NBA fan it hurts even more to hear that almost everyone is glad that they aren't.  Without taking anything from the Mavericks, I am still not convinced they are better than the Spurs.  Furthermore, the Spurs deserve a little more respect than hearing everyone say they are glad they aren't in the finals.  They are just as an exciting club to watch as the next team.  Granted, they come from a small market down in San Antonio where seemingly no one wants to watch them not because they are boring, but more likelt because they are such a small market team with an equally small fan base.  Could that be what its really about?  They don't have a colorful player similar to the likes of Shaq, or an even more colorful owner like Mark Cuban.

Ask anyone in San Antonio and they will tell you.  Down here we love our Spurs.  To us, we love them because they are just as exciting to us as the Lakers are to those crazy cats from Los Angeles.  Watch highlights from the epic west semifinal from this year and I bet you won't disagree.