NBA Finals 2013: San Antonio Spurs fall just short, face uncertain future

San Antonio exits with a long list of indelible moments this season. Let’s look back on some of those.

San Antonio, as SB Nation’s Tom Ziller wrote earlier in the Spurs’ run to the championship, has essentially done everything right over the last 15 years of their existence. There were minor hiccups, sure, but the Spurs built themselves from the inside while following their coach’s lead to being a proper professional sports team. It hasn’t always been exciting, but San Antonio certainly earned the fanfare they should receive after upending basketball’s favorite bandwagon.

Now that the season is over, we can peer into the crystal ball and examine what’s next for these two teams.

Duncan was asked after the game if he’ll be back for next season, and responded in a typically abrupt and salty fashion the Spurs have made a calling card. Duncan said he’s still under contract for next season so he plans on returning to the Spurs and again chasing his fifth title.

Spurs blog Pounding the Rock has provided excellent coverage of the team for the entire season, so of course their initial reaction piece provided a pitch-perfect response to a difficult situation:

The Spurs still have plenty of terrific players on their roster, and the emergence of Kawhi Leonard is the brightest beacon of hope for San Antonio fans hoping for another run at a title in 2013-14:

What exactly is a dynasty? Have the Spurs had one? We take the word from lines of kings, lines that when interrupted were finished because one rich dude killed some other rich dude with a sword. We’ve adapted it to sports to refer to teams that are exceptionally strong for certain periods of times.

But the Spurs never won back-to-back. The best they did was skip a year, winning in 2003, 2005, and 2007.

Duncan was so tired he didn’t even appear to understand the reporter’s line of questioning. Here’s the exact sequence:

Reporter: “I know this is early, but are you definitely back? Do you expect most of your core guys to be back?”

SB Nation’s Paul Flannery asked Popovich if he could elaborate on calling Game 7 “torture”, and if he could appreciate the high-level of basketball displayed by both teams now that the series was over.

“It was a great series. In all honesty even in defeat I’m starting to enjoy what our group accomplished already when I look back. You need to do that when you put it in perspective. Its no fun to lose, but we lost to a better team. You can live with that if you gave it our best, and we did.” Popovich responded.