Kevin Durant’s defection to the Golden State Warriors has reignited one of the NBA’s more relevant debates: that one about super teams. Parity and high-powered basketball often don’t go hand in hand, and the balance between supposed fairness and an excellent television product has always been difficult to find in this league.
When asked for his thoughts on all of this star-driven hullabaloo during Team USA press availability, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich responded with his usual gruff levity.
“Naaaah,” Popovich told Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group when asked if his slew of All-Stars and future of Hall of Famers moves his Spurs into that Super Team category. “I just count the championships.”
Ringzzzz logic notwithstanding, the question of which teams are “super” is always full of holes.
At the end of the day, Durant went to the Bay for reasons similar to those that have made San Antonio an unlikely basketball capital for two decades: a top-down effectiveness of organization, spearheaded by singular superstar talent. Greatness like that of the Spurs — and the Warriors, if they can keep this success up for a lot longer — comes not from splashy signings, but from a team that behaves like a thriving company in all its nooks and crannies. Pop’s awareness of the falsehoods in the news cycles, and of just how thorough one must be in this league, is what makes him so all-knowing in his sly responses.
