These Aren’t Your Father’s Lakers or Spurs

Ryan and Matt discuss the downfall of Los Angeles and San Antonio

Matt Bassin: Ryan would you believe that once upon a time, the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs met seven out of 16 years in which these two teams won 10 combined NBA championships. In fact, their meeting in 1999, when the Spurs swept the Lakers were the final games played at the Great Western Forum, before the Lakers moved to staple center and Christened it with a brand new championship that very first year, these two teams owned the Western conference for a very long time.

That is not the case anymore. Lakers and Spurs fighting each other for that 10th and final play in a playoff spot as we speak.

Ryan Griffin: Yeah. It’s. It’s really a 180 of what we’ve seen even in the last 20 years. Two years ago, the Lakers won the championship and the Spurs won the championship like five years before that or something. Six years, I think.

But they’ve been the two dominant teams in the Western conference and really the entire NBA my entire life. It’ll disperse had those five titles, the Lakers won three, then they won two and they won another one just a couple of years ago. And it’s teams that, you’d never thought I guess, would fall off or, you assumed once guys started to leave.

They always seem like they reloaded. Even when Tim Duncan was getting old, they brought in Kawhi Leonard and boom, here’s another title and another, finals MVP. So for the Lakers and the spurs to now be battling it out in what, during their reign, they wouldn’t have even had the chance at the playoffs, right?

The 10th and the 11th seat that they are right now. They wouldn’t be in it, just be the top eight. So to have this almost like this participation, the little tournament to get into the playoffs is the best way I can describe it. Like this would not have been the case when these two teams were really ruling the NBA.

They have probably the two greatest coaches in basketball of all time, we were going head to head and those rivalries with Gregg Popovich and with Phil Jackson, obviously some of the greatest players, right? Kobe, even LeBron, and Anthony Davis, again, two years ago, Kawhi, Tim Duncan, David Robinson. So if you are a little bit of an older NBA fan, I’m sure this is a, this is something that hurts you to see these two Kings finally have fallen so far to just be battling it out, to have a chance just to get into the playoffs. And it’s something again, if you would’ve told me this 10 years ago, I would’ve said you’re out of your mind.

These two organizations are just too good to do that.

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