Be Thankful This Year For The San Antonio Spurs

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And commentator Frank DeFord is about to tell us about something he is thankful for.

FRANK DEFORD, BYLINE: Has there ever been a team in any sport in the United States that everybody loves as much as the San Antonio Spurs? Sure, there have been popular teams - the Yankees and Dodgers, the Cowboys - when they were America's team and not Jerry Jones' team - Notre Dame. But all those teams engendered almost as much hate as love. But everybody loves the Spurs. You love the Spurs. I love the Spurs. A poll I took showed that 107 percent of the people polled approved of the Spurs, with a plus or minus factor of four. So as many as 111 percent of all Americans approve of the Spurs. Home, home on the range where never is heard a dis-spur-aging word. Honestly, have you ever heard anyone criticize the Spurs?No. The good feeling about our Spurs - and yes, they are our Spurs - is because they're certified to do everything right. The players are all gentlemen. They're never selfish. They play like a team. They win. They come from all sorts of countries and are all shades of the human spectrum. In fact, the Spurs are so admired, so precious, they don't just come in regular-people colors, but more like furnishings out of a fancy upscale catalog. They are walnut and pearl, okra, burnt sienna, fawn, chestnut. And despite their international brotherhood roster, our Spurs cannot be called the United Nations of sport because some folks don't like the United Nations. No, our Spurs are the UNESCO of sport. Our Spurs are not greedy. They are nonpartisan.If only our Spurs were Congress. They pass the ball and play defense. The players would not leave little, itty bitty San Antonio for the filthy lucre that we identify with big markets. No. Heaven forbid, no. They are forever loyal to that quaint metropolitan Alamo. Tim Duncan has been the star Spur forever, but he is so humble. He actually graduated from college and has a regular person's name - just Tim. There once was only one beloved Tim, who was Tiny Tim. But now there is the beloved tall Tim, too. God bless us everyone. God bless our Spurs. The Spurs' coach, as you might imagine, is called Pop.Remember when we called our dads pop? Pop is a one-man Dayton Accord. His father is a Serb, his mother Croat. Pop was an Air Force officer defending America before he became the beloved coach of the Spurs. The modest general manager, whoever he is, finds wonderful players in various shades in all parts of Mother Earth and brings them to Pop. Pop even has a female coach on his staff. So our Spurs are also now the women's suffrage of sport. On this Thanksgiving, as we Americans gather around the family table, let us be grateful that for all that is wrong with sport, we can always be thankful that we have our Spurs. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.