The San Antonio Spurs

My only sports-related passion is San Antonio Spurs basketball. I yell at the screen. I jump up. I clap, gasp, declaim about Bowen's corner 3's to whoever's in the room, and generally make a fool of myself. I'd say I love Spurs basketball better than I've loved some of my girlfriends, but that really wouldn't be fair - I've known the Spurs much longer than any of them.

I grew up in San Antonio watching the Spurs with my Dad at the old HemisFair Arena. Now, the Spurs are acknowledged as a dominating force in the league, the team to beat in the playoffs (although we've never grabbed headlines like a Shaq or a Kolby). Growing up, it was years of watching the team grow, struggle and change.

It's been a decades-long basketball arc. All through the Robinson era, we kept getting so frustratingly close to greatness, and then we'd lose in the first two rounds of the playoffs. I even remember a joke about it in a season two episode of the Simpsons.

I watched the Spurs struggle until 1999, when they beat the Knicks for their first championship. The '99 championship came just as Robinson was winding down his career and the Tim Duncan era was starting. A lot of the old team I'd grown up with was approaching retirement, and Duncan showed the promise that he's delivered on since then. I know I've got nothing on Red Sox fans, but what an amazing pay off.

With three championships, the last six years have been incredible for Spurs basketball fans. Now it's finals season, and I get to watch four vastly entertaining rounds (if we're lucky) of the best basketball in the world. I'm going to have a lot to say about them.