The San Antonio Spurs have enjoyed so much success over the past two decades in large part because of the team atmosphere they have created.
Their players care for one another, share the spotlight, and have fully embraced what it means to be a team. This particular quote from Tony Parker after the team’s 110-98 win over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night shows how unselfish their players are. Keep in mind that Parker scored a team-high 27 points, which was his most in nearly a month, as Kawhi Leonard has been leading the team in scoring lately. He was asked how they balance the scoring.
“It’s like me and Manu back in the day,” Parker said via the San Antonio Express News’ Dan McCarney. “We have to share, you have to wait your turn and sometimes I won’t see the ball for a long time, because Kawhi is unbelievable and it’s going to be Kawhi’s team anyway. Like Timmy transitioned to Manu, Manu transitioned to me and now it’s going to be transitioned to Kawhi. I’ll try to do my best to stay aggressive and be involved, but Kawhi is going to be the man.
“He’s playing great and sometimes I’ll have nights like this where I have the ball. bust most of the time it’s going to be Kawhi. We have to transition to that. He’s young, he’s playing great, and he’s going to demand double teams. So I’ll play off him, like all those years I did with Timmy. I’ll just stand in the corner and just wait for Timmy to do his thing. We always did a great job sharing and wait our turn. It will be no different with me.”
If there are any egos on that team, you’ll have to show me where because it’s hard to see them. They don’t have guys trying to hog the ball late in their careers because they are used to being stars; they have guys who understand their place and value winning over everything else.
There is an exceptional selfless culture of winning in San Antonio, and that is a huge reason why they have been so good for so long. Many players know what it takes to fit into a role, they just choose not to accept it. It takes special players and special coaches to get everyone to buy in the way the Spurs have.
