NBA Finals: San Antonio Spurs vs. Miami Heat – last ‘thought’ standing

Gregg Popovich gathers his team during Game Four of the 2013 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs on June 13, 2013 at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. (Getty Images)

The clash of philosophies couldn’t be starker – the team that relies on process versus the team that relies on people.

And it confuses you about whom to root for if you don’t have a clear favourite.

Don’t you want the veteran team which personifies loyalty, trust and teamwork and is coached by a strict father figure aptly nicknamed Pop to win? Wouldn’t you want to see the perseverance of the organisation and the players like Tim Duncan who could have skipped boats in search of a championship, be rewarded? Would it not break your heart if the extremely talented, tremendously graceful but uncharacteristically humble NBA stars like Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker were unable to have another ring?

And then again, shouldn’t talent be aptly rewarded? Should not a team who set the league record for the second-longest streak have nothing left to prove, if consistency is what a gruelling NBA season seeks to test? Don’t you want the inspirational struggle of LeBron and his mother to have another ring to be proud of and to give hope to the rest of the kids out there? Don’t you want the affable, humble and rigorously dedicated all-time three point leader in Ray Allen be rewarded one more time? If talent, effort and intensity don’t deserve a ring, what does?

In a win or go home situation like the post-season, we throw the numbers out of the window. No one cares about what happened before; no one cares that you have the most efficient offensive or defensive system in the world; no one cares that you have the win streak; no one cares that you are the best; no one cares whether you swept your conference finals or had to go to a game 7; no one cares about anything except who won the ring.

That is the travesty of professional sports.

The wins are so hard fought that we forget how hard the fight was. We will invariably perceive the winner’s philosophy to be the superior one. Teams will try to replicate what is championed this year.

Teams have already started sacking coaches despite them having taken their teams to franchise records (Lionel Hollins of the Memphis Grizzlies, George Karl of the Denver Nuggets and Vinny Del Negro of the LA Clippers).

Children in small rooms in far off countries will seek inspiration. An NBA hopeful in a hamlet in India or in a gym in Atlanta will close his eyes and see himself lifting the trophy. We can only hope that time will reward the philosophy which will do greater good.

This is after all, more than a game.