SAN ANTONIO — The Spurs trail the NBA Finals 3-1, thousands of Knicks fans expected to be in San Antonio for Game 5 of the series on Saturday night, and only a comeback of historic proportions will deny New York a title now.
Are Spurs fans worried? Maybe.
Do Spurs fans still believe? Absolutely.
Among the team's slogans is the phrase “Por Vida.” Translated, it means “For Life.” Generations of fans in San Antonio have held those words dear through the eras led by George Gervin to David Robinson to Tim Duncan to, now, Victor Wembanyama. And even now, with the Knicks on the brink of winning this championship, the words ring true among Spurs fans.
“With absolute certainty, always,” Joe Michael Benavides, the boys basketball coach at Hebbronville High School — some 150 miles from San Antonio — said when asked if he was still a Spurs fan.
Make no mistake, there are many like Benavides. Frost Bank Center will be electric when the Spurs take the floor on Saturday night, with the stands filled by those who wore San Antonio silver and black to the game.
Thing is, there will be a copious amount of New York blue and orange in there as well.
There are some fans who sold their tickets on secondary markets for Game 5. It's unclear how many, but with prices topping $1,500 apiece in the highest rows and reaching $5,000 or more in the lower level — big money for sure, yet a sliver of what Knicks fans paid for Games 3 and 4 — it's easy to see why some ticketholders are making business decisions instead of basketball ones.
“Of course I’m upset with Spurs fans selling their tickets, but if they can’t afford ‘em, nothing can be done,” said Rick Vela, known to Spurs fans as the “Masked Bandido Of San Antonio.” “Just sad these Knicks fans have to buy ’em, but their arena is way worse with those ticket prices.”
Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox understands.
“People are making money,” Fox said. “It’s the economy we live in. It’s the world we live in. Am I upset about it? No. Do I understand it? Sure. I don’t think that changes what happens on the court.”
It is not a frontrunning fan base in San Antonio. The city celebrated five NBA championships and had a record-setting run of 22 straight postseason appearances under Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich, but Spurs fans also suffered for decades.
There was the heartbreak of blowing a 3-1 lead to the then-Washington Bullets in the 1979 Eastern Conference finals. Mention Derek Fisher's game-winning jumper with 0.4 seconds in Game 5 that helped the Los Angeles Lakers win the 2004 NBA Western Conference semifinals at your own peril in this city; it'll go over as well as saying, “I dislike cowboy hats.” And the pain of Wednesday night has not subsided either, after the Spurs blew a 29-point lead in losing 107-106 to the Knicks in Game 4.
The Spurs are the only major pro team in town. There's no Yankees, no Mets, no Nets, no Rangers, no Islanders, no Devils, no Liberty, no NYCFC, no Red Bulls here. The Spurs are San Antonio's everything.
“They're still there for us," said Rene Gonzalez, still proudly flying a Spurs car flag on his truck. “They still bring this community together.”
Those who think trailing 3-1 in the NBA Finals is going to darken the spirits of Spurs fans might get a two-word answer in San Antonio.
¿Estas loco?
You're crazy.
“All year these boys have proven everyone wrong,” said Raylyn Boyson, a member of the Spurs superfan group, The Jackals, a group born from an idea by Wembanyama to have San Antonio fans mimic what happens at games in his native Europe. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t keep believing. If anyone is going to defy all odds, it’s this group.”
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