Suns, Spurs building a new rivalry

By Eric Lorenz
West Times Staff

It used to be Los Angeles that inspired the wrath of Phoenix fans in the desert. But those days seem like ancient history lately. A silver and black cloud has begun to eclipse the team from Tinseltown, and all of a sudden, the San Antonio Spurs are the team to hate.

Most fans still despise the Lakers and their “pompous” star, Kobe Bryant, but the trio of Manu Ginobili, Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry are gaining ground.

Fans still remember the 2007 playoffs when Bruce Bowen put a knee into Steve Nash’s groin, Amaré Stoudemire’s claim that Bowen kicked him on a dunk attempt, or Robert Horry’s infamous hip check of Nash into the scorer’s table, leading to suspensions for both Stoudemire and Boris Diaw in the pivotal Game 5.

San Antonio went on to take the series in six games, inspiring talk of a fledgling rivalry and dreams of a rematch.

Now in 2008, Phoenix fans once again welcomed San Antonio to the desert, once again saw the flopping that the Spurs have become notorious for and once again saw their team fall into a hole.

“I think they do some questionable things, like (Bruce) Bowen especially,” said West campus student and Suns fan George Macrodimitris. Bowen wasn’t the only Spur that he felt used some questionable tactics, however. “Ginobili, when he flops, he’ll flop back into people’s knees ...

“There’s certainly a rivalry. I think there’s more of a professional respect thing as far as that goes. The Spurs are basically the one team that the Suns can never seem to get past in the playoffs,” said Macrodimitris.

That would seem to be the case. Since 2003, San Antonio is 3-0 against Phoenix in playoff series and was up 3-1 in the current series entering Game 5 in San Antonio. In fact, Phoenix has yet to push the Spurs to a Game 7.

Not only that, but they also seem to come up with the improbable plays to break the Suns’ hearts as Tim Duncan did in Game 1 of the current series by hitting a 3-pointer to send the game to double-OT where the Spurs eventually pulled out the win.

“To be honest, the way the Spurs have been handling the Suns the last few games, I don’t even know if the Spurs really even consider the Suns that great of a hurdle,” Macrodimitris said.

But whether or not the Spurs consider the Suns a rival, Suns fans will still exercise their inalienable right to boo.