For a while this playoff season, the San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Red Wings were locked in a battle for supremacy in the “team that wouldn’t go away” category and they were taking this battle quite seriously, despite coming at it from vastly different directions. The Red Wings were a somewhat faded version of their dynastic selves, stalwarts having retired and a new generation of players making Wings fans check their programs repeatedly, but still, making the N.H.L. playoffs for a 22nd straight season — and needing a big late-season push to do it — forced everyone to stop and pay homage.

The Spurs, though, in their own unshakable way, have moved ahead in this contest. They did so not only by shoving the Grizzlies out of the N.B.A.'s Western Conference finals in an emphatic sweep, but by being the same old Spurs. The core of this team appears not to have changed since the Nixon administration. You half expect if you opened Tim Duncan’s passport, you’d find his age listed as 00.

This is something to marvel at too, as J.A. Adande writes on ESPN.com, even if the Spurs’ brand of basketball hurts your eyes and makes television executives weep. Yes, here comes Tony Parker again, bucking the odds by getting even better as the years go by, writes Gregg Doyel on CBSSports.com, passing to Duncan again, greeted by the same scowling expression Coach Gregg Popovich hasn’t felt the need to change for decades. A year ago, Parker promised these guys they weren’t done yet, that Oklahoma City hadn’t passed them by once and for all, writes Marc Spears on Yahoo.com, and by gosh if he wasn’t right. Again. Still. Perhaps forever.

The Spurs can now sit back, apply their ice packs and watch as Miami tries to finish off the Pacers, that series inexplicably being only 2-1 and fostering a new appreciation of the much-maligned Chris Bosh, Ian Thomsen writes on SI.com. Or, the Spurs can choose to flip over to hockey and find the Wings faring not as well in the race to stay annoyingly relevant.