How did this happen?

How are we here again? How have we not learned by now?

Earlier this year, we all wrote off the San Antonio Spurs. We did it. We did it again, even though it’s been battered in our brains for a decade that you can’t write off the Spurs. We all gave the usual “You can’t bet against the infrastructure” caveat, but none of us really believed it.

Kawhi Leonard is hurt, we said. Tony Parker has finally lost a step, we said. Manu Ginobili got old, we said. Tim Duncan is playing great, but he can’t keep this up, we said. The role players aren’t as good, we said.

We were dumb. We were dumb just like we are every year, because we can’t seem to learn that you don’t bet against the infrastructure.

In February, I wrote this:

Right now, I don’t think the Spurs could beat the Warriors four of seven, but I’m tired of counting out Popovich and Tim Duncan. So sure, the Spurs can beat the Warriors, because they’re the Spurs and they’ve earned that.

I’ll admit something: I didn’t really believe it. I wrote it because I was tired of getting burned by the Spurs every season, and I was tired of saying “This is the year it ends” every year. For five straight years I’ve been hosed. So I just wrote that, to cover my bases.

I was smart.

The Spurs are now the hottest team in the NBA. Of course they are. Right now I don’t know who I’d pick between the Spurs and the Warriors in a seven-game series. I have no idea how Gregg Popovich did it, but he did it again, and the Spurs are peaking at just the right time.

The Spurs have won nine straight games. They’re killing teams, and they’re killing good teams, too. Tony Parker looks fresh again. Tim Duncan continues to awkwardly dance right in Father Time’s face.

Kawhi Leonard is healthy, and looking like the guy many thought would make a run at an MVP award this year. He’s one of the league’s best defensive players, can guard four positions, and is fitting beautifully into the Spurs offense. The Spurs are happy to hand him the keys, as well. Read this quote from Tony Parker:

https://twitter.com/danmccarneySAEN/status/586007830458544128/

That has to be terrifying everyone.

Not enough? This stat was dropped during the first quarter in a Spurs win against the Rockets on Wednesday night, and all anyone could do was chuckle:

Let this be a lesson to every aspiring sportswriter or just anyone who likes talking about sports for a living: If anyone ever asks you who’s going to be in the Western Conference Finals this year, just say the San Antonio Spurs. Just do it. Don’t even think twice about it.

It needs to be automatic. Like if your mom asks you what you were up late watching on your computer, you respond: Nothing. If someone asks you who is going to be in the Western Conference Finals, you say: The Spurs. Feel free to get creative with the other team.

But until Popovich, Duncan, Ginobili, Parker and Kawhi Leonard all leave the team, and I mean every single one of them, whether to retirement or trade or to pursue winemaking or form the world’s worst boy band or whatever, you don’t count them out. Enough is enough.