Most people have heard of the five stages of grief. As described by author David Kessler:
“The five stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling.But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or in a prescribed order.”
But I am not writing about grief today. No, I am writing about hope
— the five stages of hope. The Spurs have had two recent games in which fans realistically had no hope that our favorite team could pull out a win.
One of those games was the second of a back-to-back on a cold February night in Toronto. (The words “February night in Toronto” are always preceded either by “snowy”, ‘freezing” or “cold”.) The night before, the Spurs had beaten the “best record in the league” Pistons in an extremely physical game against the number one defense in the NBA. In Toronto barely 24 hours later, the Spurs trailed 90-75 with less than a minute left in the third quarter. While fans had little to no hope, the players had other thoughts. After making a three to close the gap to 12 entering the fourth, the Spurs outscored the home team by 32-17 in the final quarter to win by 110-107. In some ways, that win was more impressive than the win the night before.
Last Friday against the Clippers was perhaps even more unlikely. Once again, it came 24 hours after an emotional homecoming win against those same Pistons in which Victor Wembanya played a season-high 39 minutes, which meant he was on a severe minutes restriction against the Clippers. Even worse, the Spurs fell behind by even more than in the Raptor game, trailing 75-50 in the third quarted. Check out the ESPN odds of the Clippers winning after Kawhi Leonard’s three put the Clippers up by 25 points:
+3 Points 9:23 – 3rd
Kawhi Leonard makes 26-foot three point jumper (Kris Dunn assists)
75-50
Win %: LAC, 98.8
Once again, the Spurs kept hope alive, outscoring the Clippers by 9 in the third quarter (thank you, Julian Champagnie!) and by 15 in the fourth. Yes, hope is a powerful thing.
But hope does not spring from nothing, nor does it occur suddenly or magically in a gym in Toronto or San Antonio. Like grief, hope comes in stages. Like grief, hope can arise in people, or teams, after different stages and in different orders.
For this Spurs team, I believe the first stage of developing hope arose from the strength of the organization. Perhaps we can describe this stage as having a solid foundation or core — the Spurs, with their remarkable history of success, certainly provide that. This also meant instilling the right habits. Even when the team was not winning, the coaches insured the players played the right way and learned the structure and effort that makes winning possible.
The second stage in the Spurs journey was planning. Even when painful to do so, the Spurs organization planned their future. This meant trading away popular and talented players such as Dejounte Murray and Derrick White. While the organization and fans loved what those players contributed, they knew that they could not bring the team to the level we wanted. Even bringing in Chris Paul on a one-year deal last year was part of the planning, and learning, process.
The next stage for the Spurs was good fortune — being in the right place at the right time. For the Spurs, this happened when they won the lottery the same year that Victor entered the draft. We can call this stage “opportunity”. Others could call this “karma”. Certainly the entire NBA was happy that he landed with the Spurs, with their history of success and their solid organization. Pairing him, with his immense desire to succeed, with an organization known for its success, has been a perfect marriage. And while the Spurs were fortunate to be the team to select him, the organization’s intelligence led to the drafting of Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper — plus the under-rated selection in the last draft of Carter Bryant with the 14th pick,
The fourth stage was, and remains, patience. The Spurs have not attempted to skip any steps on their way back to relevance. The only significant trade they have made to bring in talent was the trade for De”Aaron Fox, a player who really wanted to come play in San Antonio. And acquiring Fox did not require squandering significant future capital — the only one of their picks surrendered was next year’s first round pick. That pick will surely be in the high 20’s, and thus reasonably expendable.
The fifth stage of hope is belief — an outgrowth of the prior four steps. Because of the solid foundation, the careful planning, the good fortune to take advantage of opportunity, and the patience to stick with it the plan, the Spurs, their players and their fans now can sincerely believe that this will all come together. And because the players and coaching staff believed that they could be better than everyone else predicted, they are now significantly ahead of everyone else’s schedule, but not their own. Which is why we all have high hopes, not only for the bright future but also for the blindingly breathtaking present.
