San Antonio Spurs

My favorite basketball team is the San Antonio Spurs. They are located in San Antonio, Texas. They are the reigning National Basketball Association, NBA champions. They are five time champions of the NBA. The coach of the San Antonio Spurs is Gregg Popovich, a stern tactician who has coached the Spurs to over one thousand wins. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker lead the core of the Spurs team. The reason why I am focusing this blog entry on my favorite basketball team is because many people don't know why I root for them and fans of the game are criticizing their performance this season.

I root for the San Antonio Spurs because it is my mother's favorite basketball team. She has been a fan since the mid 1990's with players like David Robertson and Tim Duncan, who was drafted to the NBA in 1997. She always tells me about games that included great performances from the "Twin Towers" which consisted of Robertson and Duncan, two seven foot players who led the team to their first championship in 1999. They have qualified for the playoffs every year since 1998. The big three of Duncan, 38, Ginobili, 37, and Parker, 32, are considered old in basketball years, especially that they have been playing together since 2004.

Lately sports fans are talking negatively about the Spurs and it concerns me. They are currently on their second four game losing streak of the year. The Western Conference is the toughest conference in the NBA and currently are in seventh place. Plenty of sports analysts say that "they are not playing like a playoff team" or "they don't have enough talent to repeat as champions."

In my opinion, the Spurs play like the ultimate team. The way the Spurs pass the ball has influenced multiple teams to emulate their offensive schemes. Fans and media members talk about the decline of the team because father time is catching up to them. People who do not follow the Spurs are tired of seeing the team's success, since they have not missed the playoffs since 1998 or have participated in the past two NBA Finals. I say that as long as the Spurs make the playoffs, they will be a tough team to eliminate.

 

Vocabulary:

1) reigning (adjective)- currently holds particular title

2) champions (noun)- person who has defeated all rivals in competition

3) core (noun)- most important part of something

4) qualified (verb)- be entitled to or have privileged

5) concerns (verb)- to worry; be anxious of

6) analysts (noun)- person who conducts conversation on topics

7) emulate (verb)- reproduce action

8) schemes (noun)- plan or plot

Vocabulary Activity:

Directions: Fill in the blanks using the vocabulary words from above

1) The sports __________ discussed the last play of the game.

2) The criminals had a series of __________ against the bank branch.

3) The winning dodgeball team are the ___________ of the tournament.

4) Ms. Molloy is a __________ nurse.

5) The teacher candidate ___________ what the teacher had taught the period before.

6) San Francisco Giants are the ___________ champions of baseball.

7) Captains of sport teams are usually the __________ of the team.

8) I always have __________ before I take medicine.

Grammar Point:

A noun is a person, place or thing. However, proper nouns name a specific person (Tim Duncan), place (San Antonio, Texas) or thing (the NBA) and is almost always capitalized. Common nouns are everything else that is not capitalized (a basketball).

Grammar Activity:

Directions: Write out three proper nouns for famous people/athletes/celebrities. You could describe who they are, where they are from and what or who do they work for.

For example: Tim Duncan, a basketball player from the Virgin Islands, plays professional basketball for the San Antonio Spurs.