Even in defeat, Spurs hint at what’s ahead

What can I say? I caught myself a bad case of Wemby fever.

So, May 17, the day after the Spurs won the NBA draft lottery, guaranteeing them the right to select French phenom Victor Wembanyama, I plunked down $200 for a season-ticket deposit.

I’d been living in San Antonio for 21 years. I’d been a pretty ardent Spurs fan for the entirety of that time.

I’d faithfully worn my Manu Ginobili/Scarface “I Want What’s Coming to Me: Another Ring!” T-shirt. I’d grieved for a few months over the Derek Fisher and Ray Allen shots. I’d saved my collectible Slam Duncan O’s cereal box.

But I’d always limited myself to attending one or two games per season. This time, it was different. I wanted to be on the ground floor of history. I wanted to be the basketball equivalent of the person who tells their kids, “Yeah, I was living in Minneapolis back in January of ’79, when I just happened to swing by the Capri Theater and figured I’d check out the debut concert by this go-getter kid named

Prince.”

On Saturday, May 20, I stood in line outside the AT&T Center (soon to be renamed the Frost

Bank Center) with a bunch of other ground-floor-of-history types, so I could purchase my tickets and select my seats.

Trying to maintain some sense of frugality, even as the fever overtook me, I opted for a 10-game Texas Showdown package, which included two games with the Houston Rockets and one with the Dallas Mavericks. It’s been a bumpy ride.

I was there when Wemby got his first NBA regular season win, a thrilling overtime comeback victory over the Rockets that prompted him to hop across the court in celebration and stirred the kind of mass euphoria

from exiting fans that I associate with some of the team’s biggest playoff wins.

That was the first and last regular season win I’ve seen in person this season. I’m on a seven-game losing streak, with one game to go.

Like many other Spurs fans, I had way-too-optimistic expectations for this season.

Given that the team won 22 games last season while they were tanking to get a shot at the first draft pick, I figured that this season, with more experience and the addition of Wemby, 40 wins and a flirtation with the playoffs might not be out of the

question. Instead, they’re on pace for fewer than 20 wins, which would give them the worst record in franchise history.

Every game I’ve attended has included flashes of brilliance, hints of better days ahead. But they’ve also included frustrating stretches when you suddenly see an epidemic of sloppy passes, ill-advised shots and defensive breakdowns.

A couple weeks ago, I took my daughter to see the Spurs play Golden State. This was a Warriors team playing without

Steph Curry. A Warriors team the Spurs had handled pretty easily two nights earlier in San Francisco, without the Spurs’ two best players: Wemby and Devin Vassell.

Both of them were back for the game my daughter and I attended. As the Spurs built a 10-point lead early in the third quarter, I told myself this would surely be the first time she’d get to see a Spurs win this season. What followed was a 28-4 run by the Warriors and another Spurs loss.

Even with those disappointments, I’ve had a great experience watching this young team. Their record doesn’t fully convey it, but the Spurs’ progress over the past four months is evident.

Wemby’s development has been a joy to watch, and I’m consistently impressed by the team’s emotional resilience through tons of adversity.

At the games, you can sense that Spurs fans have recalibrated their expectations over the course of the season and are appreciating the incremental steps, rather than getting hung up on the team’s record.

I got to see an epic, down-tothe-wire duel between Wemby and Giannis Antetokounmpo; a scolding of the crowd by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich for booing former Spur Kawhi Leonard; and a series of uncanny lob passes by Luka Doncic. Not to mention a halftime baby race and a tower-of-chairs daredevil stunt by the Amazing Sladek that had me more nervous than Game 7 of the 2005 Finals.

Better days are coming for the Spurs. But I’ve enjoyed these days just fine.

Sam Owens/Staff photographer Spurs rookie center Victor Wembanyama reacts during a rare win, this one over the Lakers in December. Victories have been few and far between, yet the season has been something special.