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Meanwhile...

The San Antonio Spurs of the NBA have won 19 consecutive games, a team record. They also own the league's best record. They look poised to make another run at a championship.

I love the Spurs. They've been underrated the entire time Gregg Popovich has been the head coach. He took over in 1996. The Spurs have managed to win 4 NBA titles without anyone noticing. They are business-like, reserved, fundamentally sound, and all the other things winning teams do, without being despised. "Universally respected" is more like it. You'd like their fans: passionate, loyal, positive, die-hard. In fact, these fans and this team remind me of someone else.

The St. Louis Cardinals. Yes, those Cardinals. Despite some recent noise that the Cardinals don't deserve their unofficial moniker as the best fans in baseball, and that their "aw shucks" persona is a pretense, it isn't. It's not for the Spurs, either. They are the quintessential middle-market Everyman kind of team, and as much as they've played the dream-crushers to teams with new-found postseason success, most people would like the Spurs, as long as the Miami Heat are there to play the heel.

As a proud fan of the Cardinals, and "doing it the right way," I'm here to announce that I'm a fan of the Spurs. This isn't a shock to some of you, but I'm putting it out there. GO, SPURS, GO!

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