FanPost

"What happened last year definitely helped our drive"


The teamwork, humility, selflessness, and dedication of the recently crowned, NBA champion San Antonio Spurs was a spectacle to watch that transcends all sports. This is an age where individual players seek personal glory, and organizations are in a constantly changing search for a model to get to the top. But the team with stability, continuity, and high character, beat the team who included the greatest player in the league. As a reward, they received the trophy all other owners, coaches, and players strive for.

The impressive thing about this championship, though, was not just the climb to the top. It was the reaction of the entire team to the previous seasons failure. One year ago, the Spurs were one win away from winning the ultimate prize. In fact, they were seconds away. But not only did they lose game 6, a game they should have won. They lost game 7, despite a masterful performance by their leader, Tim Duncan. A heartbreaking loss, that could have been the end of an era.

But they didn't sulk or give up. They used that loss as fuel to get back to the top and get another chance.

"What happened last year definitely helped our drive," Tim Duncan said after the Spurs finished off the Miami Heat 104-87 on Sunday night to win their fifth NBA title since 1999. "We very easily could have reacted in a different way. But we reacted the right way. We got great leadership from Pop, who came back absolutely fired up and ready to go.

"To push us this far and this hard and come out with the championship is amazing."

Coach Popovich spoke similarly.

"Last year's loss was devastating," Popovich said. "A day didn't go by where I didn't think about Game 6. For the group to have the fortitude to get back to this spot, it just speaks volumes about how they're constituted and what kind of fiber they have."

And I think we know how this relates to Denver Bronco football. Their situation is not unsimilar. Two years in a row they have lost to the eventual Champions. Last year was in the Big Game itself. They too got close to the top, only to see another team celebrate the finish. How will the Denver Broncos react? Do they have the character to get back? Does a day go by where they don't think about the haunted, cold, dark night in February when they saw another team take what they felt was rightfully theirs?

Peyton commented on the disappointment of the Super Bowl loss.

"I don’t really have a word for it. Obviously it was disappointing and we’ll use that to fuel us this offseason and hopefully it’ll make us better,"

John Elway certainly sends the right message by signing three pro bowl talents to help the defense.

Players are reportedly yelling 35, the final deficit of the Super Bowl loss, as motivation during practices and workouts.

And we can imagine Peyton is being Peyton, putting the work in with the offense, and the newcomers, to be prepared for the upcoming season.

But how these players use last years loss will be manifested not only now during the current OTAs, but throughout the ups and downs of the entire season. Will they have the fiber, constitution, drive, and leadership needed to fuel them all the way back to the top? Time will tell.

But a quick look at an organization who does things the right way is something to be admired. A team who is like a family, putting team ahead of self. Working as one, to beat teams more talented and younger than them. A team that had the character to stand back up after a disappointing defeat a year ago. And get back to the top to take what was rightfully theirs. A model for the 2014 Denver Broncos to follow.

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