NBA casuals know nothing about Spurs basketball -- and that's ok

When the San Antonio Spurs were dominating teams on a nightly basis, NBA fans had no choice but to watch them often on national TV. As a small market team with a superstar that rarely expressed emotion, the "boring" label became the calling card for everyone just wanting them to go away.

Unfortunately for the casual fan, the Spurs didn't go away for over 20 years, and their deep playoff runs often ended with the destruction of these fans' favorite teams. That era is now officially gone, and the team has gone back to being largely and almost completely ignored by the national media.

Last season, the Spurs' only game on national TV was the Play-In Tournament game they lost to the New Orleans Pelicans. It's almost a certainty that will be the case again this season, which will only further distance the casual fan from them. On Wednesday, YouTuber Dom_2k pointed out that the DeMar DeRozan era Spurs almost seem completely erased from the memories of everyone.

Obviously, he's wildly exaggerating, as DeRozan's stint with San Antonio was full of highlights and clutch plays that were all over Twitter and YouTube (if you follow the right people). This comment isn't a big deal, but it led to responses that reminded me just how little the casual NBA fan knows about the San Antonio Spurs.

NBA fans get basic details about the Spurs completely wrong

The first transgression I saw came from @Vandalyzm, who shared to his nearly 8,000 followers that DeMar hated his time in San Antonio.

With that many followers, it's extremely difficult to tweet something that gets absolutely zero likes. Fortunately, even 24 hours later as I write this, that was the case with this tweet. In reality, DeRozan has spoken often about how Gregg Popovich and the Spurs helped him open up his game and made him a better player and person.

“He challenged me beyond my imagination on and off the court to develop, to be a better individual,” DeRozan previously said in an interview. “But on the court, he just brought a lot of things out of me that I didn’t know was in there at that point in my career."

Another pair of Twitter users by the name of had comments that were somehow even worse than that.

"He was taking years off. He was playing, but not at the level he can, cause he knew they were trash," said @Mahliek18. "I think that's why Spurs fans hate him," replied @jaydenwilson331. Unsurprisingly, neither of these comments earned a single like as well.

First of all, DeMar's stat line was the most well-balanced it's ever been during his three seasons with the Spurs. He had the top three assisting seasons of his career in the Alamo City, which was one of the few areas he could stand to improve. Just because no one was watching it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

As far as Spurs fans hating him? I'm just not even sure where to begin with that one. Most rational people understand DeRozan was put in a difficult spot when he was suddenly traded from Toronto, but he did the best he could given the situation. Did this guy get DeRozan confused with Kawhi Leonard?

The ignorance will continue to be widespread, but that's ok

With the Spurs likely rebuilding for this season probably more, I would only expect takes like this to increase on social media. Reflecting back to the glory days, though, the same type of comments existed back then also.

Unfortunately, the current iteration of the Spurs won't receive the coverage fans hope they would get, but even when they were a primetime staple, that didn't stop people from being ignorant. While I like to call bad takes like this out for fun, it really doesn't affect me beyond that because I've seen it all before.

One day, the Spurs will be back where they belong as a serious competitor in the NBA and start quieting the noise once again. But for now, let them talk -- it usually goes into an empty void anyway.