David Lee is back in business

The practical composure of the San Antonio Spurs locker room is momentarily disrupted by its latest addition, one you won’t find while perusing their roster — a bright pink box of Girl Scout cookies.

“Aw, yeah!” exclaims David Lee, the 13-year NBA veteran, as he gingerly rises out of a stretch. “I love Samoas!”

It’s an odd scene in many ways — while the cookies represent something innocuous, they also bring an uncommon air of levity to the sanctity of a San Antonio locker room which resembles a boardroom of white-collared executives more than an assembled group of young athletes mere minutes away from playing a game of basketball.

That is the Spurs way, however, one that works very well. The flip side of being considered dreadfully boring by a large swath of casual fans is a steady rate of success that has defined the team for decades. They’ve won their share of championships, to be sure, an accomplishment that’s dependent almost as much on luck as it is anything else. But they just win all the time, 20-plus seasons worth of beating opponents through consistent, grinding and, occasionally, boring labor.

It’s why they can withstand the loss of hall-of-fame talents like David Robinson, transition to an era of plaid-covered excellence led by Tim Duncan and then continue thriving under the quiet robo-mutant known as Kawhi Leonard.

Incorporating veterans like Lee is simply the next line on the board meeting’s agenda.

That incorporation, too, is part of the Spurs’ proven ways. Players come to San Antonio, lost, broken, overlooked, and almost inevitably maximize their talents while adding to the team’s continued success. Lee refers to it over and again as “playing to your strengths,” as he did when speaking to The Step Back before a recent game in Orlando.

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It’s why Boris Diaw becomes a cult hero, known as much for his versatility as for his love of espresso coffee. Why Danny Green can become a highly-paid champion just years after being waived by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Why Dewayne Dedmon, months away from struggling to find playing time in Orlando, is looking more like the best steal of free agency. This doesn’t discount individual determination or the habits that lead to success. It simply speaks to how San Antonio has found a way to make it all work so well and for so long.

Lee doesn’t quite fit the mold of reclamation project. He is, after all, a two-time All-Star (in 2010 and 2013, while with the Knicks and Warriors, respectively). He’s elbow-jumpered his way to 11,000-plus career points and sharp-elbowed his way to 7,000-plus career rebounds. He’s a NBA champion, winning the title in his fifth and final season with the Golden State Warriors.

“He’s a professional. He knows how to play the game. It’s not that difficult.”

There is a sense, however, that Lee has quietly amassed these numbers, as under-the-radar as you can possibly be after 13 seasons. There’s only so much excitement you can muster for an 18-foot jumpshot or for the careful timing required to grab a missed carom in traffic. There have always been concerns about his defense, which has always seemed simultaneously earnest and an afterthought. His harshest critics will point to the Warriors’ success and remember they didn’t become this version of the team until Lee was injured in 2014 and replaced by Draymond Green.

In San Antonio, Lee simply fits better than you could have imagined. Watch them play while he’s on the floor and you’ll see the same things he’s always done. Knock down the long jumper. Chase down a rebound. Make the right play. It’s not stimulating but that makes it all the more Spurs-ian. This undervalued ability, moreover, has helped the Spurs keep winning even as they recover from Duncan’s retirement and the injury to starting center Pau Gasol.

“I like to think I have a decent basketball I.Q. but the rest of it, I think, is just off of effort and trying to make plays,” said Lee. He downplays his efficiency but, in truth, he’s shooting at nearly a career-high 59.7 percent. Gasol was expected to provide continuity while filling the sizeable hole left by Duncan’s exit. When he was hurt in mid-January, it was up to Lee and Dedmon to help maintain the Spurs’ winning pace. In the past 15 games without Gasol, San Antonio has gone 11-4.

Lee offered a little more insight on what he brings, saying “I think it’s kind of knowing your place when you’re on the floor. When I’m in there with the second unit, I try to be a little more aggressive scoring the ball. When I’m in there with guys like LaMarcus [Aldridge] and Kawhi, it’s more about the positioning, trying to give them space as well as be a threat if my man decides to help onto them. That’s something that Coach Popovich is very strict in what he wants spacing-wise and it’s something that I just want to be really good at.”

If the Spurs can be identified as business-like, then Popovich is undoubtedly their C.E.O. Lee describes his new coach as having an unparalleled “attention to detail” that helps define the Spurs brand. One can picture him sitting in a metaphoric office with a welcoming open-door policy but constructed with walls of glass that allow him to see everything.

There are myriad opinions on how the system came to develop, a chicken-and-egg ideology that begins with either Popovich or Duncan at its core. Rather, the truth is that it was self-developing, with Popovich providing a template made easier to implement with Duncan’s presence. It’s self-sustaining, too, with crucial role players filtering in and out over the years. They always get as much as they put in, even as they’re taught new lessons that make them better.

Popovich, when asked what’s been key to Lee’s effectiveness, defers back to the team’s pounding-the-rock approach.

“There’s no key. You just gotta jump in,” Popovich responds quickly. He pauses before continuing with an answer that is both complimentary to Lee and cut from the team’s employee handbook, its mission statement carved into stone. “There’s no one thing. He’s getting used to the program. He’s playing some good minutes. Done a good job for us. And he’s a professional. He knows how to play the game. It’s not that difficult. And he’s caught on to the system pretty quickly.”

At least superficially, this type of work environment seems suffocating. Stifling. Instead, Lee speaks of the team’s camaraderie, of shared interests off the floor. “I couldn’t be happier,” he adds unsolicited.

“My whole goal is to get the most out of this that I can and I think I’m headed in that direction.”

This wasn’t a dig at the Warriors, the team he’s best associated with. He nostalgically recalls a jovial locker room with music playing and acknowledges a looseness in Golden State that San Antonio doesn’t share. But he’s quick to point out the team’s similarities, as well, indicating that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, while doing things his own way, is also a former player under Popovich. On a small scale, Lee discussed a sharing of techniques and drills they both implement. But they also both possess a broader view of life outside of basketball. Perhaps it’s no surprise that both Popovich and Kerr have been outspoken critics of the current presidential administration and the injustices that many perceive it representing.

This balanced approach shapes Lee’s view of the Warriors very favorably. He doesn’t begrudge their recent and current success — “Not at all,” he affirms — and points to a culture promoted by the “good guys” that both locker rooms share. “I cheer for them every time we don’t play them,” Lee explains. “Similar to the other guys on this team, I’m not an envious type of guy. I cheer for the good guys in the league. We have a good group [here] but they’ve got a really good group there, as well. No sour grapes whatsoever.”

Still, there is an understanding of the challenge Golden State represents. There’s an inevitability that seems to hover over the season, one that many expect will result in a third-straight Finals matchup between the Warriors and Cavaliers. For all the winning that San Antonio accomplishes during the regular season grind, that may not translate into the franchise’s sixth championship. Both Lee and Popovich understand that’s the view. “I think Coach is the first guy to say that Golden State is favored to win the West,” the former points out.

“When we played them, we got a victory. That’s about all I have to work off of right now,” adds Lee. “But I watch them play as you probably do and they’re the most talented team in the league and have a great group of guys on there…I think they said on T.V. the other day that whenever they lose a game it’s an upset, and that’s a pretty rational thing to say.”

This understanding doesn’t change the Spurs’ approach, as you’d likely expect. As always, the team’s manifesto of tireless effort becomes apparent. This is a team that has embraced a quote from Jacob Riis, one of persistent, dogged determination, as it’s credo. For all of Golden State’s immense talent, Lee and his teammates believe they have as good a chance as any of ending the Warriors’ stranglehold on the Western Conference.

“It’s just a matter of us coming in, putting in the work and building up to that,” said Lee. “If we’re healthy and playing the way we’re capable of, then I have a feeling we’ll get a shot at them and we’ll see what happens.”

If this puncher’s chance seems unrealistic, then consider the Spurs’ continued success year after year of being discounted. It’s become an annual affair to believe that age has finally caught up to them, that the team’s small but consistent changes might end their winning ways. And yet, here they stand in late February, well on their way to their 18th consecutive season of 50-plus wins.
Perhaps that’s why Lee, while not the typical redemption story, fits so well with San Antonio.

Despite whatever criticism he’s received and whatever shortcomings might be perceived, he’s quietly enjoying yet another successful season, even as he adjusts to his fourth team in two years. There’s little point in denying his career’s been a good one, even if that goes against the grain of common belief.

Lee, moreover, is proud of his individual accomplishments and his role in adding to San Antonio’s team success. “I never expected this, being the 30th pick in the draft from outside of St. Louis. I’m already really happy and hope to do even more before my career’s over,” he says. As for the critics, Lee — much like his team — remains unfazed. “It might have gotten to me as a younger player — I can’t control that — I’m just really happy with the things I’ve been able to accomplish. My whole goal is to get the most out of this that I can and I think I’m headed in that direction.”

Unseating the Warriors seems a daunting task, one that will certainly take a fair amount of work. But what team better than San Antonio, with its yeoman-like roster and under Popovich’s managerial guidance, seems better equipped for the challenge?

They’ll find a way to keep winning especially if the biggest threat they might face, if only for a little while, is the occasional box of coconut-crusted cookies.