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Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs Overcome Injuries With Consistency

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By @AnthonyIrwinNBA

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Getty Images

Patience has almost completely disappeared from NBA conversations. We judge draft classes by Christmas. Fans fire coaches seemingly before their first practice. Rookies are called busts before their first high school games. Okay, maybe only one of those is an exaggeration, but that desire for immediate returns has affected the league.

When the Oklahoma City Thunder faced off against the San Antonio Spurs on Christmas, we saw it not only as a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals, but a preview of this year’s. And that’s even without the best player from each team (Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard). That they remain in the conversation is a testament to the patience and consistency from both organizations.

But hey, let’s keep passing judgment on players only weeks into careers that could span more than a decade.

Take a look around the league. Picture the Cleveland Cavaliers without LeBron James, the Washington Wizards without John Wall or the Golden State Warriors without Stephen Curry. All three teams would immediately fall from title consideration. Instead, the Durant-less Thunder and Leonard-less Spurs are being carried by other stars and systems that have been in place for at least half a decade.

Scott Brooks takes quite a bit of criticism for a coach who’s made extended playoff runs for basically every single year of his NBA coaching career. Greg Popovich doesn’t see hardly any criticism, ever, and that’s perfectly fine given his level of success. Yet for some reason, coaches are fired midway through their second year (or earlier) for not meeting ridiculous expectations. The NBA is supposedly a copy-cat league, yet no team thinks to mimic the most important aspect of all successful teams: patience.

No, let’s continue calling Andrew Wiggins a bust or firing David Blatt. Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith have earned more than decent lives doing so.

Anthony F. Irwin is an NBA, NFL, MLB and NCAA Football contributor for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google. Send him an email at .

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