Basketball On The Internet.

GREGG Popovich has done an incredible coaching job yet again to take his San Antonio Spurs to the Western Conference Championship, keeping their appointment with reigning champ Miami Heat for the NBA Championship.

Even overlooking the fact he masterfully managed his troops to beat Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6 to clinch the WCC 4-2 after losing superstar Tony Parker for the second half (and overtime), it is difficult to describe how motivational he must be.

Because, let’s be brutal, the Spurs blew the 2012-13 Championship Series to the Heat and that had the potential to be devastating.

Think Game 6, the Spurs up 3-2 and ahead by five with 30 seconds left.

Yet Miami comes back and its preseason investment in Ray Allen pays off when he swishes a step-back three – the shot of the year – to tie the game at its death.

Miami then wins in overtime for 3-3 and escapes with a gripping Game 7 win for back-to-back titles, LeBron James Finals MVP again.

The devastation that could have wrought on a lesser group is inestimable.

Suffice to say, in recent memory only one team has recovered after leading 3-2 in a seven-game Championship Series which it then lost, to play off again for the title a year later.

That was the Detroit Pistons who lost in seven games at The Forum in Los Angeles after leading the Lakers 3-2 in 1988.

They regrouped to win it all in 1989.

(Good thing the 30-For-30 ESPN documentary on The Bad Boys was on recently! Keep an eye out for it if you haven’t seen it. Very worthwhile viewing.)

But the potential for lamenting what might have been and wallowing in self-pity, if not self-admonishment, is huge and easily could have derailed the Spurs this time around.

Speaking with Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown before his head coaching appointment last year, the long-time Spurs assistant revealed that 2012-13 Championship Series defeat preyed on everyone in the organisation.

“You think you’re over it but then at some random moment, like you’re stopped at some traffic lights or something, and your mind wanders and there it is again,” he said.

“The pain of losing it and how it unfolded.”

Knowing that, knowing he has an ageing team, knowing the window is closing for Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Parker, Popovich not only motivated and challenged his men, but the Spurs finished with the best record to now not only be back in the ultimate series but with homecourt advantage.

It proved to be huge last year when these two franchises played a classic seven-game series.

It now will have the additional feeling of the back-story of 2012-13.

Can’t wait for it to start, though every day helps Parker rehab his injured foot.

And our own Patty Mills and Aron Baynes are right there in the middle of it.

YES, I will be taking a break from running the B.O.T.I. website for a few months.

Once again I have received email confirmation I am shortly to be in receipt of $1million US … and I didn’t even have to make any racist remarks or sell a team!

So great how the world works.

This email: “$1M USD has been donated to you kindly contact the donator Mr. Harry Black via email ( harryblack25@rogers.com )” has changed my life, or is about to.

What a great bloke this Harry Black must be, eh?

I swear, I can’t even remember meeting him!

Obviously I must have made a great impression though.

So excuse me while I contact him, send him all my bank details and sit back waiting for that big seven-figure deposit in my account.

So long suckers!

IS it just me or is it difficult to refer to Boomers Mark Worthington and Lucas Walker as “Melbourne United” selections in the current Australian team, now China-bound for the second-leg of the Sinus-Aus Challenge?

I cannot see how they were selected from a United club for which they have yet to play a game.

To me, they are Melbourne Tigers until they play a game for United.

Guess I’m just being pedantic but I can’t see how they can be selected from a club for which they technically haven’t yet played.

STILL with the Tigers, two-time Melbourne Tigers MVP and 2012 NBL All Star Game MVP Chris Goulding will line up with Dallas Mavericks in the NBA’s Summer Pro League in Las Vegas next month.

Melbourne United coach Chris Anstey, who played NBA with Dallas Mavericks (and Chicago Bulls) assured me today he had nothing to do with Goulding’s successful roster selection.

“Bubbles got Bubbles his shot,” Anstey assured, Goulding winning the NBL scoring title in 2013-14.

TOMORROW: Wayback Wednesday brings you the 36ers facing the TIGERS 20 years ago in 1994.