The NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs and the mystery of boring excellence.

The NBA Finals begin today, and this season’s decider has an intriguing grand narrative: the best player in the game, LeBron James, at the peak of his powers, going up against the most well-put-together team in recent NBA history, San Antonio. The Spurs hold more than a bit of parochial interest: Aussies Patty Mills and Aron Baynes stand to earn championship rings if San Antonio wins, even though they’ll likely get as much playing time as assistant coach, and the former North Melbourne Giants and Boomers coach, Brett Brown.

While LeBron’s Miami Heat has been showered with attention since the team was assembled in rather notorious circumstances three years ago, the Spurs are their antithesis. For an outfit that has had such great success (four NBA titles over 15 years), San Antonio just doesn’t give off the shine that other winning teams do. The Spurs have long been considered, well, a little dull.

Part of it has to do with basketball’s innate preoccupation with matters stylistic. The Spurs are the high practitioners of functional basketball – they excite the hoops purists, but not exactly the casual viewer. And instead of a freakish LeBron or a virtuoso Kobe Bryant, the team’s biggest defining player during this era, Tim Duncan, is known for being stolid.

But such descriptions of the Spurs are rather general. Star guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are riveting to watch, and Parker even dabbled in the celebrity scene for a few years by marrying a TV actress. The other aspect the Spurs should get credit for is their links to the global game – San Antonio should not only be Australia’s team, but France’s and Argentina’s as well.

Ultimately, the Spurs are an example of a very modern sports phenomenon: the consistently-good, thorough-planning, no-drama operation that doesn’t excite the fans because they process victories rather than dominate imaginations. This type of team has become ever more identifiable – the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Swans would fall into this category. As sports have become ever more media-saturated, it really shouldn’t surprise that being a little dull can help a team. Bore to win: how about that for a slogan?