Old, and still in the way in West

The king isn’t dead yet

When was it that the West stopped being a mere conference and became this eight-way steel-cage battle of titans?

It was the fall of 1999, a year after Michael Jordan left Chicago, the season Phil Jackson arrived to turn the Lakers, who had been a circus, into a mighty, feared . . . circus.

The Lakers, en route to their first of three consecutive titles, won 67 games as five more West teams won 50 in what was to become a typical configuration.

The San Antonio Spurs were defending champions that season, as they are this season, nine years later.

New powers like Dallas and Phoenix have risen, old powers like Sacramento and Portland have faded and some like the Lakers and Utah have left and come back.

The Spurs, the lone constant, haven’t gone anywhere.

They won their first title in 1999 when Tim Duncan was 22; their second in 2003 in David Robinson’s farewell; their third in 2005 with a memorable performance by 34-year-old former Laker Robert Horry, and their fourth last season with Duncan at 31, the only player left from 1999.

That made this the Spurs’ era, as surely as the Showtime Lakers’ fourth and fifth titles made the ‘80s their decade with the Celtics stuck on three.

Of course, the average age of the Spurs’ starters is now 32 and at the moment they’re having trouble scoring 80 points, let alone 90 or 100.

On the bright side, they’ve been doing this for nine years and lived to tell the tale!

“This is the way the West is going to be in coming years, too,” Coach Gregg Popovich said last week from San Antonio.

“Seeds don’t mean anything. There are no upsets. Somebody is going to say, ‘The No. 8 seed upset the No. 1 seed’ or ‘The No. 6 seed upset the No. 3 seed,’ but that’s baloney.

“It’s great for the league and the fans. It’s a killer for the coaches. We’re all going to take two years off our life for this season.”

Unfortunately, all the Spurs have gotten nationally is grief about TV ratings. It’s such an industry joke that when ratings cratered for last week’s Final Four in San Antonio, the website Sports Media Watch wrote:

“Perhaps people are just not interested in basketball being played in San Antonio.”

It’s an irony that flows from today’s Internet-cable TV-inspired tabloid journalism: The team that’s so popularly disrespected is the one that’s most admired by its peers.

These days with every owner out to create his own San Antonio, you can’t turn around without bumping into a former Spur.

Phoenix is now run by Steve Kerr, Portland by Kevin Pritchard, Seattle by Sam Presti and Cleveland by Danny Ferry, all former Spurs.

Not that there’s ever likely to be another San Antonio, the grown-up, stand-up, ego-sublimating wonder of its ego-saturated age.

Popovich runs a buttoned-up organization but there’s a difference between his and buttoned-up organizations like the Cavaliers, who tremble at the thought of LeBron James’ displeasure and whose officials are always in hushed conferences about routine matters.

The Spurs are relaxed and fun to be around. It started with the low-key Robinson and Duncan but survived its greatest challenge -- success -- because of the self-effacing Popovich.

Popovich was barely even visible in the team photo on the court after winning last spring’s title, standing behind Duncan. The San Antonio Express-News’ Johnny Ludden noted it was a metaphor for Popovich’s management style.

“I can say no more than he defines the team,” Duncan told Ludden. “He always has and as long as he’s here, he always will.”

A year later, they’re a year older and the West is in transition with rising powers like the Lakers, Hornets, Jazz and Trail Blazers on the horizon.

“Everybody has good players,” Popovich said. “Year in, year out, we’ve been, if not the oldest team, one of them, which makes it difficult.

“With the new rules it makes it more difficult for the teams that are less athletic, which is us. To be in the hunt that long is a special thing.”

In the wake of the Lakers’ Pau Gasol trade, the Suns, whose window was closing with Steve Nash at 34, went all-in, acquiring Shaquille O’Neal.

The Mavericks, whose key players were young, went all-in, acquiring Jason Kidd, whose window was closing at 35.

The Spurs, who couldn’t get much older, settled for a minor move, bringing in yet another veteran, 35-year-old Kurt Thomas.

Now they’re going down the stretch, bumpily. Manu Ginobili, who had a groin injury, tried to play in last week’s 17-point loss to Phoenix in San Antonio -- a statement game if there ever was one -- and Popovich benched him for the next game.

“I want him back for the playoffs,” Popovich said. “I doubt he’ll play in L.A. just because I’m paranoid. I want him back for the playoffs.

“Whether we’re No. 2, 6 or 7, wherever we are, we’re not going any place without him.”

Since the Spurs started winning titles, they’re 186-60 after the All-Star game.

This season they’re 19-8, second-worst over that span to their 18-11 finish in 2005 . . . when they won their third title.

At the moment, having just seen the Suns up close, Popovich thinks they “might be the one.

“And the other team that I think is playing really well right now is Dallas.”

Of course, the Suns and Mavericks were objects of derision two weeks ago.

It’s true, the old order changes, giving way to the new. On the other hand, the old order isn’t gone yet.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com