when i get old

today's post brought to you by the erstwhile descendents and a song i'm identifying with more than i'd like to.

today on KFAN's "people's court" segment, ben bagley and tony parks asked jazz fans who they'd rather see utah face in the first round of the playoffs, the spurs or the thunder.  i got out of the car and walked into my house while they were tallying votes and missed the final count.

but before i left my trusty subaru, bags addressed the several fans who were burning the spurs for being "geriatric" and "one broken hip away" from being totally irrelevant.  he mentioned that the spurs aren't really as old as everybody thinks they are.  and he's right.

as you can see, the average age of san antonio's squad is a whopping 8 months older than the average jazzman.  and it's not like san antonio is a bunch of really old guys balanced by a bunch of young guys while the jazz have a more balanced spread of birthdates.  the median year of birth for jazz players is 1985; for the spurs, it's split between 1984 and 1985.

even if you consider a player's peak to be age 28, the spurs only have six such "over-the-hill" types (a/k/a "veterans" and/or "multiple-time champions and all-stars") while the jazz have five--not exactly a gigantic difference.

so the next time somebody says "the spurs are too old to win a championship," tell them that if they're right, the jazz are only about a year away from being in the same position.