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In a season littered with disappointments, it’s easy to forget how many exhilariting moments the Spurs delivered. Over the next few days, I’m going to look back at my favorite moments from the 2008-2009 season. The moments that made me explode out of my chair, kiss my girlfriend or hug a complete stranger. Moments so generous with their charisma, they left me grinning for days. For all their shortcomings, this was a collection of men who knew how to generate electricity.

With that in mind, let’s move on to our first moment:

Tony Parker Breaks Leandro Barbosa’s Ankles

I was sitting in my old apartment in Chicago with my good friend Ryan Marks, eating Chinese food and discussing the Suns-Spurs rivalry in wildly esoteric terms when, unexpectedly, I erupted off of my couch and let out a deafening “woo.” Tony Parker had just placed an emphatic period at the end of a tale that is well known by now.

In my opinion, this season was the final chapter of the Suns-Spurs rivalry. Both teams had declined but the stench of piss and vinegar remained. Relatively meaningless regular season match-ups such as this did not escape the lingering vitriol. By next season, the residue of postseason’s past may have eroded, which is why I will always cherish the three final exclamation points the Spurs placed against a team we have dominated for half a decade. (Two more Suns-Spurs moments await you over the coming days).