In what has become an annual tradition, the Spurs have been given virtually no shot to win the NBA championship this season. So says an informal poll conducted by Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amick, in which 20 coaches and front-office executives made the Miami Heat overwhelming favorites to defend their title.

How big a long shot are the Spurs? They aren’t mentioned once in the entire article. (Although they are listed in an accompanying poll, in which they’ve earned a whopping 2 percent of the vote.)

The Spurs have long learned to deal with such dismissiveness, which was rampant even in the not-so-distant days in which they were actually lifting trophies. Besides, can anybody imagine Gregg Popovich or Tim Duncan losing sleep over such things? Me neither.

via Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News