ElNono
10-25-2008, 09:32 PM
Spurs: The forgotten power
By Jeff McDonald - Express-News
The Spurs are too old to win another NBA championship. They have stood still for too long, graying, while the rest of the Western Conference has caught up to them.
Their best days are behind them.
New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni has heard the prophecies about the decline of the Spurs' era of NBA dominance. He buys absolutely none of them.
“There are 29 other teams that would like to have their downside,” said D'Antoni, whose summer ritual in five seasons as coach of the Phoenix Suns included a nearly annual de-pantsing at the hands of the Spurs.
“That's what happens in sports. Everyone is really too quick to jump off the bandwagon.”
As the curtain raises on a new season this week, the Spurs are set to take their second shot at their fifth NBA title. It seems silly to write them off.
Just six months ago, they were in the Western Conference finals after a 56-26 regular season, facing the glitzy Los Angeles Lakers, playing for a return trip to the NBA's championship series.
With the same championship-tested core returning — Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and, as soon as his surgically scoped ankle will let him, Manu Ginobili — the Spurs would seem an even-money bet to venture at least as far in the postseason again.
And yet, they enter the upcoming campaign as somewhat of a forgotten power.
The Lakers are the sexy pick to finish what Kobe Bryant couldn't last season and win the NBA championship. The New Orleans Hornets, a year older and wiser after taking the Spurs to seven games in the second round last year, are the darkhorse pick to challenge them.
Houston has added a mercurial talent in Ron Artest, as well as a championship role player in former Spurs guard Brent Barry. Phoenix still has Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal.
Portland, with rookie-come-lately Greg Oden healed and in the fold, is an up-and-comer.
The Spurs? They are old news, yesterday's champions.
Every empire comes stamped with an expiration date. Conventional wisdom seems to say the Spurs are past theirs.
“Everyone is going to have opinions about us,” forward Bruce Bowen said with a shrug. “The most important thing for us to understand is, the season is a process. You really don't realize how fortunate you have to be even to get an opportunity to play for a championship.”
Fortunate four times since 1999 under coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs believe they have another title in them, especially with a future Hall of Famer like Duncan still at the center of their universe.
The winningest franchise in the NBA — and in all of major professional sports — over the past 11 seasons, the still-proud Spurs are out to prove the king is not dead yet.
“We're going to play the season to be a better team by the end of the season,” Duncan said. “That's how Pop always phrases it, and how we always approach it. However it comes out, hopefully we're in the mix and we have an opportunity to make a run.”
Last season, the Spurs were unfortunate when it counted most.
Ginobili, the Spurs' leading scorer at 19.5 points per game, jammed an ankle in the opening round of the playoffs against D'Antoni's Suns. He was never quite the same after that.
By the time the conference finals rolled around, Ginobili was so ineffective as to transform Sasha Vujacic — never one to be confused with, say, Bruce Bowen — into the NBA's best perimeter defender.
After reinjuring the ankle playing for Argentina in the Olympics, Ginobili had arthroscopic surgery to help heal his swollen ligament. He is expected to miss the first month-and-a-half of the season, as many as 25 games.
How quickly Ginobili can get back to being Ginobili after he returns will go a long way toward determining the Spurs' place in the new Western Conference hierarchy.
Popovich minces no words when he discusses the significance of a healthy Ginobili.
“We can't compete for a championship without Manu Ginobili,” he said.
The Spurs look at Ginobili's injury through a silver lining. By taking off through mid-December, he should be able to avoid the normal wear and tear that sometimes caught up with him late in the season.
And while the Spurs' core is a year older, they've also gotten leaner and younger with the offseason addition of free-agent guard Roger Mason Jr. (26) and rookie point guard George Hill (22).
“You still have to look at them as a team that's very, very dangerous in the regular season,” New Orleans coach Byron Scott said. “And obviously, when they get to the playoffs, they are even more dangerous, because they're not going to beat themselves. You've got to beat them to get by them.”
It is entirely possible someone will.
Maybe the conventional wisdom is right, and the Spurs' best days really are behind them. At least one longtime admiring rival, however, is staying on the bandwagon until he's physically removed.
“Come on,” D'Antoni said. “You have one year you don't win it all, and you think everything is on the downside? That's kind of nutty.”
LINK (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_The_forgotten_power.html)
By Jeff McDonald - Express-News
The Spurs are too old to win another NBA championship. They have stood still for too long, graying, while the rest of the Western Conference has caught up to them.
Their best days are behind them.
New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni has heard the prophecies about the decline of the Spurs' era of NBA dominance. He buys absolutely none of them.
“There are 29 other teams that would like to have their downside,” said D'Antoni, whose summer ritual in five seasons as coach of the Phoenix Suns included a nearly annual de-pantsing at the hands of the Spurs.
“That's what happens in sports. Everyone is really too quick to jump off the bandwagon.”
As the curtain raises on a new season this week, the Spurs are set to take their second shot at their fifth NBA title. It seems silly to write them off.
Just six months ago, they were in the Western Conference finals after a 56-26 regular season, facing the glitzy Los Angeles Lakers, playing for a return trip to the NBA's championship series.
With the same championship-tested core returning — Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and, as soon as his surgically scoped ankle will let him, Manu Ginobili — the Spurs would seem an even-money bet to venture at least as far in the postseason again.
And yet, they enter the upcoming campaign as somewhat of a forgotten power.
The Lakers are the sexy pick to finish what Kobe Bryant couldn't last season and win the NBA championship. The New Orleans Hornets, a year older and wiser after taking the Spurs to seven games in the second round last year, are the darkhorse pick to challenge them.
Houston has added a mercurial talent in Ron Artest, as well as a championship role player in former Spurs guard Brent Barry. Phoenix still has Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal.
Portland, with rookie-come-lately Greg Oden healed and in the fold, is an up-and-comer.
The Spurs? They are old news, yesterday's champions.
Every empire comes stamped with an expiration date. Conventional wisdom seems to say the Spurs are past theirs.
“Everyone is going to have opinions about us,” forward Bruce Bowen said with a shrug. “The most important thing for us to understand is, the season is a process. You really don't realize how fortunate you have to be even to get an opportunity to play for a championship.”
Fortunate four times since 1999 under coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs believe they have another title in them, especially with a future Hall of Famer like Duncan still at the center of their universe.
The winningest franchise in the NBA — and in all of major professional sports — over the past 11 seasons, the still-proud Spurs are out to prove the king is not dead yet.
“We're going to play the season to be a better team by the end of the season,” Duncan said. “That's how Pop always phrases it, and how we always approach it. However it comes out, hopefully we're in the mix and we have an opportunity to make a run.”
Last season, the Spurs were unfortunate when it counted most.
Ginobili, the Spurs' leading scorer at 19.5 points per game, jammed an ankle in the opening round of the playoffs against D'Antoni's Suns. He was never quite the same after that.
By the time the conference finals rolled around, Ginobili was so ineffective as to transform Sasha Vujacic — never one to be confused with, say, Bruce Bowen — into the NBA's best perimeter defender.
After reinjuring the ankle playing for Argentina in the Olympics, Ginobili had arthroscopic surgery to help heal his swollen ligament. He is expected to miss the first month-and-a-half of the season, as many as 25 games.
How quickly Ginobili can get back to being Ginobili after he returns will go a long way toward determining the Spurs' place in the new Western Conference hierarchy.
Popovich minces no words when he discusses the significance of a healthy Ginobili.
“We can't compete for a championship without Manu Ginobili,” he said.
The Spurs look at Ginobili's injury through a silver lining. By taking off through mid-December, he should be able to avoid the normal wear and tear that sometimes caught up with him late in the season.
And while the Spurs' core is a year older, they've also gotten leaner and younger with the offseason addition of free-agent guard Roger Mason Jr. (26) and rookie point guard George Hill (22).
“You still have to look at them as a team that's very, very dangerous in the regular season,” New Orleans coach Byron Scott said. “And obviously, when they get to the playoffs, they are even more dangerous, because they're not going to beat themselves. You've got to beat them to get by them.”
It is entirely possible someone will.
Maybe the conventional wisdom is right, and the Spurs' best days really are behind them. At least one longtime admiring rival, however, is staying on the bandwagon until he's physically removed.
“Come on,” D'Antoni said. “You have one year you don't win it all, and you think everything is on the downside? That's kind of nutty.”
LINK (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_The_forgotten_power.html)