duncan228
01-14-2009, 12:54 AM
As always, The Stopper stays ready, happy or not (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/As_always_The_Stopper_stays_ready_happy_or_not.htm l)
Mike Finger
The man once billed as The Kobe Stopper will hear his name called tonight, and his orders will be the same as they were seven years ago.
He’ll be asked to keep the best scorer in the game from putting the ball in the basket, but this time the scorer will have a few new advantages. Kobe Bryant already will have a sweat going — he’ll have a rhythm and maybe a dozen points — and The Stopper will be thrust into the middle of it all, 37 years old and, in his words, “ice cold.”
Bruce Bowen will not be happy about this. Tearing off his warm-ups and checking in at the scorer’s table, he will wish he could have had a chance to chase Kobe from the opening tip, because every game is different, and because he thinks he can learn more about how a night is going to develop from the floor than he can from the bench.
But this is the important part about The Stopper — he also will admit he might be wrong.
“Sometimes,” Bowen says, “we don’t see the master plan.”
That, in a nutshell, is the brilliance of not only Gregg Popovich, but of the Spurs as a whole. It is the reason the Spurs have a chance to beat the Lakers tonight, and also why they will have a shot against them in May.
It’s not simply the Spurs’ plan that gives them an edge. It’s their belief that one actually exists.
This dynamic isn’t common in professional sports, and Bowen knows that better than most. He is, after all, an avid fan of the Dallas Cowboys, and he watched in disgust this fall as bad leadership, constant in-fighting and players’ self-interested demands wrecked a season. And even after he talked Tuesday morning about how difficult it has been to accept his new role as a bench player after once starting 555 consecutive games, Bowen looked horrified when asked if he’s ever considered taking a T.O.-like stand.
“That,” Bowen says, “would be cancerous.”
It also would be completely out of character for a guy who has spent his career stirring up bad blood with only one kind of player — the kind wearing different-colored jerseys.
The league’s most notorious pest also has been its consummate teammate, and it comes as no surprise that he says the thing he has learned most about himself during the past two months has had to do with his kids. Every time he is tempted to complain, he remembers that doing so would be giving his sons a license to do the same someday.
Still, his listlessness is apparent, and his coach notices it, too. Popovich realizes Bowen isn’t thrilled as a backup, and as per his longtime custom, professes less faith in his own plans than his players do.
“Hell, I wish I knew,” Popovich says when asked about Bowen’s evolving role. “Hopefully, I don’t get too creative and screw it up.”
Popovich has said similar things about Manu Ginobili over the years, and the only damage El Contusion ever endured was a wobbly ankle and a few dozen bruises. Like Bowen, Ginobili never turned cartwheels about being sent to the bench, but, like Bowen, he always had a good reason not to create much of a stink.
The master plan.
There hasn’t been any evidence of one of those in Valley Ranch for a long time, and it might not have mattered much to T.O. and his followers even if there was. But Bowen trusts that there is one here, even though he says he has “a fervent desire to be out there,” and even though he says “I wouldn’t be who I am if I allowed myself to settle for” not starting.
So The Stopper will be ready tonight, just as he was last week when he had to face an already-warmed-up Dwyane Wade, and just as he was last month when Popovich sicced him upon a blisteringly hot J.J. Barea. He will not defend Kobe with any more urgency or tenacity than he did as a starter, because that would mean he hadn’t been giving his all before, and he will not be giving it any less, either.
“If I lost my competitive nature because of this,” Bowen says, “then shame on me.”
Shame is not likely. It is, after all, not part of the plan.
Mike Finger
The man once billed as The Kobe Stopper will hear his name called tonight, and his orders will be the same as they were seven years ago.
He’ll be asked to keep the best scorer in the game from putting the ball in the basket, but this time the scorer will have a few new advantages. Kobe Bryant already will have a sweat going — he’ll have a rhythm and maybe a dozen points — and The Stopper will be thrust into the middle of it all, 37 years old and, in his words, “ice cold.”
Bruce Bowen will not be happy about this. Tearing off his warm-ups and checking in at the scorer’s table, he will wish he could have had a chance to chase Kobe from the opening tip, because every game is different, and because he thinks he can learn more about how a night is going to develop from the floor than he can from the bench.
But this is the important part about The Stopper — he also will admit he might be wrong.
“Sometimes,” Bowen says, “we don’t see the master plan.”
That, in a nutshell, is the brilliance of not only Gregg Popovich, but of the Spurs as a whole. It is the reason the Spurs have a chance to beat the Lakers tonight, and also why they will have a shot against them in May.
It’s not simply the Spurs’ plan that gives them an edge. It’s their belief that one actually exists.
This dynamic isn’t common in professional sports, and Bowen knows that better than most. He is, after all, an avid fan of the Dallas Cowboys, and he watched in disgust this fall as bad leadership, constant in-fighting and players’ self-interested demands wrecked a season. And even after he talked Tuesday morning about how difficult it has been to accept his new role as a bench player after once starting 555 consecutive games, Bowen looked horrified when asked if he’s ever considered taking a T.O.-like stand.
“That,” Bowen says, “would be cancerous.”
It also would be completely out of character for a guy who has spent his career stirring up bad blood with only one kind of player — the kind wearing different-colored jerseys.
The league’s most notorious pest also has been its consummate teammate, and it comes as no surprise that he says the thing he has learned most about himself during the past two months has had to do with his kids. Every time he is tempted to complain, he remembers that doing so would be giving his sons a license to do the same someday.
Still, his listlessness is apparent, and his coach notices it, too. Popovich realizes Bowen isn’t thrilled as a backup, and as per his longtime custom, professes less faith in his own plans than his players do.
“Hell, I wish I knew,” Popovich says when asked about Bowen’s evolving role. “Hopefully, I don’t get too creative and screw it up.”
Popovich has said similar things about Manu Ginobili over the years, and the only damage El Contusion ever endured was a wobbly ankle and a few dozen bruises. Like Bowen, Ginobili never turned cartwheels about being sent to the bench, but, like Bowen, he always had a good reason not to create much of a stink.
The master plan.
There hasn’t been any evidence of one of those in Valley Ranch for a long time, and it might not have mattered much to T.O. and his followers even if there was. But Bowen trusts that there is one here, even though he says he has “a fervent desire to be out there,” and even though he says “I wouldn’t be who I am if I allowed myself to settle for” not starting.
So The Stopper will be ready tonight, just as he was last week when he had to face an already-warmed-up Dwyane Wade, and just as he was last month when Popovich sicced him upon a blisteringly hot J.J. Barea. He will not defend Kobe with any more urgency or tenacity than he did as a starter, because that would mean he hadn’t been giving his all before, and he will not be giving it any less, either.
“If I lost my competitive nature because of this,” Bowen says, “then shame on me.”
Shame is not likely. It is, after all, not part of the plan.