Stern's worst nightmare

[underdawg]

In case this wasn't posted

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/121698-roger-ratings-spurs-mason-jr-is-david-sterns-worst-nightmare

[m33p0]

nice read.

[Biggems]

that was a great article.

[Manufan909]

We should trade Jeff for this dude.

[SouthTexasRancher]

In case this wasn't posted

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/121698-roger-ratings-spurs-mason-jr-is-david-sterns-worst-nightmare


Thanks underdawg...

Great article...

[WildcardManu]

exactly the feeling, BSPN swept this game under the rug and it was all kobe/lebron talk, and those two fools have don't nothing but collect individual accolades.

[EricB]

Spurs Celtics, Spurs Cavaliers would be great.

[MarHill]

It was a nice read!

I hope the nightmare comes true. The Spurs (while not perfect and no team is) has done everything you can ask for as a franchise.

Have they made some personnel mistakes? Yes!!!!! (but all franchises do)

But, they drafted a franchise player and put a team around him to be a contender year in and year out for the past decade.

It's sad...that people outside of San Antonio can't appreciate what this team has done and don't want to watch them because they are boring (perception).

Lastly, there were two games yesterday and the first game from start to finish was the better game.

I like Kobe and Lebron (like most basketball fans) but the game with the last two champions should have been featured more. Isn't the American Sports Culture about winning?

[wijayas]

Isn't the American Sports Culture about winning?

It is. However, in the case of the NBA, it is about Marketing.

[Reck]

Awesome read. Thanks underdawg.

I wish I could download that game or something.

[DMX7]

good read for a change.

[wijayas]

For once, the Spurs get the proper coverage deserved for a 4-time Champion.

[BruceBowenFan]

:tu

[m33p0]

Sleep tight, Dave.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2269/2070083278_7484ac1432.jpg?v=0

[Chris]

Check out this guy's responce to the article. I added paragraphs to make it more readable but it is spot on.


Tony Parker is married to a famous actress, has released a rap CD, grew up in France, and scores more points in the paint than most power forwards and centers.

Manu Ginobili has won Euro championships, olympic gold medals and 3 NBA championships to go along with being from the extraordinarily interesting South American country of Argentina.

Roger Mason Jr went to high school with Chelsea Clinton in Washington D.C., graduated with a college degree in architecture, designed and built his own house, and played professional basketball in Israel.

Tim Duncan is the classiest and most accomplished basketball player of his generation.

Coach Pop is retired military, barks at his team like a drill sergeant, and has their complete respect and admiration. He also knows more about wine than some sommeliers.

The mythology that the Spurs are boring is one of the silliest stories in modern day sports. The truth is they are probably the most interesting team in the NBA.

The problem is with the lowered expectations of the viewers who think that spousal abuse, fights at strip clubs, and other such sophomoric types of rebellion are "interesting," and more worthy of the media's attention than the adult accomplishments of the Spurs. The lack of respect and coverage that the Spurs get says a lot more about superficial pop culture and the kitschy appeal of thug chic than it does about the mature greatness of the Spurs.

[silverblackfan]

Check out this guy's responce to the article. I added paragraphs to make it more readable but it is spot on.

Wow. This sums up what Spurs fans have seen for years. Not only do the Spurs continue to win the right way through hard work, talent, and perseverance, but they have truly interesting people on the team.

[Taco]

In case this wasn't posted

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/121698-roger-ratings-spurs-mason-jr-is-david-sterns-worst-nightmare

Roger Ratings? Spurs' Mason Jr. is David Stern's Worst Nightmare

With Arctic chill and fearlessness permeating through his veins, Roger Mason Jr. stopped behind the arc, looked up briefly at TD Banknorth Garden’s well-decorated rafters, where the main tenant Celtics’ 17th banner now hangs, then smiled and threw up Sunday afternoon’s biggest shot.

Swoosh. Again.



As NBA Commissioner David Stern watched the Spurs’ summer steal sink the defending champs in their own house with his fourth game-winner of the season, a stop-and-pop trey, he likely felt mixed emotions.



He knows the Spurs represent everything a sports commissioner could want in one of his league's best teams. They hum along with class, dignity, and an underdog attitude that would serve any squad.



They also play Michael Corleone to the league's TV ratings.



He knew what this meant for his “dream week.” Though they did land a slot on a prestigious Sunday afternoon doubleheader, the Spurs weren’t supposed to be part of this seven-day show, seemingly signaling a return to the NBA’s glory days.



In Stern’s dreams, the Celtics knocked off the four-time champions in a close affair and Kobe Bryant and LeBron James battled through three overtimes, each with triple doubles.



Kobe’s Lakers won, at least. Tim Duncan’s Spurs forgot the script again.



ESPN’s Stuart Scott promised Sunday was about more than Kobe vs. LeBron, and then ABC promptly delivered more than five hours of non-stop Kobe vs. LeBron talk.



The Spurs and Celtics' matinee match, ultimately a thriller, was an afterthought to the second and final meeting of two stars whose transcendent games last week at Madison Square Garden were the hottest topic since the Super Bowl.



Bryant poured in 61 points, the most ever scored by single player at the legendary arena, and James finished one rebound shy of a 52-point, triple double.



James and Bryant didn’t enjoy scoring bonanzas against Patrick Ewing’s Knicks on Monday and Wednesday evenings. This improved 2009 Mike D’Antoni bunch still defends at times like a last-place Division-II college squad. Still, what the NBA’s top talents managed in its oldest remaining stadium was impressive.



Why not spend a week fawning over two remarkable feats?



That’s why Mason both made Stern’s Sunday and ruined it with one dagger three-pointer. Stern has battled his league’s thuggish and selfish image for most of this decade. The Spurs have rebutted that stereotype as well as any team could, and Mason’s shot was proof.



He had taken eight shots and made two of them, for eight points, before he decided to play ace for a fourth time.



For a moment, at least, analysts were forced to stop talking about Kobe and LeBron, so they could pay attention to the league’s previous two champions. LeBron hasn’t won anything in June yet and this version of the Lakers, even if it is barreling through its conference, hasn’t, either.



With Mason’s heroics and clutch thievery from Manu Ginobili, the Spurs stood up to the squad Gregg Popovich said would be “the toughest defensive team we’ll face this season” and eked out victory No. 34.



Jameer Nelson’s likely season-ending shoulder injury removed Orlando from its half-hearted inclusion alongside the league’s great triumvirate. The Spurs, then, playing against the storied franchise that held the trophy last summer they want to hold again, screamed with another squeaker, “Count us out at your own peril.”



The Spurs now own victories against each of last year’s finalists and showed again why they have the acumen and experience to offer the Lakers a decent fight in late May.



Ginobili's late-game wizardry dominated the post-game talk. Ray Allen thought Ginobili stepped out of bounds illegally to rob his inbounds pass, Doc Rivers did not and the Spurs? None of them saw or comprehended the play when it happened. Not even Ginobili.



“When you are in the play, everything happens so fast,” Ginobili told the San Antonio Express-News. “So I’m not sure what happened.”



The explosive Argentine Brent Barry dubbed "El Contusion," as expected, was a large part of the Spurs biggest win of the season. He dumped in 19 points, none bigger, than his game-sealing four free throws when officials ruled Paul Pierce had committed a clear-path foul after the disputed steal.

Matt Bonner, the red-headed New Hampshire product, also defied critics who have said he lacks big-game toughness and poured in 23-points, 14 of them coming in a furious 38-point second quarter. The Spurs led 60-52 at halftime.

Then, the Celtics responded in the third period as champions do, outscoring the Spurs 24-14.

Doc Rivers told sideline reporter Heather Cox both teams in the period had "finally decided to play defense," and it was a "good game."

That the Spurs seemed primed to self-destruct in the third quarter made Mason's latest wow-factor shot more special. Garnett drilled back-to-back jumpers to give the Celtics a 93-90 lead with less than two minutes left in the contest.

Bonner forced a Garnett miss, and then brought the Spurs within one with his 10th basket of the afternoon. The show he put on for two busloads of his biggest New Hampshire fans merely set the table for Mason to drop another heartbreaker.

Mason represents everything that makes the Spurs an annual contender and everything that has changed about them since Popovich took the reigns in 1997.

Years earlier, Pop would have yelled at his players to call a timeout. The play would have been one of the coach's favorite halfcourt sets, perhaps the out of bounds play that allowed Robert Horry to stun a packed Palace of Auburn Hills in 2005.

This time, Popovich figured a timeout would give the Celtics a chance to set the league's best defense up to stop such a play. When Mason looked over at him to seek approval for the shot, 2-8 at the time, Pop nodded. "Go ahead Roger, take it," this simple gesture said.

Mason's leaning three was a risky shot. Out of rhythm and on the move, the chances of a miss to seal a Celtics victory were just as good as a make.

What matters is that Mason rolls as the Spurs have during their decade of contention. In a game where he struggled to find his touch, he found a way, even after the odds had buried him, to make improbability a reality

The Spurs allowed the Celtics to shoot 50 percent and outscore them by 20 points in the paint and still won. These are the poor defensive showings Pop swears his team cannot win, and yet, for most of the last two months, his team has been winning them.
Outscore yet another team on the road? No problem.

Mason set a school free throw percentage record at the University of Virginia, but even then, most wondered if he could cut it as a pro. Was he athletic enough, could he shoot as well as he slashed to the basket and what impact might he have at the end of a big-time NBA game?

It seems funny to picture Mason as a slasher because his greatest skill now is his deadly long-range stroke. The NBA invited him to its annual Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout for that.

The Chicago Bulls selected Mason with the 31st pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. He played in only 43 games between 2002 and 2004, some of those with the Toronto Raptors. His transient pro career smashed for the moment, he bolted overseas where he produced two solid seasons for Greece's Olypiacos and Israel's Hapoel Jerusalem.

Then, he returned to the NBA as a bench prospect for the Washington Wizards.

The Spurs' brass began to watch the youngster develop, and several seasons later, would covet him. I liked him a lot, too. I watched him drop five three-pointers on the Seattle Supersonics on NBA League Pass last year. The Spurs had to salivate when he scored a career-high 32 points against the Indiana Pacers.

As a backup guard filling in for injured star Gilbert Arenas, Mason was what his numbers said he was. He averaged nine points and occasionally exploded for big games on a pedestrian, banged-up, first-round punching bag.

Mason helped the Wizards do something else in 2008-09 season, though, that they won't repeat this year. Washington was the only team to beat the 66-win Celtics three times.

His impact on those wins is why the Spurs wanted him. At worst, he would give the Spurs a few buckets in a limited reserve role.

Then, after the five-game ouster against the Lakers, Ginobili re-injured his bum ankle in Beijing and the need to sign an impact free agent became a necessity. I didn't think Mason was enough.

The Spurs would play until mid-December without their magical leading scorer, who had so often last season saved them with miracle shots, defensive plays and bullet passes.

Mason's San Antonio debut against the defenseless Suns was inauspicious. He scored 14 points efficiently, but even Jon Barry quipped in the ESPN studio that the Spurs didn't have the firepower without Ginobili, to beat anyone of note.

Then, Tony Parker fell awkwardly on his ankle, and Mason and draft pick George Hill helped Duncan save the season. Mason drilled his first game-winner at the Staples Center against the Clippers.

He shot down the Utah Jazz with eight three-pointers and enjoyed similar, can't miss nights against the Minnesota Timberwolves. His creative scoring and Duncan's stoic leadership pushed the Spurs back to .500 after a dismal 1-4 start, just in time for the All-Star backcourt to make its triumphant return.

Parker and Ginobili on the sidelines put Mason and Hill on the frontlines. Injuries allowed these newest, fresh-legged San Antonio cogs to become the kind of players that could help the Spurs in June.

Pop, after all, would much rather send long-armed Hill into an NBA Finals game to spell Parker than Beno Udrih.

What Mason managed on Christmas Day and in a Jan. 14 rematch with the Lakers, both game-winners, cemented him as the ultimate Spur.

He has taken every chance given to him by his long-bearded coach, both big and small, and given the Spurs a chance to win a fifth title.

Popovich loves players who use disrespect as motivational fuel, in part, because he spearheads the front office's decision to return the same core group each year while other teams rebuild through fire sales and make blockbuster deals.

ABC all but turned the lights off on the Spurs with a Sunday dedicated to individual greatness. Could Kobe end LeBron's perfect 23-0 home mark?

The Celtics did their part, too, with the kind of second-half surge that has entombed so many league weaklings. Garnett roared and fist-pumped after he drained consecutive 20-footers, and it seemed the Spurs were headed for a 16th loss. This is where Stern's script ended.

Mason, after a Bonner make and a stop, saw the lights flicker for a split second. He leaned in and kept them on for another afternoon. 95-93, Spurs. Ginobili took Mason's cue and did the rest.

The Spurs, after all, follow their own script.

[WalterBenitez]

It is. However, in the case of the NBA, it is about Marketing.

hehehe, you steal my thought like Manu did from Allen. I wouldn't say everything is about money, but $tern should think that Celtics are more markeatable.

Anyhow I enjoyed!

[txstr1986]

Nice read.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Best article I've read in quite some time. Somebody please hire this guy instead of McDonald

[bigdog]

I already knew McDonald blew, but damn, this guy takes him out