duncan228
02-12-2009, 06:35 PM
Raptors cast-offs thriving with San Antonio (http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/586368)
BONNER, MASON SHINE AS STARTERS
Dave Feschuk
How can it be, the weary Raptor fan wonders at an all-star break with the season already broken, that 40 per cent of the San Antonio Spurs' starting lineup is made up of players Toronto ditched?
How can it be that the Spurs, a championship contender yet again despite last night's 91-89 loss at the Air Canada Centre, could be using Canada's struggling NBA franchise as a de facto developmental system?
It can be this way, to be fair to the locals hoopsters, because Matt Bonner and Roger Mason Jr., the ex-Raptors who have found success in San Antonio, have become better players since they kept lockers at the Air Canada Centre.
And a better set of teammates haven't hurt.
Bonner, the shooting specialist traded to the Spurs in Bryan Colangelo's honeymoon summer of 2006, was a confidence-challenged bench-rider when he resided in these parts, and last night – when he followed up a pair of 20-point-plus games with an 0-for-4 goose-egg – provided a reminiscent glimpse.
"I feel like I'm cursed," said Bonner with a shrug and a smile. And indeed, in three visits to the Air Canada Centre as a Spur, Bonner has yet to score a point.
One bum game aside, the Red Rocket, as the carrot-topped TTC enthusiast is still known, is leading the NBA in three-point shooting percentage. And Canada's national team can only hope he scores his citizenship before this summer's qualifying tournament for the 2010 world championship. (Bonner, a native of New Hampshire who makes his off-season home here with his wife, Nadia, who is from the Beach, is in the process of applying for a Maple Leaf passport and reiterated his hope to play for the new flag).
Bonner, or anyone, isn't the same kind of threat without Tim Duncan, the power forward who has been the bedrock of four championship teams in San Antonio, keeping defences honest in the post. He's not the same kind of threat without San Antonio's Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker slashing and pitching.
"If you're a great shooter," said Parker last night, "you're always going to play well for our team."
Still, maybe neither Bonner nor Mason, both 28, would be where they are now if they hadn't been cast-offs. Mason, cut by Rob Babcock four years ago, is suddenly the Spurs' clutch-shot specialist who has made four game-winning jumpers already this season.
"(Getting cut by Toronto) made me a better player because it made me hungrier," said Mason last night, when he scored just nine points on 4-for-11 shooting. "Matt can say the same thing."
Mason, not unlike Bonner, isn't your average baller. It's been said he's the rare player who could make more money out of the NBA than in it, and he's in the first year of a two-year contract that pays him $7.3 million (U.S.). He studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Virginia. He owns his own construction company. And he has connections – he was a classmate of Chelsea Clinton at the same Washington, D.C., school currently attended by the Obama daughters.
"We try to find people who feel like they have something to prove or are team-oriented and have their priorities set," said Gregg Popovich, the Spurs coach, explaining how his team continues to fill out their roster without the benefit of high draft picks or big spending. "We really look hard trying to find those kinds of guys."
They've found two in Bonner and Mason. And true to what brought them to the Spurs, neither seems content in having simply found a home.
Said Mason: "I want to feel included. (The Spurs core of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili) have got a club of being champions and there's kind of that aura around them ... When I win a championship, I'll feel like I'm in the club, too."
BONNER, MASON SHINE AS STARTERS
Dave Feschuk
How can it be, the weary Raptor fan wonders at an all-star break with the season already broken, that 40 per cent of the San Antonio Spurs' starting lineup is made up of players Toronto ditched?
How can it be that the Spurs, a championship contender yet again despite last night's 91-89 loss at the Air Canada Centre, could be using Canada's struggling NBA franchise as a de facto developmental system?
It can be this way, to be fair to the locals hoopsters, because Matt Bonner and Roger Mason Jr., the ex-Raptors who have found success in San Antonio, have become better players since they kept lockers at the Air Canada Centre.
And a better set of teammates haven't hurt.
Bonner, the shooting specialist traded to the Spurs in Bryan Colangelo's honeymoon summer of 2006, was a confidence-challenged bench-rider when he resided in these parts, and last night – when he followed up a pair of 20-point-plus games with an 0-for-4 goose-egg – provided a reminiscent glimpse.
"I feel like I'm cursed," said Bonner with a shrug and a smile. And indeed, in three visits to the Air Canada Centre as a Spur, Bonner has yet to score a point.
One bum game aside, the Red Rocket, as the carrot-topped TTC enthusiast is still known, is leading the NBA in three-point shooting percentage. And Canada's national team can only hope he scores his citizenship before this summer's qualifying tournament for the 2010 world championship. (Bonner, a native of New Hampshire who makes his off-season home here with his wife, Nadia, who is from the Beach, is in the process of applying for a Maple Leaf passport and reiterated his hope to play for the new flag).
Bonner, or anyone, isn't the same kind of threat without Tim Duncan, the power forward who has been the bedrock of four championship teams in San Antonio, keeping defences honest in the post. He's not the same kind of threat without San Antonio's Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker slashing and pitching.
"If you're a great shooter," said Parker last night, "you're always going to play well for our team."
Still, maybe neither Bonner nor Mason, both 28, would be where they are now if they hadn't been cast-offs. Mason, cut by Rob Babcock four years ago, is suddenly the Spurs' clutch-shot specialist who has made four game-winning jumpers already this season.
"(Getting cut by Toronto) made me a better player because it made me hungrier," said Mason last night, when he scored just nine points on 4-for-11 shooting. "Matt can say the same thing."
Mason, not unlike Bonner, isn't your average baller. It's been said he's the rare player who could make more money out of the NBA than in it, and he's in the first year of a two-year contract that pays him $7.3 million (U.S.). He studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Virginia. He owns his own construction company. And he has connections – he was a classmate of Chelsea Clinton at the same Washington, D.C., school currently attended by the Obama daughters.
"We try to find people who feel like they have something to prove or are team-oriented and have their priorities set," said Gregg Popovich, the Spurs coach, explaining how his team continues to fill out their roster without the benefit of high draft picks or big spending. "We really look hard trying to find those kinds of guys."
They've found two in Bonner and Mason. And true to what brought them to the Spurs, neither seems content in having simply found a home.
Said Mason: "I want to feel included. (The Spurs core of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili) have got a club of being champions and there's kind of that aura around them ... When I win a championship, I'll feel like I'm in the club, too."