duncan228
03-02-2009, 12:15 AM
Spurs Turn to Mason for Big Shot on Last Shot (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/sports/basketball/02mason.html?_r=1&ref=sports)
By Jonathan Abrams
March 1, 2009
SAN ANTONIO — With the usual suspects regularly cranking out playoff victories and N.B.A. titles, fans around here are well acquainted with big shots.
At one time, there were David Robinson and Robert Horry. Now there are Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili and Tony Parker — and Roger Mason Jr.
If Mason’s name is not yet widely known among basketball fans, it certainly is to opponents of the Spurs.
Mason has made four winning shots this season, some on plays designed for him. He has fit in nicely for a sometime patchwork team that has quietly hummed along and now seems poised for another breakout.
The Spurs look tattered and worn each fall, the sun finally appearing to set on their dynasty. Then comes spring, and they bloom.
Their longstanding mantra, posted in the locker room, is drawn from the social reformer Jacob Riis. When frustrated, Riis thought of a stonecutter continually hammering a stone with no progress to show for the work. “Yet at the hundred-and-first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before,” Riis had said.
The quotation aptly describes Mason, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard in his fourth season who took a meandering route to the N.B.A. He played in Greece before the former Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Childress made it an acceptable destination for top American players to consider. He was a college star who dropped to the second round of the draft. But instead of fading into the black, he now wears the color proudly along with Spurs silver.
In conversations with Mason, the word opportunity comes up a lot.
It describes his situation last year with the Washington Wizards when he filled in for the injured Gilbert Arenas. And it arrived in more dramatic fashion this season when he stepped in for a hobbled Ginóbili.
In November, Gregg Popovich, the long-time coach of the Spurs, drew up a play for Mason in the waning moments against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“That was the first time he actually directed that play at me,” Mason said.
Mason saw a seam and shot the Spurs to victory with 8.3 seconds remaining.
Then, at Christmas, the Spurs defeated the Suns on Mason’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer. That play was not designed for Mason, but the ball somehow gravitated into his hands.
After those theatrics came a 3-point play that gave the Spurs the edge over the Los Angeles Lakers and another 3-pointer with 20.4 seconds left against the Boston Celtics after he corralled a rebound and Popovich yelled for him to race upcourt before the Celtics could set themselves.
“I’ve been fortunate to just focus in at the time and I just really try to do that,” Mason said.
Mason was averaging a career-high 12 points going into Sunday’s game at Portland. He was shooting 43.2 percent on 3-point attempts, 12th in the league.
“I don’t think anyone would have guessed he’d have four game-winners on a team that has Parker, Duncan, Ginóbili,” Nets Coach Lawrence Frank said. “But he obviously has a lot of courage.”
Mason is surrounded by players who throughout their careers have done the kinds of things he has been doing lately. Even Mason seems caught slightly off-guard. “At the same time, you have Tim Duncan out there,” he said.
Mason is perhaps mildly surprised, but he has little self-doubt.
“He shoots a gazillion 3’s, so obviously he has no conscience,” Popovich said. “He’s going to let it fly.”
Mason started developing his shooting skills when he was about 6, growing up in Washington in the shadow of the Bullets. His father, Roger Mason Sr., taught him the game and took him to watch the professionals play.
His father died when Mason was 11, but he left his son a legacy, and Mason in turn developed his leadership skills by serving as a role model for his three younger siblings.
He played in college at Virginia, in part because of its academic reputation, but he declared early for the draft. In his first predraft workout, Mason dislocated his shoulder, effectively shattering whatever chances he had of being selected in the first round.
In a banquet room, he watched the 2002 draft with family and friends. Mason hoped to be taken 14th by the Indiana Pacers, but the first round came and went without his name being called.
“That’s when the tears started coming out,” he said.
The Chicago Bulls drafted him in the second round, 31st over all. He played little as a rookie and was traded early the next season to the Toronto Raptors, who waived him in December. He then headed overseas to play in Greece, with Olympiacos (Childress’s team), and in Israel.
The money was good. And beyond basketball, the life experience was great. But his conscience nagged at him. He believed he was good enough not just to play in the N.B.A., but to leave his mark.
He worked out in gyms in Washington and attended open gyms the Spurs hosted in the hot San Antonio summers.
Mason realized his dream of playing in his hometown when he signed with the Wizards for the 2006-7 season. Again, his name was rarely called, but the Spurs had become familiar with him and offered a partly guaranteed contract after the season.
“I just felt like if I got a chance to play, my value would be taken a little bit more serious,” Mason said.
Mason decided to return to the Wizards. It was a gamble, he says. But it paid off when injuries resulted in his getting more playing time. The Spurs came calling again, this time with guaranteed money.
For a newcomer like Mason, finding a niche on a team that had been well oiled long before his arrival could have been difficult and intimidating. But Popovich said Duncan created a welcoming environment.
“We’re Boy Scouts,” Popovich, said, joking, recently. “I’m trying to get more personality — guys with D.U.I.’s and stuff like that.”
Spurs General Manager R. C. Buford would shudder at the thought, but acclimating, he said, can be tough.
“It’s an unbelievably difficult environment to come into because it is a group that’s been together a very long time,” Buford said.
There were no initiation rituals or hazing, Mason said.
The environment is a bit different from that of the Wizards. There will be no back-and-forth in the news media between playoff teams, as the Wizards did in engaging the Cleveland Cavaliers the last few seasons. Nor will there be a back-and-forth between rappers backing their teams, as when Jay-Z authored a supporting track of LeBron James, while Soulja Boy defended the Wizards’ DeShawn Stevenson.
“That’s the last thing you’ll see down here,” Mason said, chuckling. “This team is not about hype. I’ve played on teams where it’s about swagger. It’s all about egos. And it’s so refreshing to come here where you have people who are actually champions, that really could be like that, but aren’t.”
The Spurs’ season is coming full circle as it nears its end. Ginóbili, the sixth-man extraordinaire, is out with a stress reaction in his right ankle. He was less than healthy in last season’s playoffs, a big reason the Lakers brushed the Spurs aside so easily in the Western Conference finals. Ginóbili is expected to return in two or three weeks. In that time and beyond, Mason will again be looked upon to play a leading role.
“Hopefully, we don’t need too many last-second shots come playoffs,” he said.
His late-game scoring has even earned Mason a nickname, Big Shot Rog, a spinoff of Horry’s Big Shot Rob.
Parker laughed at the name.
“That’s funny,” he said. “We’ll see if he proves it in the playoffs.”
In other words, they are waiting to see how Mason performs in the real Spurs initiation.
By Jonathan Abrams
March 1, 2009
SAN ANTONIO — With the usual suspects regularly cranking out playoff victories and N.B.A. titles, fans around here are well acquainted with big shots.
At one time, there were David Robinson and Robert Horry. Now there are Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili and Tony Parker — and Roger Mason Jr.
If Mason’s name is not yet widely known among basketball fans, it certainly is to opponents of the Spurs.
Mason has made four winning shots this season, some on plays designed for him. He has fit in nicely for a sometime patchwork team that has quietly hummed along and now seems poised for another breakout.
The Spurs look tattered and worn each fall, the sun finally appearing to set on their dynasty. Then comes spring, and they bloom.
Their longstanding mantra, posted in the locker room, is drawn from the social reformer Jacob Riis. When frustrated, Riis thought of a stonecutter continually hammering a stone with no progress to show for the work. “Yet at the hundred-and-first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before,” Riis had said.
The quotation aptly describes Mason, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard in his fourth season who took a meandering route to the N.B.A. He played in Greece before the former Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Childress made it an acceptable destination for top American players to consider. He was a college star who dropped to the second round of the draft. But instead of fading into the black, he now wears the color proudly along with Spurs silver.
In conversations with Mason, the word opportunity comes up a lot.
It describes his situation last year with the Washington Wizards when he filled in for the injured Gilbert Arenas. And it arrived in more dramatic fashion this season when he stepped in for a hobbled Ginóbili.
In November, Gregg Popovich, the long-time coach of the Spurs, drew up a play for Mason in the waning moments against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“That was the first time he actually directed that play at me,” Mason said.
Mason saw a seam and shot the Spurs to victory with 8.3 seconds remaining.
Then, at Christmas, the Spurs defeated the Suns on Mason’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer. That play was not designed for Mason, but the ball somehow gravitated into his hands.
After those theatrics came a 3-point play that gave the Spurs the edge over the Los Angeles Lakers and another 3-pointer with 20.4 seconds left against the Boston Celtics after he corralled a rebound and Popovich yelled for him to race upcourt before the Celtics could set themselves.
“I’ve been fortunate to just focus in at the time and I just really try to do that,” Mason said.
Mason was averaging a career-high 12 points going into Sunday’s game at Portland. He was shooting 43.2 percent on 3-point attempts, 12th in the league.
“I don’t think anyone would have guessed he’d have four game-winners on a team that has Parker, Duncan, Ginóbili,” Nets Coach Lawrence Frank said. “But he obviously has a lot of courage.”
Mason is surrounded by players who throughout their careers have done the kinds of things he has been doing lately. Even Mason seems caught slightly off-guard. “At the same time, you have Tim Duncan out there,” he said.
Mason is perhaps mildly surprised, but he has little self-doubt.
“He shoots a gazillion 3’s, so obviously he has no conscience,” Popovich said. “He’s going to let it fly.”
Mason started developing his shooting skills when he was about 6, growing up in Washington in the shadow of the Bullets. His father, Roger Mason Sr., taught him the game and took him to watch the professionals play.
His father died when Mason was 11, but he left his son a legacy, and Mason in turn developed his leadership skills by serving as a role model for his three younger siblings.
He played in college at Virginia, in part because of its academic reputation, but he declared early for the draft. In his first predraft workout, Mason dislocated his shoulder, effectively shattering whatever chances he had of being selected in the first round.
In a banquet room, he watched the 2002 draft with family and friends. Mason hoped to be taken 14th by the Indiana Pacers, but the first round came and went without his name being called.
“That’s when the tears started coming out,” he said.
The Chicago Bulls drafted him in the second round, 31st over all. He played little as a rookie and was traded early the next season to the Toronto Raptors, who waived him in December. He then headed overseas to play in Greece, with Olympiacos (Childress’s team), and in Israel.
The money was good. And beyond basketball, the life experience was great. But his conscience nagged at him. He believed he was good enough not just to play in the N.B.A., but to leave his mark.
He worked out in gyms in Washington and attended open gyms the Spurs hosted in the hot San Antonio summers.
Mason realized his dream of playing in his hometown when he signed with the Wizards for the 2006-7 season. Again, his name was rarely called, but the Spurs had become familiar with him and offered a partly guaranteed contract after the season.
“I just felt like if I got a chance to play, my value would be taken a little bit more serious,” Mason said.
Mason decided to return to the Wizards. It was a gamble, he says. But it paid off when injuries resulted in his getting more playing time. The Spurs came calling again, this time with guaranteed money.
For a newcomer like Mason, finding a niche on a team that had been well oiled long before his arrival could have been difficult and intimidating. But Popovich said Duncan created a welcoming environment.
“We’re Boy Scouts,” Popovich, said, joking, recently. “I’m trying to get more personality — guys with D.U.I.’s and stuff like that.”
Spurs General Manager R. C. Buford would shudder at the thought, but acclimating, he said, can be tough.
“It’s an unbelievably difficult environment to come into because it is a group that’s been together a very long time,” Buford said.
There were no initiation rituals or hazing, Mason said.
The environment is a bit different from that of the Wizards. There will be no back-and-forth in the news media between playoff teams, as the Wizards did in engaging the Cleveland Cavaliers the last few seasons. Nor will there be a back-and-forth between rappers backing their teams, as when Jay-Z authored a supporting track of LeBron James, while Soulja Boy defended the Wizards’ DeShawn Stevenson.
“That’s the last thing you’ll see down here,” Mason said, chuckling. “This team is not about hype. I’ve played on teams where it’s about swagger. It’s all about egos. And it’s so refreshing to come here where you have people who are actually champions, that really could be like that, but aren’t.”
The Spurs’ season is coming full circle as it nears its end. Ginóbili, the sixth-man extraordinaire, is out with a stress reaction in his right ankle. He was less than healthy in last season’s playoffs, a big reason the Lakers brushed the Spurs aside so easily in the Western Conference finals. Ginóbili is expected to return in two or three weeks. In that time and beyond, Mason will again be looked upon to play a leading role.
“Hopefully, we don’t need too many last-second shots come playoffs,” he said.
His late-game scoring has even earned Mason a nickname, Big Shot Rog, a spinoff of Horry’s Big Shot Rob.
Parker laughed at the name.
“That’s funny,” he said. “We’ll see if he proves it in the playoffs.”
In other words, they are waiting to see how Mason performs in the real Spurs initiation.