duncan228
05-07-2009, 12:07 AM
Vote is in: Why Spurs dribble, but do not run (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Vote_is_in_Why_Spurs_dribble_but_do_not_run.html)
Buck Harvey
Early on, Phil Hardberger wasn't sure whether to run for mayor. Most of his concerns were personal, and there was one possibility that would have sent him home for good.
What if David Robinson joined the race?
“That's the day,” Hardberger was telling people in 2003, “that I get out.”
Robinson isn't the only former Spur who could get voters to nod like a mass of bobble-head dolls. Sean Elliott would also be a favorite of the electorate, as would Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen when they retire.
But Robinson and Elliott stay away now, for the same reasons Hardberger almost did.
It's personal.
Others see this differently, such as Dave Bing. A former Pistons star and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Bing became Detroit's mayor this week.
Former Suns guard Kevin Johnson already holds the same office in Sacramento. So where are the Spurs? In this era, where four championships came with admirable qualities, Robinson and Elliott would overwhelm the current field by handing out autographs instead of leaflets.
“David or Sean would be elected to any public office in San Antonio,” Red McCombs said, “in a landslide.”
That's how Hardberger felt about Robinson years ago, and Henry Cisneros went further. He once called Robinson “presidential timber.”
So why shouldn't this lefty with a jumpshot follow this path? Another did, and he's in the White House.
Elliott says there are a lot of reasons. “For one, I like my private life,” he said. “And I think the toughest thing for a guy like David, too, is that he really enjoys not being so high profile anymore.”
Then there's the unfamiliar world of politics.
“I wouldn't want to win for some popularity standpoint,” Elliott said. “I wouldn't want to step into something I didn't think I was qualified for. There are a whole lot of people out there who are smarter than I am.”
There are no guarantees such people are currently running for mayor. Besides, as Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.”
McCombs agrees. “If they asked me, I'd tell them it's not about experience. It's common sense. The real question, for anyone, is this: ‘Do you want to put up with it?'”
McCombs says he knew Jack Kemp, the former AFL quarterback and Republican vice-presidential candidate who passed away this month.
“He loved everything about politics,” McCombs said.
McCombs said Kemp liked to read people, and he tolerated meetings, and he saw the angles. He accepted the grind, too, and this is what McCombs told Hardberger in 2003.
“He wanted to run,” McCombs said, “and I advised him not to. I told him, ‘You're enjoying your life, and you cannot escape working seven days a week, with people pulling you in every direction. It will eat you up.'”
Hardberger went back and forth; Elliott doesn't have to. He's been booed in Portland and Utah, but he doesn't care to hear complaints from neighborhoods. He's says it's not for him, and he sees the differences in someone such as Bing.
He's 65, and a successful businessman. Bing Steel opened in Detroit in 1980 and employs about 500 workers.
Even then, the election wasn't painless. Bing was caught in a couple of controversies, and some were his fault, and some couldn't be explained in a 30-second sound bite. He still won, and his reward is to lead a city in steep decline.
Robinson and Elliott, instead, abstain, and they do so with logic that would win even more votes.
Just because you can get elected doesn't mean you should.
Buck Harvey
Early on, Phil Hardberger wasn't sure whether to run for mayor. Most of his concerns were personal, and there was one possibility that would have sent him home for good.
What if David Robinson joined the race?
“That's the day,” Hardberger was telling people in 2003, “that I get out.”
Robinson isn't the only former Spur who could get voters to nod like a mass of bobble-head dolls. Sean Elliott would also be a favorite of the electorate, as would Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen when they retire.
But Robinson and Elliott stay away now, for the same reasons Hardberger almost did.
It's personal.
Others see this differently, such as Dave Bing. A former Pistons star and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Bing became Detroit's mayor this week.
Former Suns guard Kevin Johnson already holds the same office in Sacramento. So where are the Spurs? In this era, where four championships came with admirable qualities, Robinson and Elliott would overwhelm the current field by handing out autographs instead of leaflets.
“David or Sean would be elected to any public office in San Antonio,” Red McCombs said, “in a landslide.”
That's how Hardberger felt about Robinson years ago, and Henry Cisneros went further. He once called Robinson “presidential timber.”
So why shouldn't this lefty with a jumpshot follow this path? Another did, and he's in the White House.
Elliott says there are a lot of reasons. “For one, I like my private life,” he said. “And I think the toughest thing for a guy like David, too, is that he really enjoys not being so high profile anymore.”
Then there's the unfamiliar world of politics.
“I wouldn't want to win for some popularity standpoint,” Elliott said. “I wouldn't want to step into something I didn't think I was qualified for. There are a whole lot of people out there who are smarter than I am.”
There are no guarantees such people are currently running for mayor. Besides, as Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.”
McCombs agrees. “If they asked me, I'd tell them it's not about experience. It's common sense. The real question, for anyone, is this: ‘Do you want to put up with it?'”
McCombs says he knew Jack Kemp, the former AFL quarterback and Republican vice-presidential candidate who passed away this month.
“He loved everything about politics,” McCombs said.
McCombs said Kemp liked to read people, and he tolerated meetings, and he saw the angles. He accepted the grind, too, and this is what McCombs told Hardberger in 2003.
“He wanted to run,” McCombs said, “and I advised him not to. I told him, ‘You're enjoying your life, and you cannot escape working seven days a week, with people pulling you in every direction. It will eat you up.'”
Hardberger went back and forth; Elliott doesn't have to. He's been booed in Portland and Utah, but he doesn't care to hear complaints from neighborhoods. He's says it's not for him, and he sees the differences in someone such as Bing.
He's 65, and a successful businessman. Bing Steel opened in Detroit in 1980 and employs about 500 workers.
Even then, the election wasn't painless. Bing was caught in a couple of controversies, and some were his fault, and some couldn't be explained in a 30-second sound bite. He still won, and his reward is to lead a city in steep decline.
Robinson and Elliott, instead, abstain, and they do so with logic that would win even more votes.
Just because you can get elected doesn't mean you should.