duncan228
05-24-2009, 12:18 AM
Miracles tie, until impact is measured (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Miracles_tie_until_impact_is_measured.html)
Buck Harvey
The exhilaration hadn't faded late Friday night, with the media still jamming the locker room. So he went into the weight room, if just for some peace, and there the Cavaliers' strength coach had a question for him.
Was that the greatest shot he had ever seen?
Hank Egan paused.
“No,” Egan told him. “It's tied for the greatest.”
Ten years ago this holiday weekend, in the second game of another conference championship, Egan stood courtside in San Antonio to watch another miracle. Egan is the common element.
But he says LeBron James tied Sean Elliott only in dramatics.
Elliott has the edge, right now, because of what followed.
Egan left the Spurs years ago, and he's been through a few things since. He became one of Mike Brown's assistants in Cleveland, and he was there when the Spurs swept the Cavs in the 2007 NBA Finals.
About a year ago, too, he had bypass surgery. “Thank goodness,” Egan joked, “I had the surgery before last night.”
His heart had calmed by Saturday. Then he talked on his cell while sitting on the Cavaliers' charter. The team was readying to fly to Orlando.
He kept using the word “amazing,” and just as amazing was how eerily similar he felt during another trip. Then, heading to Portland in 1999, he felt the same mix of joy, awe and relief.
Elliott teetered on the sidelines as James released with 0.6 seconds to spare; both were trying to beat what appeared to be a better opponent. The Blazers had so much size and talent that Jermaine O'Neal was a young sub who rarely played, and Orlando presses Cleveland with similar strengths.
Another similarity, Egan said, is that “both shots were well defended.” Rasheed Wallace stretched at Elliott, and James leaped with Hedo Turkoglu with him.
There were contrasts, too. Elliott's shot wasn't a buzzer beater. And unlike the Cavaliers, the Spurs were ahead 1-0 in their series going into that game.
The most significant disparity, however, was the attitude shift. The Cavs have already been to the Finals with James. Perhaps he needed the moment to continue his climb to Jordanian legend, but Cleveland already had the sense that, because of him, anything was possible.
“It was weird,” said Lance Blanks, another former Spurs staffer who is now Cleveland's assistant general manager. “There was almost an expectation that something was going to happen.
Hedo's shot (for the Orlando lead) didn't take the air out of the building. I might have seen only one fan ready to leave; the arena was still electric before the shot. Even as LeBron went up, there was an expectation a miracle was going to happen.”
There were no such expectations in 1999. The Spurs were not known for winning games that mattered.
Then there was the central figure. “The old Sean Elliott would have gone into the fourth quarter with 19 points,” Mario Elie said that day, “and ended with 19 points.”
But Elliott's heels famously hovered inbounds, and everything changed. The Spurs flew to Portland feeling as they never had before, and the Blazers cracked. The Spurs would sweep the series, then win their first title, and suddenly there was belief.
“There is a feeling a franchise gets,” Egan said. “When you win one, it changes how everyone sees themselves. That one got us on the march.”
The march slowed this spring. Still, the power of what happened then is undeniable, especially when marked by James and his own miracle.
The march has been going on for 10 years, after all.
Buck Harvey
The exhilaration hadn't faded late Friday night, with the media still jamming the locker room. So he went into the weight room, if just for some peace, and there the Cavaliers' strength coach had a question for him.
Was that the greatest shot he had ever seen?
Hank Egan paused.
“No,” Egan told him. “It's tied for the greatest.”
Ten years ago this holiday weekend, in the second game of another conference championship, Egan stood courtside in San Antonio to watch another miracle. Egan is the common element.
But he says LeBron James tied Sean Elliott only in dramatics.
Elliott has the edge, right now, because of what followed.
Egan left the Spurs years ago, and he's been through a few things since. He became one of Mike Brown's assistants in Cleveland, and he was there when the Spurs swept the Cavs in the 2007 NBA Finals.
About a year ago, too, he had bypass surgery. “Thank goodness,” Egan joked, “I had the surgery before last night.”
His heart had calmed by Saturday. Then he talked on his cell while sitting on the Cavaliers' charter. The team was readying to fly to Orlando.
He kept using the word “amazing,” and just as amazing was how eerily similar he felt during another trip. Then, heading to Portland in 1999, he felt the same mix of joy, awe and relief.
Elliott teetered on the sidelines as James released with 0.6 seconds to spare; both were trying to beat what appeared to be a better opponent. The Blazers had so much size and talent that Jermaine O'Neal was a young sub who rarely played, and Orlando presses Cleveland with similar strengths.
Another similarity, Egan said, is that “both shots were well defended.” Rasheed Wallace stretched at Elliott, and James leaped with Hedo Turkoglu with him.
There were contrasts, too. Elliott's shot wasn't a buzzer beater. And unlike the Cavaliers, the Spurs were ahead 1-0 in their series going into that game.
The most significant disparity, however, was the attitude shift. The Cavs have already been to the Finals with James. Perhaps he needed the moment to continue his climb to Jordanian legend, but Cleveland already had the sense that, because of him, anything was possible.
“It was weird,” said Lance Blanks, another former Spurs staffer who is now Cleveland's assistant general manager. “There was almost an expectation that something was going to happen.
Hedo's shot (for the Orlando lead) didn't take the air out of the building. I might have seen only one fan ready to leave; the arena was still electric before the shot. Even as LeBron went up, there was an expectation a miracle was going to happen.”
There were no such expectations in 1999. The Spurs were not known for winning games that mattered.
Then there was the central figure. “The old Sean Elliott would have gone into the fourth quarter with 19 points,” Mario Elie said that day, “and ended with 19 points.”
But Elliott's heels famously hovered inbounds, and everything changed. The Spurs flew to Portland feeling as they never had before, and the Blazers cracked. The Spurs would sweep the series, then win their first title, and suddenly there was belief.
“There is a feeling a franchise gets,” Egan said. “When you win one, it changes how everyone sees themselves. That one got us on the march.”
The march slowed this spring. Still, the power of what happened then is undeniable, especially when marked by James and his own miracle.
The march has been going on for 10 years, after all.