GREAT Interview with the Big Three, by Jeff McDonald

[jiggy_55]

Last ride for Big Three? (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/last_ride_for_big_three_105452763.html?showFullArt icle=y)

[#2!]

Very good interview, very relaxed and playful, but still with good questions.

[Bukefal]

:lol funny interview. Thanks for posting :toast

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Thanks for that, OP.

Great interview, kudos to McDonald for the best work he's done that I've read.

Those guys really love each other, as it should be. And the Tim-Manu interplay is hilarious as usual. Great stuff.

Like them, 2005 is definitely my favourite Spurs championship. That one was a nail-biter all the way through.

:toast

[mystargtr34]

That was awesome

[Spurs Brazil]

Props to McDonald and Monroe.

Great read. I wish they have a video of this

http://media.mysanantonio.com/images/spurs650-bigthree20101023.jpg

[tmtcsc]

Jeff, that was a great interview. Awesome job. Your best yet.

[Spurs Brazil]

Jeff, that was a great interview. Awesome job. Your best yet.

I think McDonald did a good job last season writing the daily reports, much better than his beginning. The thing that bothers me is he has no sources. We need Yahoo, ESPN, CBS to give us scoops.

Monroe is bad, and I liked him a lot when he was with Fox website but since Ludden left Monroe got worst and worst

[DBMethos]

Fun interview.

[will_spurs]

Apart from the question re: favorite championship run, everything was pretty much tongue in cheek, which made for a great read, but sometimes I wish they had replied a bit more seriously. On the other hand there's some hidden truth in there, like when Manu said "we could have won a championship in each of our first 6 seasons together", implying that in the last couple of years they weren't really believing in it?

[carina_gino20]

Fun interview. I hope there's a video of it.

[ChuckD]

More like great chat by the Big Three, with McDonald in the room.

Oh, and the mandatory McDonald article wrong fact? DRob had two seasons left in 2001, not one. He signed a two year deal that summer for somewhere between $20-22M, IIRC.

[alchemist]

TD: “It's a conspiracy theory.”


:lol

[silverblk mystix]

Great interview...

Manu: ``when I got here, you knew-this is the guy.'' :lol


TD: ``with French boy, it was about him being, whatever, 13 years old..."
:lmao

nice!


my favorite part though was this-very telling of the impact Bruce had - IMO


TD: I think luckily we went through a process with him (MG) on the practice squad where Bruce just beat the crap out of him for a couple of weeks. We learned to respect him along those lines before we ever had to play with him on the floor. :toast


...good read.

[Trill Clinton]

Great interview:toast

[Cane]

Great stuff, wished it was filmed too!

[Mark in Austin]

I think I've been as hard as anybody on McDonald, so props to him (and Monroe) for this interview - good stuff. :tu

[SenorSpur]

Great stuff. Awesome interview.

Props to McDonald and Monroe - M&M.

[Dex]

Really good stuff. Regardless of what happens this season or within the next few, I hope Spurs fans take a moment to reflect and appreciate what this trio of players has done for the city, and enjoy it while it still lasts.

[Man In Black]

I always said this and you guys I know I have but now that TP says it, you know I'm right.


TP: “I always say if we did what we did in New York, we'd be gods right now.”
:hat

Where do you think the three of you should be regarded among the great trios in NBA history?

TP: “Yeah, that's a GREAT question, because I'm watching the game last night (Miami's Big Three had played its preseason opener the night before) and it shows all the best Big Threes — Chicago, Boston, the Lakers. After that, there's a hole and it goes straight to Miami. I don't know why they never put us on that list. It's not like it's gonna bother me, because I have the rings and I'll sleep well at night. But they just don't want to put us up there.”

TD: “That's how it always is. Even in the midst of us winning championships every other year, every year we started we'd be like the No. 5 team on the list to win it. That's the way it is in San Antonio, for whatever reason. We don't get that respect.”

TP: “I always say if we did what we did in New York, we'd be gods right now.”

TD: “It would be crazy.”

TP: “I think the fact that me and Manu are international players, I don't think we get the same respect. Because we're not from America, I think that's why we're not considered up there with the Bostons, or the Lakers or Chicago.”

TD: “It's a conspiracy theory.”

[Cane]

New York?!?!! More Tony Park trade rumor threads! ;)

[ajballer4]

Monroe picked Bonner to be NBA 6th Man of the Year

[ShoogarBear]

Oh, and the mandatory McDonald article wrong fact? DRob had two seasons left in 2001, not one. He signed a two year deal that summer for somewhere between $20-22M, IIRC.

Factual errors are Monroe's specialty.

[DesignatedT]

:tu

[TinTin]

Great interview :D

[ohmwrecker]

Even if they don't win another championship, it's been an honor to cheer for guys like this. They make it easy to be a fan and the disappointments negligible.

[SpursNextRomanEmpire]

haha cool interview

[timtonymanu]

What a beautiful interview. IMO, they will always be the best big 3 in the NBA today.

[Nathan89]

MG: “We kind of have more fun together after losses than wins.”

This needs to change.

[duncan228]

Great interview. You can feel the chemistry between them even in print.

[VBM]

My favorite part


Do you ever look back at some of the near misses — particularly with Dallas in 2006 and the Lakers in 2004 — and think it could have been four or five championships?

TP: “The one I'm still mad about was '06 (the Spurs lost to Dallas in Game 7 of the conference semifinals in overtime). We had 63 wins, the most we've had together, and I really thought we had the best team. Especially seeing what Dallas did (vs. Miami in the NBA Finals) — up 2-0 and they lose.

[Pauleta14]

Strange memory from Tim...

About TP : "with his lack of knowledge of the language ..."

Tony was already fluent! (ok, maybe an accent...)

About 05' Finals MVP trophy : " I remember in '05 (against Detroit), any one of us could have won the MVP that year."

What? Tony? really? :lol


Anyway, great interview, weird that we haven't read/seen another one for... 9 years!!! :wow :depressed

[Pauleta14]

My favorite part

and surprisingly fair play about the Suns and Mavs having better teams that year...

[ElNono]

Props to Mac, that was a great read...

[TD 21]

and surprisingly fair play about the Suns and Mavs having better teams that year...

The Spurs were actually the best team in the league in 06-07, it just wasn't so clear cut that they were assured of winning had they played the Mavs or had the Stoudemire-Diaw suspensions not occurred.

Whereas in 05-06, I think they feel that if they had gotten by the Mavs, they'd have, not coasted, but won the title with relative ease.

I feel strongly that they would have won in '06 (not so much in '04). '06 really was their time to go back to back. Despite battling plantar fasciitis and coming off his then worst regular season, Duncan was playing at a historic level in the Mavs series. I can only imagine what he'd have done against the undersized, Stoudemire-less Suns in the Conference Finals.

[MI21]

In the time you've been together, what's the most bizarre thing you've experienced?

MG: “Getting stuck on the plane in New Orleans (after the 2008 Western Conference) semifinals was tough. It was 48 hours before Game 1 of the conference finals (in Los Angeles). No hotels in New Orleans. We had to sleep on the plane. I'll always remember Pop walking through the aisles, covering us with blankets, concerned about getting us to sleep. Nobody could sleep.”

TP: “We were up 20 in Game 1, too.” (The Lakers eventually won Game 1 89-85, and the series in five games).

TD: “Ran out of gas.”

I wish Bruce Bowen had of walked into the room and said his piece.

BB: "Despite all that we were owning them, then I picked up my 4th foul in the 3rd quarter up 20. Shit, I had Kobe locked up and LA had no chance but Pop decided to sub me out when he should of just let me play it out. Kobe went nuts, we lost and there went the season. FML."

[TMTTRIO]

Cool to see how they get along with each other. We've been blessed to get to experience watching them play and bring home trophys the last several years. I do think that one of the reasons that we aren't on the top of having the best Big 3 on a team is that Manu hasn't had multiple All Stars unlike Tim and Tony. Most teams that have a Big Three have had all three players have been part of multiple All Stars. It shouldn't matter but I think it counts.

[emanueldavidginobili]

it really saddens me to see Manu Tim and Tony get old, it really does.

[manu the best]

.. great interview .. almost mad me cry to think about the few yrs we have to watch these LEGENDS play together .. our BIG THREE are THE BEST ..

[duncan228]

Strange memory from Tim...

About TP : "with his lack of knowledge of the language ..."

Tony was already fluent! (ok, maybe an accent...)

It's hard to tell in print, but remember Duncan's sense of humor when you read it.


About 05' Finals MVP trophy : " I remember in '05 (against Detroit), any one of us could have won the MVP that year."

What? Tony? really? :lol

Just Duncan being the nice teammate he is. :)

[ChuckD]

it really saddens me to see Manu Tim and Tony get old, it really does.

It really saddens me to see the bitching here while they are still a top team.

You people want something to bitch about? Wait 3 or 4 years....

[Danny.Zhu]

Good read.

[spurs10]

Yes, we are extremely fortunate. It's going to be a great year! I'll have to remind myself, "you don't miss your water til your well runs dry".

[#2!]

This interview makes me really feel that the spurs need to make a trade during the season in order to pick up the pieces need for a championship. We need defenders. The Varejao rumor got me thinking about how many defensive bigs this team really needs to compete with the likes of LA. And, as everyone knows, there must be a perimeter stopper.

Trade Bonner, trade George, trade Blair, trade Anderson, trade whoever needs to be shipped off in order to get a championship level, championship hungry squad around these 3 greats. *and so there is no bitching, I don't mean I don't want any of the above on the team, just that I'm willing to give up on the post TD era if it means having a real chance for another ring. No matter how many "steals" we pick up in the draft we will won't be close to ringing again for a very long time after the next couple of seasons.*

[Brazil]

Loved it !!

everything is there, great team mates, duncan sense of humor, manu craziness, tp straight to the point as usual, the smiles.... The only regret we can have is 2006.

I cannot wait the season to start

[Brazil]

I think TP suffered a lot his first year :)

TP: “For me, he (Tim) didn't talk to me for the whole first year (laughing). It was kind of tough at first, because you want to earn his respect. He was our franchise. It was hard at the beginning, because he doesn't talk. I would have Pop scream at me and tell me to go talk to TD, and I didn't want to. I was scared of TD. He always looked like he was mad. As the years went by, it got better.”

[Brazil]

this

[Brazil]

this one is pretty good too:

As the interview ends, the three players gather their things and prepare to go their separate ways for the night.
MG: I'm going out to dinner tonight but TD isn't invited.
TD: See? Everything's back to normal

[Drachen]

I thought the story about paintball was hilarious.

- It was USA vs. France and I won! but no one cared because it's France.

I am not one of those people who is overly down on the French, but this was still pretty funny.

[timvpimp]

I thought the story about paintball was hilarious.

- It was USA vs. France and I won! but no one cared because it's France.

I am not one of those people who is overly down on the French, but this was still pretty funny.
though your still one of the morons who have the same peculiar fetish in a crippled piece of giant shit.

[Pauleta14]

It's hard to tell in print, but remember Duncan's sense of humor when you read it.



Just Duncan being the nice teammate he is. :)

I love the way you defend him and I agree with the 2nd one, but...

IMO, Tim AND Tony are not really "sociable" by nature, I would even call Tony "shy" in a way...
Tim just was just (understandably) pissed to see an unproven PG being the 1st draft pick of his team after just being swept by the Lakers and probably thought he (Tony) wasn't going to last long. He probably assumed (wrongly) that Tony being french, didn't speak english, or at least not fluently...
+ Tony being straight forward when he speaks and having said multiple times that Timmy didn't even talked to him for 1 year, I can't help but think there is something true in there...

Anyway, this doesn't really matter, in fact, that's the beauty of it, 3 different personalities/talents with 3 completely different backgrounds/cultures have build one of the greatest dynasty ever!

:lobt2::lobt2::lobt2:

[temujin]

It is now a Big three.

It was a Big Four.

Never forget that.

TD mentions that when he says that they started to believe in Manu after a couple of weeks of Bowen on him in practice.

Actually, that's the only piece I miss in Ginobili's career: I would have LOVED to watch how he did against Bowen.

[wildbill2u]

There may be more championships in the future after the Big 3 are done and gone--assuming the franchise stays in SA--but this group will always be remembered as being special because they brought us so much and set the standard.

[duncan228]

Interview getting some press.


Is This It For The OG Big 3? (http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/)
Sekou Smith

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – You do realize that this “Big 3″ formula used first in Boston and now in Miami isn’t some groundbreaking concept, despite the way it’s being touted (and trashed, depending on your whereabouts) throughout the basketball universe.

The San Antonio Spurs’ “Big 3″ of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker have been rolling together for nearly a decade, and they have the titles to back up all the hype, not that they ever generate any.

But is this is it for the original Big 3? On the eve of their ninth season together Jeff McDonald and my main man Mike Monroe of the Express News dove into that and much more with the aging Spurs’ icons (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/last_ride_for_big_three_105452763.html?c=y&page=1#storytop):


Where do you think the three of you should be regarded among the great trios in NBA history?

TP: “Yeah, that’s a GREAT question, because I’m watching the game last night (Miami’s Big Three had played its preseason opener the night before) and it shows all the best Big Threes — Chicago, Boston, the Lakers. After that, there’s a hole and it goes straight to Miami. I don’t know why they never put us on that list. It’s not like it’s gonna bother me, because I have the rings and I’ll sleep well at night. But they just don’t want to put us up there.”

TD: “That’s how it always is. Even in the midst of us winning championships every other year, every year we started we’d be like the No. 5 team on the list to win it. That’s the way it is in San Antonio, for whatever reason. We don’t get that respect.”

TP: “I always say if we did what we did in New York, we’d be gods right now.”

TD: “It would be crazy.”

TP: “I think the fact that me and Manu are international players, I don’t think we get the same respect. Because we’re not from America, I think that’s why we’re not considered up there with the Bostons, or the Lakers or Chicago.”

TD: “It’s a conspiracy theory.”

None of the Big 3s currently in operation (not in Boston, Miami or even LA’s version — and you can pick three any of the Lakers’ top four five players to comprise their Big 3) can boast of the same success the Spurs have experienced together.

We’re talking about 16 combined All-Star appearances and three NBA titles won during their eight seasons sharing space in Gregg Popovich‘s outfit. That’s an eternity in this day and age.

We realize LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have plenty of people coming at them with advice about how to handle themselves this season. But if they want some quality advice on how to navigate the minefield that will be this season, placing a call to one of the Spurs’ Big 3 might make a lot of sense.

[urunobili]

gr8 work :tu

[lefty]

TP: “I think Manu had more problems with Pop than anybody. He was subbing Manu all the time. I was like, ‘Why did you draft that guy? You don't know how he plays?' We used to go inside all the time to TD, like every single play. So when Manu arrives, and starts taking all these crazy shots, I was just laughing.”

:lmao

[ShoogarBear]

Damn that Tony, did you read where he said how much he hated Manu?

[LoneStarState'sPride]

Fantastic interview--have loved every minute of watching the REAL big 3.

[Agloco]

Props to McDonald and Monroe.

Great read. I wish they have a video of this

http://media.mysanantonio.com/images/spurs650-bigthree20101023.jpg

Looks like Manu is copping a feel. What up wit that? :wow