SPURSCHAMPS
05-27-2005, 09:21 AM
Spurs are putting it all together
By David DuPree, USA TODAY
SAN ANTONIO — During the NBA regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs existed just outside the spotlight. They didn't have the Phoenix Suns' flair or record, which was the NBA's best. They didn't have the Miami Heat's flash. And they didn't have the defending champion Detroit Pistons' swagger.
As the conference finals move into the Memorial Day weekend, however, the Spurs are doing what they do best: efficiently defusing challenges. Having stopped promising-looking bids from their early playoff opponents, Denver and Seattle, they have taken command of the Western Conference finals by twice beating high-scoring Phoenix at its own game on its home court. They are proving again that while they are small market, they are big time — as ideal an NBA franchise as exists.
They have an internationally diverse roster that includes stars Tony Parker from France and Manu Ginobili from Argentina, and they have perhaps the most selfless superstar in the league, Tim Duncan. They also have Games 3 and 4 against the Suns here Saturday and Monday at SBC Center, where they have the NBA's best home record this season — 43-4, including 5-1 in the playoffs.
The hottest non-basketball story surrounding this team? That Parker is dating Desperate Housewives co-star Eva Longoria. And no one is even making a big deal out of that.
Everything is by design with the team. There is a Spurs way of doing things, and the executives are only interested in players they think will fit in with that philosophy.
Character, for example, is elusive to define, but the Spurs know it when they see it and will settle for nothing less with their players.
" 'Character' is almost too highfalutin a word sometimes," coach Gregg Popovich says. "People think (character players) are in the National Honor Society, the Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts or something, and that's not what it's about. It's just about being good guys who have their priorities set and who aren't full of themselves and have gotten over themselves a long time ago.
"They understand that coming to work is a responsibility and a duty for what they get paid for. They're not interested in or much impressed by the hoopla that goes around the NBA.
"They are selfless people who care more about what the team is doing than what is going on individually," Popovich says. "The whole key is that if your stars on the team do not fit that mold, you're going to have problems throughout the year in a variety of forms."
Everything starts at the top.
With the Spurs that's owner Peter Holt, a Vietnam war veteran who earned a Silver Star, three bronze stars and a Purple Heart from his one-year tour of duty. The great-grandson of Benjamin Holt, the inventor of the first crawler-tractor, which became the basis for Caterpillar Inc., Holt bought the Spurs nine years ago and says character always has been very important to him.
"We judge character as important as skill," he says. "I know a lot of teams say that, but we really do. We believe that there is such a thing as chemistry and it is important to have a certain fit. The key is we have a system and everyone has to fit into that system. If you bring someone in who isn't going to (fit), can't or won't or doesn't want to (fit), it really affects everybody, not just that individual player."
Says Hall of Fame coach and ESPN radio analyst Jack Ramsay of San Antonio, "It's the model franchise."
Overseas scouting is critical
Duncan has been his usual fundamentally dominant self in the series against Phoenix, averaging 29 points and 11.5 rebounds in the first two games, which San Antonio won 121-114 and 111-108. Parker has played league MVP Steve Nash even and Ginobili, who led Argentina to the Olympic gold medal last summer, has turned into perhaps the NBA's most exciting player.
"That boy can just flat-out play," NBA analyst Charles Barkley says of Ginobili.
Duncan fell into their laps when the Spurs won the 1997 draft lottery, but the team's international scouting and its patience and ability to spot talent in its rawest form is largely responsible for the rest.
Because they are always picking so late in the draft, the Spurs have to beat the bushes for players and overseas is where they have been successful.
Parker was a French teenager whom the Spurs drafted with the 28th pick of the first round in 2001. They went even deeper to get Ginobili, a second-round pick, the 57th overall selection, in 1999, who didn't even join the team until 2002.
Ginobili was a relative unknown, and the Spurs weren't even allowed to talk to him until after he was drafted. But they had enough sense to do it.
"They just do things the right way," Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown says. "They have a great organization from top to bottom. They have great players who play the game the right way, and they carry themselves like champions."
In addition to Ginobili and Parker, the Spurs drafted backup point guard Beno Udrih from Slovenia with the 28th pick in last year's draft. And they hold the NBA rights to four other foreign players, including Luis Scola. He played with Ginobili on Argentina's Olympic team and is someone the Spurs believe will help them a great deal one day.
"We have to look a lot at potential because ready-made players don't normally fall to the bottom of the first round," says general manager R.C. Buford, whose staff spends about 150 days a year overseas scouting.
'Nobody cares about stats'
Where some franchises might put skill over character, the Spurs don't put anything above it. They know how they want to do things, and they never waver from that.
It's been a darn successful one, too.
Not only have the Spurs won NBA titles in 1999 and 2003, but over the last eight years they have a regular-season record of 438-186, a winning percentage of .702, the best of any team in the four major sports leagues over that span.
Nazr Mohammed, who came to the Spurs in a midseason trade with the Knicks for popular Malik Rose, didn't know what to expect at first but found out quickly.
"The camaraderie is what makes this team special," he says. "It almost reminds me of my days at Kentucky. No one cares who does what. Everyone knows that when we win, everyone gets credit. That attitude just makes you want to work hard, because you know everything else will work itself out."
Ginobili compares the feeling of being a Spur to playing for his national team.
"We still have a long way to go, because with the national team we have been together for seven years," he says. "But we are getting to that level of trust here. The goals with the two teams are the same. We want to win, and nobody cares about stats."
Duncan is one of the most reluctant superstars in the league, shunning the spotlight whenever possible and usually taking a back seat so his teammates can shine.
"It's huge that our superstar player is a quality person who plays for the right reasons, wants to work hard and be great," says Danny Ferry, the team's director of basketball operations who played for the Spurs the last three years of his career.
"And then you have Manu and Tony, who have the same characteristics, and it permeates the whole group. ... Every team in the league has good guys, though. It's not like we have a monopoly on them. It's just an emphasis here."
The Spurs, nevertheless, have signed some players who, at first glance, might not be considered their type of players.
"Because we have the type of team we have, we have opportunities to take players that other teams might consider a risk," Buford says. "Stephen Jackson, (who played for the Spurs on their 2003 championship team before leaving for Atlanta, then Indiana) might not have been considered a Spur. But he was great with us, and Glenn Robinson (signed as a free agent last month) has been great.
"I can only judge people (from) what I know firsthand and how they are with us."
Having trust in good people
Although they are in one of the smaller cities in the league, the Spurs certainly don't have a small-town mentality.
"It may help that we're in a small community and are the only game in town," Holt says. "We are a small-market team, so there is a dollars issue there, too. In a sense, we've always felt driven by (wanting) to win the championship every year, but we can't pay New York and L.A. prices. That's just our thought processes.
"Luckily, R.C. takes pride in that, and that's one of the driving forces to go scout the world. We realize we have to roam the world. ... I have to give R.C. credit for that. He is the one who not only said we had to do that, but implemented it."
With the Spurs, Holt likes to say, "It's all about trust. We care about our players and our community, and we're very proud.
"I'm fortunate to have a lot of good people working with me, and they know how to find good people. It's hard to recognize character unless you have some yourself."
Successful eight seasons
The San Antonio Spurs have had an eight-year run of success since they drafted Tim Duncan in 1997. The franchise has won two NBA titles (1999 and 2003) and made the playoffs each season. Since the 1997-98 season:
Top five regular-season winning percentages:
Team W-L Win%. NBA titles
San Antonio 438-186 .702 2
L.A. Lakers 413-211 .662 3
Indiana 383-241 .614 0
Sacramento 378-246 .606 0
Minnesota 370-254 .593 0
Utah 366-258 .587 0
Seasons above .600, equal to 50 or more wins (only 50 games played in 1999):
Team Seasons
San Antonio 8
L.A. Lakers 7
Sacramento 5
Dallas 5
Miami 5
Source: USA TODAY research
By David DuPree, USA TODAY
SAN ANTONIO — During the NBA regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs existed just outside the spotlight. They didn't have the Phoenix Suns' flair or record, which was the NBA's best. They didn't have the Miami Heat's flash. And they didn't have the defending champion Detroit Pistons' swagger.
As the conference finals move into the Memorial Day weekend, however, the Spurs are doing what they do best: efficiently defusing challenges. Having stopped promising-looking bids from their early playoff opponents, Denver and Seattle, they have taken command of the Western Conference finals by twice beating high-scoring Phoenix at its own game on its home court. They are proving again that while they are small market, they are big time — as ideal an NBA franchise as exists.
They have an internationally diverse roster that includes stars Tony Parker from France and Manu Ginobili from Argentina, and they have perhaps the most selfless superstar in the league, Tim Duncan. They also have Games 3 and 4 against the Suns here Saturday and Monday at SBC Center, where they have the NBA's best home record this season — 43-4, including 5-1 in the playoffs.
The hottest non-basketball story surrounding this team? That Parker is dating Desperate Housewives co-star Eva Longoria. And no one is even making a big deal out of that.
Everything is by design with the team. There is a Spurs way of doing things, and the executives are only interested in players they think will fit in with that philosophy.
Character, for example, is elusive to define, but the Spurs know it when they see it and will settle for nothing less with their players.
" 'Character' is almost too highfalutin a word sometimes," coach Gregg Popovich says. "People think (character players) are in the National Honor Society, the Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts or something, and that's not what it's about. It's just about being good guys who have their priorities set and who aren't full of themselves and have gotten over themselves a long time ago.
"They understand that coming to work is a responsibility and a duty for what they get paid for. They're not interested in or much impressed by the hoopla that goes around the NBA.
"They are selfless people who care more about what the team is doing than what is going on individually," Popovich says. "The whole key is that if your stars on the team do not fit that mold, you're going to have problems throughout the year in a variety of forms."
Everything starts at the top.
With the Spurs that's owner Peter Holt, a Vietnam war veteran who earned a Silver Star, three bronze stars and a Purple Heart from his one-year tour of duty. The great-grandson of Benjamin Holt, the inventor of the first crawler-tractor, which became the basis for Caterpillar Inc., Holt bought the Spurs nine years ago and says character always has been very important to him.
"We judge character as important as skill," he says. "I know a lot of teams say that, but we really do. We believe that there is such a thing as chemistry and it is important to have a certain fit. The key is we have a system and everyone has to fit into that system. If you bring someone in who isn't going to (fit), can't or won't or doesn't want to (fit), it really affects everybody, not just that individual player."
Says Hall of Fame coach and ESPN radio analyst Jack Ramsay of San Antonio, "It's the model franchise."
Overseas scouting is critical
Duncan has been his usual fundamentally dominant self in the series against Phoenix, averaging 29 points and 11.5 rebounds in the first two games, which San Antonio won 121-114 and 111-108. Parker has played league MVP Steve Nash even and Ginobili, who led Argentina to the Olympic gold medal last summer, has turned into perhaps the NBA's most exciting player.
"That boy can just flat-out play," NBA analyst Charles Barkley says of Ginobili.
Duncan fell into their laps when the Spurs won the 1997 draft lottery, but the team's international scouting and its patience and ability to spot talent in its rawest form is largely responsible for the rest.
Because they are always picking so late in the draft, the Spurs have to beat the bushes for players and overseas is where they have been successful.
Parker was a French teenager whom the Spurs drafted with the 28th pick of the first round in 2001. They went even deeper to get Ginobili, a second-round pick, the 57th overall selection, in 1999, who didn't even join the team until 2002.
Ginobili was a relative unknown, and the Spurs weren't even allowed to talk to him until after he was drafted. But they had enough sense to do it.
"They just do things the right way," Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown says. "They have a great organization from top to bottom. They have great players who play the game the right way, and they carry themselves like champions."
In addition to Ginobili and Parker, the Spurs drafted backup point guard Beno Udrih from Slovenia with the 28th pick in last year's draft. And they hold the NBA rights to four other foreign players, including Luis Scola. He played with Ginobili on Argentina's Olympic team and is someone the Spurs believe will help them a great deal one day.
"We have to look a lot at potential because ready-made players don't normally fall to the bottom of the first round," says general manager R.C. Buford, whose staff spends about 150 days a year overseas scouting.
'Nobody cares about stats'
Where some franchises might put skill over character, the Spurs don't put anything above it. They know how they want to do things, and they never waver from that.
It's been a darn successful one, too.
Not only have the Spurs won NBA titles in 1999 and 2003, but over the last eight years they have a regular-season record of 438-186, a winning percentage of .702, the best of any team in the four major sports leagues over that span.
Nazr Mohammed, who came to the Spurs in a midseason trade with the Knicks for popular Malik Rose, didn't know what to expect at first but found out quickly.
"The camaraderie is what makes this team special," he says. "It almost reminds me of my days at Kentucky. No one cares who does what. Everyone knows that when we win, everyone gets credit. That attitude just makes you want to work hard, because you know everything else will work itself out."
Ginobili compares the feeling of being a Spur to playing for his national team.
"We still have a long way to go, because with the national team we have been together for seven years," he says. "But we are getting to that level of trust here. The goals with the two teams are the same. We want to win, and nobody cares about stats."
Duncan is one of the most reluctant superstars in the league, shunning the spotlight whenever possible and usually taking a back seat so his teammates can shine.
"It's huge that our superstar player is a quality person who plays for the right reasons, wants to work hard and be great," says Danny Ferry, the team's director of basketball operations who played for the Spurs the last three years of his career.
"And then you have Manu and Tony, who have the same characteristics, and it permeates the whole group. ... Every team in the league has good guys, though. It's not like we have a monopoly on them. It's just an emphasis here."
The Spurs, nevertheless, have signed some players who, at first glance, might not be considered their type of players.
"Because we have the type of team we have, we have opportunities to take players that other teams might consider a risk," Buford says. "Stephen Jackson, (who played for the Spurs on their 2003 championship team before leaving for Atlanta, then Indiana) might not have been considered a Spur. But he was great with us, and Glenn Robinson (signed as a free agent last month) has been great.
"I can only judge people (from) what I know firsthand and how they are with us."
Having trust in good people
Although they are in one of the smaller cities in the league, the Spurs certainly don't have a small-town mentality.
"It may help that we're in a small community and are the only game in town," Holt says. "We are a small-market team, so there is a dollars issue there, too. In a sense, we've always felt driven by (wanting) to win the championship every year, but we can't pay New York and L.A. prices. That's just our thought processes.
"Luckily, R.C. takes pride in that, and that's one of the driving forces to go scout the world. We realize we have to roam the world. ... I have to give R.C. credit for that. He is the one who not only said we had to do that, but implemented it."
With the Spurs, Holt likes to say, "It's all about trust. We care about our players and our community, and we're very proud.
"I'm fortunate to have a lot of good people working with me, and they know how to find good people. It's hard to recognize character unless you have some yourself."
Successful eight seasons
The San Antonio Spurs have had an eight-year run of success since they drafted Tim Duncan in 1997. The franchise has won two NBA titles (1999 and 2003) and made the playoffs each season. Since the 1997-98 season:
Top five regular-season winning percentages:
Team W-L Win%. NBA titles
San Antonio 438-186 .702 2
L.A. Lakers 413-211 .662 3
Indiana 383-241 .614 0
Sacramento 378-246 .606 0
Minnesota 370-254 .593 0
Utah 366-258 .587 0
Seasons above .600, equal to 50 or more wins (only 50 games played in 1999):
Team Seasons
San Antonio 8
L.A. Lakers 7
Sacramento 5
Dallas 5
Miami 5
Source: USA TODAY research