tlongII
06-10-2005, 02:45 PM
by Peter Vecsey
June 10, 2005 -- SAN ANTONIO — While the rest of you focus on the Spurs' effort to defrock the Pistons and win their third NBA title I'll never ever get over how they got jobbed in Game 7 of the 1979 Eastern Conference finals against the Bullets.
Accordingly, the Spurs were immobilized from beating up on the Sonics for the championship that should've been theirs to have and to hold to this day forward, so help me God.
While ABC is unremittingly zeroing in on Eva Longoria, Tony Parker's trophy girlfriend, I can't get retired referee John Vanak out of my flat-bed mind.
With roughly 2:35 left in a series they once controlled three games to one, the Spurs had possession and led by seven points at Capital Centre in Landover, Md., in the '79 Eastern finals. James Silas came off a screen set by Billy Paultz that floored Tom Henderson and Vanak whistled The Whooper for a moving violation.
While all eyes were trained last night on the classic individual matchup between Rasheed Wallace and Tim Duncan, I'm picturing Henderson getting up in front of play-by-play voice Terry ("There will be another night") Stembridge, doing his last game for the Spurs; the product of DeWitt Clinton High laughed all the way downcourt, knowing he'd put one over big time on the veteran official.
At the other end, Bobby Dandridge quickly nailed a jumper over Larry Kenon and the spread was down to five. Despite a 42-point leather rush by George Gervin, the Spurs never recovered Mo-Mentum (as Larry Merchant wrote back in the day before ditching us for HBO) or their wits and lost 107-105.
"You'd think it was fixed," coach Doug Moe was quoted afterward completely in context, attests Kevin O'Keeffe, who covered the Spurs at the time for the San Antonio Express-News.
Twenty-six years later, Jeff Van Gundy unwisely broached the same taboo, questioning the integrity of the game and its whistle blowers — earning a 100G fine by the league and a reward (two-year extension) by the Rockets despite being outdistanced in the opening round by the Mavericks in Game 7.
Though Moe denied making such an inflammatory statement the next day, he got fined 5G anyway. Radio station KTSA immediately set up a relief fund and collected 500,000 pennies to help out a vanquished antihero.
While the assembled media mob from throughout the world hangs on each word of every player and coach hoping to hear something distinctive, Dick Motta's industrial strength bluntness continues to reverberate in my cluttered attic.
The Spurs dropped the last three games of those '79 Eastern finals by a total of 14 points: 4, 8 and 2. The middle game was here in San Antonio. Afterward, Motta, the Bullets' coach, declared he'd detected the confidence of his opponent beginning to fold up along the dotted lines.
"I saw that look in their eyes," Motta dared to say.
Following Washington's previous victory, Dan Cook, a columnist for the Express News and an on-air correspondent for CBS-KENS, either wrote or said (probably both), "The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings."
Music to Motta's antennae; without delay he seized the unforgettable phrase and liberally used it as his own war chant from that moment on. Naturally, the rest of us picked it up and pulverized it as well. Bartlett's Quotations gives Cook full credit.
While everyone is rightfully enraptured by Duncan's dream weaving and the Spurs' success over the last seven seasons in spite of playing in a small market and being under-subsidized compared to the battalion of billionaires they're competing against I'm in awe of what the franchise has been able to accomplish since the ABA's Spurs, Nets, Pacers and Nuggets united with the NBA in 1976.
In all that time, the Spurs have only had two real down periods, the one preceding the drafting of David Robinson and the one (due to The Admiral's injury) preceding the drafting of Duncan. They were a playoff team with Moe, won three division titles in the early '80s under Stan Albeck, were combative under Cotton Fitzsimmons, hard to extinguish with Larry Brown on the sidelines and a perennial championship contender when Gregg Popovich joined forced with Robinson and Duncan.
While USA Today and others deservedly are throwing bouquets at Spurs owner Peter Holt for hiring Popovich and his posse to run the front office and not meddling in personnel decisions, I'm reflecting on the expired spirit of Angelo Drossos (and wife Lillie), a former car salesman and boxing promoter who wouldn't settle for anything short of being included in a merger.
I'm also waxing wistfully about Red McCombs (and wife Charlile) who bought out Drossos and recently sold the Vikings, and his way with words. He once accused O'Keeffe of asking an inappropriate question. "If I answer it one way, you'll say I lied. And if I answer it the other way, I'll give you something you don't need to know."
While everyone else is locked into the 2005 Finals, I'm dead stuck on the notion if Vanak didn't make that counterfeit call, the Spurs wouldn't have had to wait until 1999 to become the first ABA team to win an NBA title; it would have happened three years after the consolidation.
June 10, 2005 -- SAN ANTONIO — While the rest of you focus on the Spurs' effort to defrock the Pistons and win their third NBA title I'll never ever get over how they got jobbed in Game 7 of the 1979 Eastern Conference finals against the Bullets.
Accordingly, the Spurs were immobilized from beating up on the Sonics for the championship that should've been theirs to have and to hold to this day forward, so help me God.
While ABC is unremittingly zeroing in on Eva Longoria, Tony Parker's trophy girlfriend, I can't get retired referee John Vanak out of my flat-bed mind.
With roughly 2:35 left in a series they once controlled three games to one, the Spurs had possession and led by seven points at Capital Centre in Landover, Md., in the '79 Eastern finals. James Silas came off a screen set by Billy Paultz that floored Tom Henderson and Vanak whistled The Whooper for a moving violation.
While all eyes were trained last night on the classic individual matchup between Rasheed Wallace and Tim Duncan, I'm picturing Henderson getting up in front of play-by-play voice Terry ("There will be another night") Stembridge, doing his last game for the Spurs; the product of DeWitt Clinton High laughed all the way downcourt, knowing he'd put one over big time on the veteran official.
At the other end, Bobby Dandridge quickly nailed a jumper over Larry Kenon and the spread was down to five. Despite a 42-point leather rush by George Gervin, the Spurs never recovered Mo-Mentum (as Larry Merchant wrote back in the day before ditching us for HBO) or their wits and lost 107-105.
"You'd think it was fixed," coach Doug Moe was quoted afterward completely in context, attests Kevin O'Keeffe, who covered the Spurs at the time for the San Antonio Express-News.
Twenty-six years later, Jeff Van Gundy unwisely broached the same taboo, questioning the integrity of the game and its whistle blowers — earning a 100G fine by the league and a reward (two-year extension) by the Rockets despite being outdistanced in the opening round by the Mavericks in Game 7.
Though Moe denied making such an inflammatory statement the next day, he got fined 5G anyway. Radio station KTSA immediately set up a relief fund and collected 500,000 pennies to help out a vanquished antihero.
While the assembled media mob from throughout the world hangs on each word of every player and coach hoping to hear something distinctive, Dick Motta's industrial strength bluntness continues to reverberate in my cluttered attic.
The Spurs dropped the last three games of those '79 Eastern finals by a total of 14 points: 4, 8 and 2. The middle game was here in San Antonio. Afterward, Motta, the Bullets' coach, declared he'd detected the confidence of his opponent beginning to fold up along the dotted lines.
"I saw that look in their eyes," Motta dared to say.
Following Washington's previous victory, Dan Cook, a columnist for the Express News and an on-air correspondent for CBS-KENS, either wrote or said (probably both), "The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings."
Music to Motta's antennae; without delay he seized the unforgettable phrase and liberally used it as his own war chant from that moment on. Naturally, the rest of us picked it up and pulverized it as well. Bartlett's Quotations gives Cook full credit.
While everyone is rightfully enraptured by Duncan's dream weaving and the Spurs' success over the last seven seasons in spite of playing in a small market and being under-subsidized compared to the battalion of billionaires they're competing against I'm in awe of what the franchise has been able to accomplish since the ABA's Spurs, Nets, Pacers and Nuggets united with the NBA in 1976.
In all that time, the Spurs have only had two real down periods, the one preceding the drafting of David Robinson and the one (due to The Admiral's injury) preceding the drafting of Duncan. They were a playoff team with Moe, won three division titles in the early '80s under Stan Albeck, were combative under Cotton Fitzsimmons, hard to extinguish with Larry Brown on the sidelines and a perennial championship contender when Gregg Popovich joined forced with Robinson and Duncan.
While USA Today and others deservedly are throwing bouquets at Spurs owner Peter Holt for hiring Popovich and his posse to run the front office and not meddling in personnel decisions, I'm reflecting on the expired spirit of Angelo Drossos (and wife Lillie), a former car salesman and boxing promoter who wouldn't settle for anything short of being included in a merger.
I'm also waxing wistfully about Red McCombs (and wife Charlile) who bought out Drossos and recently sold the Vikings, and his way with words. He once accused O'Keeffe of asking an inappropriate question. "If I answer it one way, you'll say I lied. And if I answer it the other way, I'll give you something you don't need to know."
While everyone else is locked into the 2005 Finals, I'm dead stuck on the notion if Vanak didn't make that counterfeit call, the Spurs wouldn't have had to wait until 1999 to become the first ABA team to win an NBA title; it would have happened three years after the consolidation.