ObiwanGinobili
06-24-2005, 10:10 AM
Coach Pop
Q. This third trip The Finals, for you personally, how different was it? It seemed like you were the funniest guy in the press conference the whole last three weeks.
COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, thank you. (Laughter). It's a pretty volatile league, and you never know what you're going to get the axe. So I've been working on my future. Somebody might have thought I called time outs wrong and a month from now I could be back in Pomona Pitzer. I used to coach there.
Q. Could I ask you, I got here a bit late, everyone focuses on Tim throughout the year; when you lose, it's his fault, and when you win. Can you talk about what he showed tonight, not necessarily to you, because I think you know what he is, can you talk about that?
COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I'm kind of used to that. It was the same way when David was here. If he wins, well, it's expected and if he loses, well, you know, that's bad.
The same way with Timmy, and it's like that with all great players, I guess. He was special throughout the entire playoffs. When he did have a bad game, he always figured out some time in the series to come back and lead us to where we needed to be, and everybody follows him. He sets the tone, and all of us, our staff, myself, he's unbelievably incisive, mature, and always kind of steady. Some of us are a little bit more like that (indicating up and down), but he's more that way (indicating steady).
Q. What wine are you going to celebrate this with?
COACH GREGG POPOVICH: It's not going to be the champagne in the locker room. My eyes are burning, so it's pretty cheap stuff, so we have to find something different. (Laughter).
We're playing these guys a lot of money, you would think the organization could buy some decent champagne. What's up with that? (Laughter).
Tim Duncan
Q. Your defense seemed substantially better tonight, especially in the second half, the Spurs defense, that is, not you personally
TIM DUNCAN: I did all right, too.
Q. Can you describe the role Gregg Popovich had, and specifically tonight?
TIM DUNCAN: He's to use one of his quotes, he's the head of the snake, he's the one that makes us go. He prepares us so well for games. He's great at getting on you and praising you when it's time and calling you a piece of whatever at times. He balances it so well.
I just I don't know what to say about him. He really is ask, and not taking anything away from Larry Brown, he really is the best in the league I believe.
Q. Could you please tell me what it's like to have had Manu as a teammate the last three years and watching him grow so much?
TIM DUNCAN: Manu is unbelievable. You can say this about so many people, and whether it be true or not, I think it's absolutely true for him. I don't think we've even scratched the surface with him. He's got so much to him. He just plays with reckless abandon, he doesn't care the time or the situation, he doesn't care if it's a preseason game or it's a Finals game. He plays the same way.
He's going to continue to grow and we're going to continue to grow around him. We're going to continue to understand what he wants to do and when he wants to do it. He was so big for us, every game, in the fourth quarter, he was the guy that took things or really made things happen, and to play besides someone like that who can do that in that situation, it takes so much pressure off of myself, off of Tony. It helps our team so much, and you can see it, and he doesn't care. He's going to make the play. He's going to make it happen, and he got a lot well, he gave himself a lot of crap for the finish of Game 6 or whatever, he thought he took some bad shots. He thought he would make some plays down the stretch and make some shots. He got on himself about it more than anybody else got on him and that's what he's going to do. We understand it now and we love having him and we love we love what he does down the stretch.
Q. Along the same line, you're not GM, I don't think you are, but you guys
TIM DUNCAN: Not officially, at least. (Laughter).
Tony Parker
Q. Why are you wearing the French flag, first of all, and second of all, don't you think that Ginobili could have been a good co MVP throughout this series with Duncan and how ironic is it that last game's weakness, the three point shots became the strength in the final?
TONY PARKER: That's a long question.
Q. Waiting a long time to ask one.
TONY PARKER: The first one, I'm happy to be representing France for all of the fans following me all year long, and I'm just happy for them and happy for all of my friends and my family.
Then second question, Manu played great. He's just a great player for our team. And we have a lot of great players on this team; you know, Nazr, Robert Horry, we have a lot of great players. But I think Timmy is the leader on our team and he is just the best player on our team and Manu is right there. He played a great series. Timmy, I think that's where it starts with him.
Three point stats shots, we did a few mistakes in game 6, 28, which was too much, and I thought we did a good job tonight of being in attack mode and being aggressive and being inside for Timmy. He didn't get a lot of touches the second half of Game 6 and we did a good job tonight.
Manu "ObiWan" Ginobili
Q. You guys went from having slow feet in the first half to fast hands in the second, what got into you guys at the defensive end and was it something Coach Pop said at halftime or the energy of Game 7?
MANU GINOBILI: Yes, I think we stopped being ourselves in a moment in the third quarter. We got too frantic, too in a hurry, and we were not even playing them five on five defensively, and that was a big key for us. If we let them run and score in transition, we were done.
So when we start playing better D, then offensively, we move the ball and we run a lot, we started doing it much better.
Q. You're one of just less than a handful of people who have won an Olympic gold medal and now an NBA Championship in the same season, can you just sum up this amazing year you had?
MANU GINOBILI: Well, you summed it up. It's just unbelievable. It's not easy to win any of them, and I was able to be part of those two teams in one year, so being a part of the Argentinean team was an unbelievable feeling.
Today I'm too tired, it happened half an hour ago, but I bet in a month I'm going to feel the same way about this championship. So it's been an unbelievable year, but, you know, this continues and we're going to try to repeat it.
Bruce Bowen
Q. Can you talk about that late block on the 3 pointer on Chauncey Billups and what you were doing?
BRUCE BOWEN: My main focus was, hey, I don't want Chauncey to get hot right now. Chauncey, he's able to take over the game at any given moment, and the last game, he had five threes and that was that was four too many, if any.
So I was just trying to make sure I stayed up with him and, you know, with my length, sometimes it creates problems for guys and I'm long and once he went up in the air and I saw he was committed, it was a chance for me to react and I was just so happy I got the ball.
Q. Did you play some zone though at that time?
BRUCE BOWEN: Yeah, we went to zone for a hot second, and, you know, it was good for us. It gave us a chance to, you know, give them a different look because they were so used to seeing us in man to man, we went to zone, I think it threw them off a little bit, but not too much.
Q. This third trip The Finals, for you personally, how different was it? It seemed like you were the funniest guy in the press conference the whole last three weeks.
COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, thank you. (Laughter). It's a pretty volatile league, and you never know what you're going to get the axe. So I've been working on my future. Somebody might have thought I called time outs wrong and a month from now I could be back in Pomona Pitzer. I used to coach there.
Q. Could I ask you, I got here a bit late, everyone focuses on Tim throughout the year; when you lose, it's his fault, and when you win. Can you talk about what he showed tonight, not necessarily to you, because I think you know what he is, can you talk about that?
COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I'm kind of used to that. It was the same way when David was here. If he wins, well, it's expected and if he loses, well, you know, that's bad.
The same way with Timmy, and it's like that with all great players, I guess. He was special throughout the entire playoffs. When he did have a bad game, he always figured out some time in the series to come back and lead us to where we needed to be, and everybody follows him. He sets the tone, and all of us, our staff, myself, he's unbelievably incisive, mature, and always kind of steady. Some of us are a little bit more like that (indicating up and down), but he's more that way (indicating steady).
Q. What wine are you going to celebrate this with?
COACH GREGG POPOVICH: It's not going to be the champagne in the locker room. My eyes are burning, so it's pretty cheap stuff, so we have to find something different. (Laughter).
We're playing these guys a lot of money, you would think the organization could buy some decent champagne. What's up with that? (Laughter).
Tim Duncan
Q. Your defense seemed substantially better tonight, especially in the second half, the Spurs defense, that is, not you personally
TIM DUNCAN: I did all right, too.
Q. Can you describe the role Gregg Popovich had, and specifically tonight?
TIM DUNCAN: He's to use one of his quotes, he's the head of the snake, he's the one that makes us go. He prepares us so well for games. He's great at getting on you and praising you when it's time and calling you a piece of whatever at times. He balances it so well.
I just I don't know what to say about him. He really is ask, and not taking anything away from Larry Brown, he really is the best in the league I believe.
Q. Could you please tell me what it's like to have had Manu as a teammate the last three years and watching him grow so much?
TIM DUNCAN: Manu is unbelievable. You can say this about so many people, and whether it be true or not, I think it's absolutely true for him. I don't think we've even scratched the surface with him. He's got so much to him. He just plays with reckless abandon, he doesn't care the time or the situation, he doesn't care if it's a preseason game or it's a Finals game. He plays the same way.
He's going to continue to grow and we're going to continue to grow around him. We're going to continue to understand what he wants to do and when he wants to do it. He was so big for us, every game, in the fourth quarter, he was the guy that took things or really made things happen, and to play besides someone like that who can do that in that situation, it takes so much pressure off of myself, off of Tony. It helps our team so much, and you can see it, and he doesn't care. He's going to make the play. He's going to make it happen, and he got a lot well, he gave himself a lot of crap for the finish of Game 6 or whatever, he thought he took some bad shots. He thought he would make some plays down the stretch and make some shots. He got on himself about it more than anybody else got on him and that's what he's going to do. We understand it now and we love having him and we love we love what he does down the stretch.
Q. Along the same line, you're not GM, I don't think you are, but you guys
TIM DUNCAN: Not officially, at least. (Laughter).
Tony Parker
Q. Why are you wearing the French flag, first of all, and second of all, don't you think that Ginobili could have been a good co MVP throughout this series with Duncan and how ironic is it that last game's weakness, the three point shots became the strength in the final?
TONY PARKER: That's a long question.
Q. Waiting a long time to ask one.
TONY PARKER: The first one, I'm happy to be representing France for all of the fans following me all year long, and I'm just happy for them and happy for all of my friends and my family.
Then second question, Manu played great. He's just a great player for our team. And we have a lot of great players on this team; you know, Nazr, Robert Horry, we have a lot of great players. But I think Timmy is the leader on our team and he is just the best player on our team and Manu is right there. He played a great series. Timmy, I think that's where it starts with him.
Three point stats shots, we did a few mistakes in game 6, 28, which was too much, and I thought we did a good job tonight of being in attack mode and being aggressive and being inside for Timmy. He didn't get a lot of touches the second half of Game 6 and we did a good job tonight.
Manu "ObiWan" Ginobili
Q. You guys went from having slow feet in the first half to fast hands in the second, what got into you guys at the defensive end and was it something Coach Pop said at halftime or the energy of Game 7?
MANU GINOBILI: Yes, I think we stopped being ourselves in a moment in the third quarter. We got too frantic, too in a hurry, and we were not even playing them five on five defensively, and that was a big key for us. If we let them run and score in transition, we were done.
So when we start playing better D, then offensively, we move the ball and we run a lot, we started doing it much better.
Q. You're one of just less than a handful of people who have won an Olympic gold medal and now an NBA Championship in the same season, can you just sum up this amazing year you had?
MANU GINOBILI: Well, you summed it up. It's just unbelievable. It's not easy to win any of them, and I was able to be part of those two teams in one year, so being a part of the Argentinean team was an unbelievable feeling.
Today I'm too tired, it happened half an hour ago, but I bet in a month I'm going to feel the same way about this championship. So it's been an unbelievable year, but, you know, this continues and we're going to try to repeat it.
Bruce Bowen
Q. Can you talk about that late block on the 3 pointer on Chauncey Billups and what you were doing?
BRUCE BOWEN: My main focus was, hey, I don't want Chauncey to get hot right now. Chauncey, he's able to take over the game at any given moment, and the last game, he had five threes and that was that was four too many, if any.
So I was just trying to make sure I stayed up with him and, you know, with my length, sometimes it creates problems for guys and I'm long and once he went up in the air and I saw he was committed, it was a chance for me to react and I was just so happy I got the ball.
Q. Did you play some zone though at that time?
BRUCE BOWEN: Yeah, we went to zone for a hot second, and, you know, it was good for us. It gave us a chance to, you know, give them a different look because they were so used to seeing us in man to man, we went to zone, I think it threw them off a little bit, but not too much.