Nostalgia. E-mail I sent to PR director Tom James on June 25.
[email protected] Comments welcome.
Tom, If you haven't had a chance to send the piece to Bruce Bowen, could you please send him this version. And now that I think of it, could you please send it to the rest of the team, and anyone else you deem fit -- from Buford to Avery. I'm sure they'll all agree that Bruce deserves it. And I'm sure no one else took the time (six hours) to dramatize and chronicle his greatness in such detail. Thanks.
Jack
Spurs fans,
While all the credit is being handed out, I’d like to fill a bit of a vacuum.
There are six minutes left in the game. Tim has only one dunk and two turnovers in the quarter. We lead by three, 64-61, and neither team has scored for two minutes. I’m thinking, “We’ll be fine if we can just get the lead to six, because then they’ll probably need four possessions to beat us -- since they’ve made only one three-point shot all game.” (I later learned, when I spoke to David Robinson briefly on the phone after the game, that he’d also thought six was the key number.) “Moreover, Rasheed Wallace is the only Piston who’s scored in the period.”
Then comes the shot we’ve been waiting for. Is it Tim or Manu or Rob or Tony? No, it’s Bruce Bowen -- who hasn’t taken a single shot in the half. He hits a 3 -- and we have that six-point breathing room.
But it’s still not over. Detroit’s greatest offensive threat, Chauncey Billups, finally comes to life -- and now Detroit has two scorers. Brent Barry comes in for Bruce, immediately turns the ball over, and the lead is down to four. Bruce comes back in.
Tim is fouled with 1:02 left. If he makes both foul shots -- and we “kill clock” for two 24-second possessions -- they’ll need three baskets to send the game into overtime. But he only makes one, so they can send the game into overtime with a 3 and a 2.
Larry Brown calls time out. No coach in the league is better at running a play after a time out than he is. (After our last time out, they scored.)
Then comes the signature play of the game -- the one that best exemplifies what makes the Spurs great. Billups goes up for a 3-pointer. If he makes it, it’s a two-point game -- and they’re making that inevitable run the six-point lead was designed to protect us against.
Everyone knows you never foul a jump-shooter -- especially when he’s taking a 3; especially when the shot is being taken by a guy who gets every call; especially when you’re not known for being a shot-blocker; especially when he’s a near lock to make all three foul shots; especially when the refs know they won’t be accused of “keeping the game close” if they blow the whistle; especially when you’re playing with five fouls; especially when you’re not a super-star like Michael Jordan who gets all the calls himself.
Unless you’re Bruce Bowen -- who’s smart enough to know that only a perfect block will do. But he makes the play -- and recovers the ball.
Technically, Detroit is still in it. There’s enough time left that they don’t have to start deliberately fouling. But Bruce’s block crushed their spirit so badly that Manu can not only run 17 seconds off the clock, but he can split their defense for a game-clinching lay-up.
But that’s Bruce Bowen for you. Some players, e.g. Tayshaun Prince, are so “underrated” they become overrated. But even though Bruce is always described as underrated --and despite his getting the second most votes for Defensive Player of the Year -- he’s still underrated. And he never complains about it. Probably because he never thinks about it.
In this year’s playoffs he shut down Carmelo Anthony, Ray Allen, Shawn Marion, Rip Hamilton, and then, when it became necessary, Chauncey Billups. All this at 200 pounds -- and 34 years of age.
Last year, when Ray Allen, a personal favorite of mine, accused him of being a dirty ballplayer, I thought there must be some truth to this accusation (especially since they were close friends) -- so I started watching Bruce very carefully. The charge was completely untrue, and I no longer have any respect for Ray Allen as a person.
I’ve never seen Bruce commit a hard foul -- or a foul intended to “send a message”. I’ve never seen him commit a flagrant foul. If anything, the refs are unfairly tough on him.
He’s not a perfect coach’s dream. I’ve seen him throw a few lazy passes. But I’ve never seen him make a dumb play. So I’m willing to forgive all his offensive weaknesses -- including his poor foul shooting (which is still better than Tony Parker’s, and is basically irrelevant, since he rarely shoots any).
He plays totally within himself. He almost never turns the ball over. And he never takes a possession off.
I told David Robinson that I might have given Bruce my vote for MVP. He understood that I might have been doing so as a symbolic act, but he still said, “You’ve got a good point there.”