spurschick
06-13-2006, 08:24 AM
Web Posted: 06/13/2006 12:00 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
MIAMI — The Mavericks are just five days into their first Finals, and they look like they could be playing these games for another five years. Dirk Nowitzki is still getting better, and Mark Cuban is still getting richer.
But things happen, and five years is a long time in this sport. The case of Derek Anderson says that. In 2001, he appeared to be indispensable to the Spurs, yet he was so forgotten Sunday, he didn't play a second for a team that once trailed by 27 points.
So the Mavericks might be beginning a dynastic run. Or they might look back some day, as Anderson does now, and wonder what happened.
When Anderson looks back, he sees what he also sees tonight. The Mavericks. If not for one play against them, he might have stayed a Spur.
Anderson had arrived in San Antonio in 2000 with a one-year contract and a golden opportunity to earn more gold. The Spurs needed someone to score and create, and his talents fit. Everyone called him DA, as well as the X Factor, because he became the scoring option who took pressure off Tim Duncan.
He was the second-leading scorer on a team that put together the league's best regular-season record. But then he looked skittish in the first round against Minnesota, and he became the X-ray factor in the second round.
Anderson went high for a score in the series opener, and Dallas' Juwan Howard fouled him hard enough to earn an ejection. Anderson left the series for good, however, when he separated his right shoulder in the fall to the floor.
"There's no replacing Derek," David Robinson said then, and everyone nodded. The Spurs still beat the Mavericks in five games, but the Lakers swept the Spurs in the next series.
That's also when Anderson, with too much time on his hands, showed some cracks in his personality. With the Western Conference finals still going on, with his teammates getting embarrassed, he threw out a few contractual demands.
Avery Johnson, among others in the Spurs' locker room, had heard Anderson talk about money often that season. It's a business to all of them, but Anderson was notably obsessed.
Little wonder, when the Spurs hesitated to pay him what he wanted, the worst came out in Anderson. When the Blazers bid high, with more years in a $48million package, Anderson's anger grew. The Spurs reluctantly came back with an offer closer to Portland's, but Anderson's mind was made up.
Some in the Spurs' front office feared they had made a terrible mistake. In those days, before Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, the Spurs were old and getting older. Would Duncan leave the franchise for that reason?
But it was Anderson whose fortunes fell. The Blazers bickered and imploded, and Anderson became just another player in a talent cesspool. Last summer told how far he had regressed. The Blazers cut him using the luxury-tax amnesty — choosing to pay off the same contract Anderson once saw as the only thing that mattered.
He signed a minimum deal with Houston, thinking there might be a role for him next to Tracy McGrady. Anderson could still shoot, and his court sense was still intact. But the Rockets saw Anderson as Portland eventually did — as a 31-year-old without the zip to create anymore. The Rockets traded him to Miami in February for a player they cut shortly after.
Now he's on the end of an awful bench that Jerry Stackhouse outscores by himself. Pat Riley ought to try Anderson, because he couldn't be any worse than his teammates.
Anderson has told reporters that sitting is "absolutely, 100 percent frustrating. I've been playing nine-straight years, and all of a sudden just, bam, cold turkey."
But not playing for other championships bothers him, too. He mixed with the Spurs so well that he wonders what would have happened had he never gotten hurt. "Who knows what I would have done," Anderson told the Houston Chronicle this season. "They've won with Ginobili. Who knows?"
What has followed answers that question. Anderson, in tenacity and toughness, doesn't compare to Ginobili.
But no one knew that in 2001, when Anderson was precisely what the Spurs needed. And that's why, ultimately, what comes next is always a guess.
The Mavericks' run should just be starting, right?
Just as Anderson's run once was.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA061306.1D.buck.129b8cb9.html
San Antonio Express-News
MIAMI — The Mavericks are just five days into their first Finals, and they look like they could be playing these games for another five years. Dirk Nowitzki is still getting better, and Mark Cuban is still getting richer.
But things happen, and five years is a long time in this sport. The case of Derek Anderson says that. In 2001, he appeared to be indispensable to the Spurs, yet he was so forgotten Sunday, he didn't play a second for a team that once trailed by 27 points.
So the Mavericks might be beginning a dynastic run. Or they might look back some day, as Anderson does now, and wonder what happened.
When Anderson looks back, he sees what he also sees tonight. The Mavericks. If not for one play against them, he might have stayed a Spur.
Anderson had arrived in San Antonio in 2000 with a one-year contract and a golden opportunity to earn more gold. The Spurs needed someone to score and create, and his talents fit. Everyone called him DA, as well as the X Factor, because he became the scoring option who took pressure off Tim Duncan.
He was the second-leading scorer on a team that put together the league's best regular-season record. But then he looked skittish in the first round against Minnesota, and he became the X-ray factor in the second round.
Anderson went high for a score in the series opener, and Dallas' Juwan Howard fouled him hard enough to earn an ejection. Anderson left the series for good, however, when he separated his right shoulder in the fall to the floor.
"There's no replacing Derek," David Robinson said then, and everyone nodded. The Spurs still beat the Mavericks in five games, but the Lakers swept the Spurs in the next series.
That's also when Anderson, with too much time on his hands, showed some cracks in his personality. With the Western Conference finals still going on, with his teammates getting embarrassed, he threw out a few contractual demands.
Avery Johnson, among others in the Spurs' locker room, had heard Anderson talk about money often that season. It's a business to all of them, but Anderson was notably obsessed.
Little wonder, when the Spurs hesitated to pay him what he wanted, the worst came out in Anderson. When the Blazers bid high, with more years in a $48million package, Anderson's anger grew. The Spurs reluctantly came back with an offer closer to Portland's, but Anderson's mind was made up.
Some in the Spurs' front office feared they had made a terrible mistake. In those days, before Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, the Spurs were old and getting older. Would Duncan leave the franchise for that reason?
But it was Anderson whose fortunes fell. The Blazers bickered and imploded, and Anderson became just another player in a talent cesspool. Last summer told how far he had regressed. The Blazers cut him using the luxury-tax amnesty — choosing to pay off the same contract Anderson once saw as the only thing that mattered.
He signed a minimum deal with Houston, thinking there might be a role for him next to Tracy McGrady. Anderson could still shoot, and his court sense was still intact. But the Rockets saw Anderson as Portland eventually did — as a 31-year-old without the zip to create anymore. The Rockets traded him to Miami in February for a player they cut shortly after.
Now he's on the end of an awful bench that Jerry Stackhouse outscores by himself. Pat Riley ought to try Anderson, because he couldn't be any worse than his teammates.
Anderson has told reporters that sitting is "absolutely, 100 percent frustrating. I've been playing nine-straight years, and all of a sudden just, bam, cold turkey."
But not playing for other championships bothers him, too. He mixed with the Spurs so well that he wonders what would have happened had he never gotten hurt. "Who knows what I would have done," Anderson told the Houston Chronicle this season. "They've won with Ginobili. Who knows?"
What has followed answers that question. Anderson, in tenacity and toughness, doesn't compare to Ginobili.
But no one knew that in 2001, when Anderson was precisely what the Spurs needed. And that's why, ultimately, what comes next is always a guess.
The Mavericks' run should just be starting, right?
Just as Anderson's run once was.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA061306.1D.buck.129b8cb9.html