Blogs from France

[Solid D]

http://www.nba.com/europelive/lyon_blog.html

Europe Live Blog - Lyon

As part of NBA Europe Live, the San Antonio Spurs are in Lyon, France for the first stage of training camp. They will practice at the Halle Vivier Merle arena and take on Adecco ASVEL in a preseason game on Oct. 5. After the game, the Spurs will travel to Paris where they will continue camp and face Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv on Oct. 8.

Here's the latest from NBA.com's Jeff Dengate, who is traveling with the Spurs.


Welcome To Lyon
LYON, FRANCE, Sept. 29 -- posted by Jeff Dengate on September 29, 2006, 12:30 p.m. ET
Greetings from the banks of the Rhône River, Lyon, home to all things gastronomic and a major player in the development of cinema. For the next week, this French city lying somewhere between Paris (to the north) and Marseille (to the south) will also serve as home to the San Antonio Spurs, who are opening their training camp here. Next week, the Spurs will play an exhibition against Adecco ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, before the team packs up and spends a few more nights in Paris.

We'll talk more about Paris at a later time, as we will those gastronomic delights and additional background on the history of cinema. For now, let's scratch the surface from my first experiences with the country and its culture. On the seven-hour flight from New York to Paris, I used the idle time to delve into French cinema courtesy of the Criterion Collection two-disc set of Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player.

Truffaut's second film was often suspenseful, at times comical and for the most part enjoyable. It was the young director's opportunity, in 1960, to craft his take on the American film noir. It also was my opportunity to brush up on my non-existent French language skills. Not sure the film helped, given my limited knowledge base (read: one junior-high semester) and the English-language subtitles throughout. I have, however, loosely committed myself to memorizing the off-color tune cheerfully sung mid-way through the 80-minute film, which, obviously, shouldn't be sung anywhere outside my shower-stall walls.

There must have been something about subtitles on the flight over, as I followed that film up with Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief ... well, at least until the juice on my Dell ran dry. I guess a dead battery is better than the alternative.

After travelling through the night Thursday and dark cloaking France's second-largest city on this Friday night, it's time to recharge my own batteries. But stay tuned to NBA.com for more on cinema, more on the food the French are famous for and, of course, more on hoops. We'll get to the hoops part sooner, as the Spurs arrive here tomorrow afternoon.

(posted on NBA.com - so I guess there is more to come)

[angel_luv]

I wish they would have let the blog writer on the Spurs plane... that is the flight I want to hear about. :)

Still the report was interesting. It will be fun hearing more.

Thanks, Solid. :)

[Brutalis]

Nice our team will be all soft from Euro play and ready to start the NBA season. Just great.

[Slomo]

You forgot overweight.

Lyon is where you go when you want reall really REALLY good food. Oh, and the wines of the region are not bad either.

Think Pop had anything to do with the choice of the training camp lcoation?

:)

[angel_luv]

You forgot overweight.

Lyon is where you go when you want reall really REALLY good food. Oh, and the wines of the region are not bad either.

Think Pop had anything to do with the choice of the training camp lcoation?

:)


:lol It's a tough job...

[AlamoSpursFan]

If the food is so good, why do they eat snails and tree moss?

:lol

[Slomo]

You laugh as much as you want, but after you've tried a few 2 and 3 Michelin stars restaurants, you seriously start thinking about the snails thing. I mean if everything's so good, why the snails? What don't I know? Is it just a trick to keep the foreigners away from the good stuff? or are they hiding their best in plain sight?

You start obsessing about it and walk around looking specifically at places that have snails on their menus, trying to sneak a peak and see if anybody is actually eating them. And it drives you crazy to the point that one day you go in and order the snails special and try one.

And at that exact same moment you hear hysterical laughter coming out of the kitchen...

[angel_luv]

:lol

CIA French?

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Nice Change of Place
LYON, FRANCE, Oct. 1 -- posted by Brent Barry on October 1, 2006, 12:30 p.m. ET
So many teams in the league try to do different things for training camp. It's nice to get out of your own practice site and have a chance to bond. Some teams go different places in the States, but to have an opportunity to go abroad and experience a new culture and see new things -- obviously, it's home cooking for Tony -- but for the rest of us there are a lot of guys who haven't been here before and it's nice to have a bonding experience away from you normally go to work all season long.

We're looking forward to being back to work. We had some guys real busy this summer playing in the World Championship and we hope they got enough rest, but it's nice to see familiar faces and get back to work. I know our staff is excited about the season and this is just a necessary step toward the end of the year and the training camp's to get in shape. So, we're happy to be here.

I stayed in shape by chasing around my kids. That'll do it. That's a full-time job if you're a parent. And if you're playing basketball, it's a full-time job. So, between chasing them around and surfing in southern California all summer long, I had a good offseason. But, all the preparation you do to try to get in shape before the season never works. I was just talking to Tim Duncan about it. Tim's been in the gym for the last month and I've been in there for four weeks and we've had guys in and out. You think you're in good shape and then you come in to the first day of practice and it all goes out the window. We're back at square one and we'll just work from here and try and get ready.

Now that we're in Lyon, if we keep doing what we're doing, these double-days, nobody's going to have time to eat. Our coaches are going out and making sure they're experiencing the fine wine and the cuisine. If they give us a little bit of a break, I'm sure our guys will go out and grab themselves a good meal while we're in Lyon and Paris.

I'm looking forward to visiting Paris and walking around there. I've never been there before and my wife is coming over. So, to have some time with her and to share some time with her there will be nice. Along with getting our work done and also being ambassadors of the States and for the NBA game coming over here and playing against two teams over here, hopefully we'll represent the NBA well while we're here. We're coming over here to represent the Spurs and the league as best we can, and hopefully we'll get a couple wins.

[boutons_]

I just saw the start of the 1976 Warriors/Suns Finals game on NBA TV where father Rick got into a fight in the first 2 minutes. :lol No ejection, no PF.

Rick spent the entire game primping and adjusting his helmet hair. :lol

[angel_luv]

Thanks for posting the Blog. It was a nice read. :)

[ShoogarBear]

Brent should have hired a nanny for the summer.

[Dex]

I don't care what you motherfuckers say, I still like Brent Barry. :lol

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

You're welcome angel. :)

[angel_luv]

Brent should have hired a nanny for the summer.

Especially after my recent nanny experience, I think it's great that Brent spent the summer with his kids.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

I don't care what you motherfuckers say, I still like Brent Barry. :lol
What did we say to make you say that? :lol

[ShoogarBear]

Especially after my recent nanny experience, I think it's great that Brent spent the summer with his kids.Why do you think I said that in the first place? :)

[angel_luv]

Why do you think I said that in the first place? :)

Ah! :)

I don't know if I have the energy to keep up with two little Brents. Can you imagine! :lol

[Dex]

What did we say to make you say that? :lol

Eh, it's more-so just the general Barry-hate and constantly swirling trade rumors. :spin

I think I'm just stubborn because I was excited about the Barry signing, and now that it's tanked I just don't want to let that go. Plus I'm too lazy to change my avatar.

I mean...yeah, the guy is kinda getting overpaid to underproduce...but at least he's thrown in a few big three bombs. Right?

...Right? :oops

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

When we face Phoenix Barry will have at least 5 3's. :smokin

[Kori Ellis]

There's a number of blogs going on from there, so I'm merging them all here.

The latest from David Chancellor, WOAI ...

Day 1 At Spurs Camp
Here are some observations from Day 1 of Spurs training camp.

*Pop says expect Tim to be the old Tim this year. My words, not his--but I'm paraphrasing. Pop did say that Duncan is in as good of shape as he was early in his career, and that we should expect Tim to be more "demanding of the ball" offensively this season.

*RC Buford says Duncan should play more center this season. We need to follow up on this, to find out if this is in the Spurs small lineup, or in a usual set. That being said--does that mean anything about the recent additions at center: Francisco Elson and Jackie Butler.

*Tony Parker is having some mental blocks about his right hand. All the xrays are back, and fine. But Tony says he's still a little apprehensive about going all out. That should change by the end of the week.

*Tony #2: Enough with the Eva talk. It may be headline news in San Antonio, but there is no mention of it here. Parker did tell us yesterday that everything is fine between them, but at this point--shouldn't we all just let the two of them work it out/or break up in private?

The Spurs have 2 practices today, just one is open to the media. We'll see ya on the tele (oh wait, that's what they say in England) at 5,6, and 10pm.

Au revoir..Chance

http://community.woai.com/blogs/point/default.aspx

[polandprzem]

Thanks.

Wasn't the Pop words excactly the same last year?


booooooring Pop you CIA winedrinker

[boutons_]

"Tim to be the old Tim this year"

We actually saw a lighter, more energetic, well-conditioned, MVP-ready Tim already a year ago, then he got hobbled by PF.

Health is a lottery, totally, completely luck.

I'm bet Tim is thinking end-of-career, and would love to have B2B titles, for which his time is running out. It would be history repeating if Tim accomplished a repeat with Ian as co-warrior, they way David got his titles with Tim as co-warrior.

Yeah, same old words as last year. In fact, if you close your eyes and listen to athletes' bleatings in any sport, at any level, it's the same old words. :lol You really wonder why a journalist even bothers to stick a mic in an athlete's face. He's gonna hear the same 25 old hackneyed phrases over and over, sport after sport. :lol

[LilMissSPURfect]

"Tim to be the old Tim this year"

4Down :flag: :flag: :flag: :flag: :makeout :makeout

[angel_luv]

Brent's latest : :)

http://www.nba.com/europelive/barry_blog.html


Laying A Foundation
LYON, FRANCE, Oct. 2 -- posted by Brent Barry on October 2, 2006, 10:30 a.m. ET
We haven't really had a chance to go out and do much. When you start training camp and you have two-a-days, there really isn't much time other than sleep and then back on the training table. I think tomorrow we're just going to have one practice, so that might afford us the opportunity to get out and see the city a bit. So, I think some guys are looking forward to that and getting some fresh air. As long as it doesn't rain and we get some sun, I think guys will look forward to seeing the town a little bit.

Practices yesterday and today were good. We're just putting down a foundation of the things we want to build on and fundamental things -- getting everybody back to thinking basketball and trying to get a feel for one another and at least have some semblance of what we're going to try to do in the two exhibition games that we play over here. It's just really about conditioning and starting to think basketball again. It's just fundamental things so that when we do get started, for both of the preseason games over here, we can carry over what we're doing on the practice floor to the games here and then when, obviously, we get back to playing NBA teams back home.

I really haven't heard much about Thursday's opponent, Adecco ASVEL. I'm sure our coaches have some idea what the team is like and maybe Tony even knows some of the guys who are playing. But I'm looking forward to the reception Tony is going to get on game night.

[boutons_]

weather in Lyons this week is pretty chilly:

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/world-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0&traveler=0&zipcode=EUR|FR|FR022|LYON|&fday=1&metric=0

I bet next year they're back in the sunny US VI!

Pop can bring his own wine! :lol

[angel_luv]

nba.com has some cool video coverage of the five teams that have training camp in Europe.

Spurs parts are throughout the nine minute clip. Timmy. Tony, Pop, and Gino are interviewed.

Gino said he learned how to say fish in French so now he can order dinner when he goes out to eat. :lol :)

[boutons_]

I would be surprised if Manu, after all his travels around Europe playing ball, wouldn't already be familiar with "menu French". :)

[angel_luv]

Au Contraire! :)

See for yourself
1:24 Mark of the video

[angel_luv]

http://community.woai.com/blogs/point/default.aspx

Child's Play
Only a child could get away with this.

Hopefully by now, you have seen Tim Duncan, George Gervin and the rest of the NBA Cares program dedicate a new basketball court to the kids of France. Well, I saw it first hand, and realized how much kids here need it. The area was rough, but the kids were well mannered, and the people were very appreciate.

Here's what you didn't see on TV. After the dedication press conference, the presenation turned into a Q and A with Tim and Ice. And maybe for the first time ever, Tim Duncan got a question that made him laugh.

A child, probably about the age of 10 or so, asked Tim how much longer it would take for Duncan to become an NBA legend. The entire crowd roared, knowing that Tim reached that status two years ago, at least. But leave it to the kids to put a superstar in place!
au revoir....Chance


That's cute. :lol

[Kori Ellis]

http://www.nba.com/europelive/spurs_notebook_061002.html

http://www.nba.com/media/elson_061002_300.jpg


LYON, FRANCE, Oct. 2, 2006 -- No news is good news -- at least it is when an NBA team's training camp is only a day and a half old.

Any real developments this early in the process can mean only one thing: injury. With that concern a non-issue through three practices, the focus remained clearly turned toward player shape as the Spurs continued their conditioning and acclimation sessions at Halle Vivier Merle Lyon.

"It's just really about conditioning and starting to think basketball again," Brent Barry said Monday. "It's just fundamental things so that when we do get started, for both of the preseason games over here, we can carry over what we're doing on the practice floor to the games here and then when, obviously, we get back to playing NBA teams back home."

While the two-hour sessions are open only to team personnel, media is granted access to observe the final 30 minutes. Sitting in the lobby of the practice hall, however, it's easy to get a mental picture of what's happening on the other side of the blue barriers obstructing the view through the building's large glass front windows. Such a non-stop cacophony of squeaks like that can only be produced by 20 players getting a thorough workout.

The players are still running full tilt, black and grey squads working the full 94-by-50, when the media is allowed in the closing minutes of the morning sessions. These scrimmages are spirited affairs, with the players really giving a solid effort and hustling at both ends of the floor.

Based on yesterday's session, I was telling you to remember the name Francisco Elson. Today, the willowy seven-footer created one of the more memorable exchanges the media members in attendance are sure to recall.

Tangled up with frontcourt mate Tim Duncan under the near basket, Elson elevated for an offensive board, sending the eight-time All-Star backward and onto his rear end out of bounds. But Elson wasn't done there, despite play stopping and training staff personnel rushing to assist Duncan up off the floor. Elson rose up and threw down a powerful one-hander that rattled the whole hanging basket support.

Elson was kind enough to stick out a hand and help Duncan up only seconds later.

So, while the early days of practice are, for the most part, to get the players game-ready and to provide the newbies time to learn the ropes, they're also about establishing position and seeing who makes the team and who falls where on the depth chart.

From the depth-chart perspectice, Elson, in the early going, is looking to be the team's starting center, as many figured him to be when the Spurs inked him to a deal two months ago. But it's still early and Jackie Butler, who spent the last two seasons in New York, could challenge him for serious playing time.

The two players were on separate courts walking through set plays at the end of practice -- Elson on the center rectangle with Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Brent Barry, Fabricio Oberto, Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley, while Butler was paired up on the near court with Eric Williams, Jacque Vaughn, Matt Bonner and Melvin Sanders, a 6-5 guard from Oklahoma State who played 16 games in a Spurs uniform last season as a D-League Gatorade Call Up.

The far court represented the long-shots, guys who have had cups of coffee with NBA squads, gained international playing experience or came from smaller college programs and worked their way here via the D-League. Big man Jared Reiner boasts the most experience of the group, having played 19 games for the Chicago Bulls in the 2004-05 season. Rookie Charles Lee was named the 2006 Patriot League Player of the Year and helped lead Bucknell to the second round of the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons. Rookies Olu Famutimi, Rich Melzer and Jamar Smith all spent time in the NBA Development League last season.

For now, however, there are no groups that can be as easily divided as that. All 20 players are here in France with many of the same objectives: get in shape, learn the system and get comfortable playing with new teammates.

And that's today's "no news."

MULTI-PURPOSE COURT

The floor inside the Halle Vivier Merle Lyon has an elaborate grid and line pattern painted across all three courts. At first glance, it doesn't seem to cause much confusion for the players sprinting up and down the center court that runs perpendicular and through the middle of the three lengthwise courts. But on one in-bounds drill, Matt Bonner spotted up in the right corner and received the pass. As he looked down at his feet to square up for the triple, he realized he was over the NBA-range three-point line. A quick shuffle of the feet and he was in position, but the only problem is assistant coach Mike Budenholzer already called travelling on the play.

MEET THE MAYOR

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had a special visitor at the end of practice, Jean Paul Bret, Mayor of Villeurbanne.

"He's probably a pretty busy guy, but it was nice to meet him," Popovich said. "He's going to come to the match on Thursday. We're probably having more fun than he is because this is all different for us and it's great to look around and walk around and see the different parts of the city."

Wait, did Pop just call the game a match?

"We're in Europe," he replied. "It's not a game, it's a match."

Fair enough. Thursday's match time is 9 p.m. local, 3 p.m. ET, at the Astroballe Arena in Lyon-Villeurbanne, France.

Not going to be in France Thursday? Be sure to watch the exclusive live webcast of the game right here on NBA.com.

[Kori Ellis]

More blogs

http://www.nba.com/europelive/lyon_blog.html#20061003_03

[AFBlue]

From the depth-chart perspectice, Elson, in the early going, is looking to be the team's starting center, as many figured him to be when the Spurs inked him to a deal two months ago. But it's still early and Jackie Butler, who spent the last two seasons in New York, could challenge him for serious playing time.




I give it to the end of training camp until Oberto is out as the starting center with Elson making his presence felt.

On the bolded comment, does this mean that Jackie Butler has been impressive as well? Any news on how JB is doing in his practice time?

[leemajors]

what's that JumpInBlock?

[angel_luv]

This collection of pics is awesome.

http://www.nba.com/spurs/photos/camp06_gallery.html