timvp
11-13-2004, 02:27 AM
Buck Harvey: Shaq's only visit? Why the Soviet threat isn't over
San Antonio Express-News
Shaquille O'Neal drinks spring water the way he would. From a gallon jug that looks small in his hands.
He drinks as the new Shaq, professional and serious, hydrating as he takes questions. His answers are equally professional and serious.
"We just made too many simple mistakes," he says.
But he can't help himself, and eventually the San Antonio high-school kid inside him breaks out. He takes a playful jab at David Robinson, and he says with a broad smile, "I'm the baddest (bleep), shut-your-mouth that San Antonio has ever produced."
Shaft at 325 pounds.
Shaq talks about his only visit this season (he doesn't wish there were more). And then someone asks him if this is really it. What's the chance he will be back in San Antonio in June?
His expression never changes. He knows instantly the question is about the Spurs and Heat in the NBA Finals, about another round of playoffs, about another few weeks of drama. And he says of the chance it will happen:
"High."
Friday night said as much.
The Spurs are in Atlanta tonight, content to be finished with a successful tour of the championship Lakers. They first beat Kobe Bryant, then Derek Fisher and finally O'Neal. The Spurs know those three were tougher when they were together.
How tough? When the Lakers splintered last summer, Gregg Popovich put it in global terms. He said it was like the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Popovich meant it as a compliment. Without a designated super-power to oppose, there is confusion.
That also suggests no power is out there, and that's true of Bryant. He plays the role of the Ukraine now. The same holds for Fisher, suiting up for Golden State as Latvia.
But then there's Shaq, the Russian bear, ending Friday with 23 points and 21 rebounds, bullying the Heat to within range in the fourth quarter. If Miami can play this way in November, on the road, before the players know each other, without Dwyane Wade, after a game the night before in Miami, what are the possibilities?
Stan Van Gundy seemed to catch the significance. "I feel tonight's game," he said, "was a step forward for us."
Van Gundy pointed to one sequence as the difference. With the Spurs ahead by only four points late in the fourth quarter, Manu Ginobili ran down his own missed free throw, then followed with a 3-pointer and a fist pump.
O'Neal said he had seen it before. He called the Spurs "very disciplined and very focused," which is a change. O'Neal rarely showed much respect in the past.
Now? "Seems like every time I come into this building," he said, the Spurs take advantage of mistakes.
But the mood in the Miami locker room was clear. A remarkable Ginobili rebound and score is what it took to beat the undermanned and tired Heat?
O'Neal can have that effect on a game and a conference, and all signs indicate he cares this season. He didn't eat at his favorite San Antonio restaurant Friday ("I'm on a diet"), and he's being careful with a hamstring pull that has slowed him. The gallon of water was part of that.
He also has a lot to prove in this post-Kobe season, and his play Friday summed up his attitude. A year ago he would have been frustrated when teammates couldn't get him the ball in position. This time he kept working, his facial expressions never changing.
Shaq also kept pounding as only he does, sending both Ginobili and Tim Duncan to the floor and eventually to the bench in the same sequence. Both were gingerly holding their own facial expressions.
This is what the Eastern Conference hasn't experienced in the playoffs in several years. Can Jermaine O'Neal handle this? Ben Wallace?
Rasho Nesterovic has, and he pushed back Friday night as well as he has. He fronted Shaq, hung on him, even blocked him once.
Nesterovic also played Shaq with a kind of relief. If he could survive this game, then that meant only one more, right?
"Two games a year are enough," Nesterovic said afterward. "Trust me."
But there are no guarantees that two games will be enough. If the Spurs advance through the playoffs as they hope, they should brace for someone they know too well.
The chance?
"High," Shaq repeated.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA111304.1D.COLharvey.4fc7dd7a.html
San Antonio Express-News
Shaquille O'Neal drinks spring water the way he would. From a gallon jug that looks small in his hands.
He drinks as the new Shaq, professional and serious, hydrating as he takes questions. His answers are equally professional and serious.
"We just made too many simple mistakes," he says.
But he can't help himself, and eventually the San Antonio high-school kid inside him breaks out. He takes a playful jab at David Robinson, and he says with a broad smile, "I'm the baddest (bleep), shut-your-mouth that San Antonio has ever produced."
Shaft at 325 pounds.
Shaq talks about his only visit this season (he doesn't wish there were more). And then someone asks him if this is really it. What's the chance he will be back in San Antonio in June?
His expression never changes. He knows instantly the question is about the Spurs and Heat in the NBA Finals, about another round of playoffs, about another few weeks of drama. And he says of the chance it will happen:
"High."
Friday night said as much.
The Spurs are in Atlanta tonight, content to be finished with a successful tour of the championship Lakers. They first beat Kobe Bryant, then Derek Fisher and finally O'Neal. The Spurs know those three were tougher when they were together.
How tough? When the Lakers splintered last summer, Gregg Popovich put it in global terms. He said it was like the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Popovich meant it as a compliment. Without a designated super-power to oppose, there is confusion.
That also suggests no power is out there, and that's true of Bryant. He plays the role of the Ukraine now. The same holds for Fisher, suiting up for Golden State as Latvia.
But then there's Shaq, the Russian bear, ending Friday with 23 points and 21 rebounds, bullying the Heat to within range in the fourth quarter. If Miami can play this way in November, on the road, before the players know each other, without Dwyane Wade, after a game the night before in Miami, what are the possibilities?
Stan Van Gundy seemed to catch the significance. "I feel tonight's game," he said, "was a step forward for us."
Van Gundy pointed to one sequence as the difference. With the Spurs ahead by only four points late in the fourth quarter, Manu Ginobili ran down his own missed free throw, then followed with a 3-pointer and a fist pump.
O'Neal said he had seen it before. He called the Spurs "very disciplined and very focused," which is a change. O'Neal rarely showed much respect in the past.
Now? "Seems like every time I come into this building," he said, the Spurs take advantage of mistakes.
But the mood in the Miami locker room was clear. A remarkable Ginobili rebound and score is what it took to beat the undermanned and tired Heat?
O'Neal can have that effect on a game and a conference, and all signs indicate he cares this season. He didn't eat at his favorite San Antonio restaurant Friday ("I'm on a diet"), and he's being careful with a hamstring pull that has slowed him. The gallon of water was part of that.
He also has a lot to prove in this post-Kobe season, and his play Friday summed up his attitude. A year ago he would have been frustrated when teammates couldn't get him the ball in position. This time he kept working, his facial expressions never changing.
Shaq also kept pounding as only he does, sending both Ginobili and Tim Duncan to the floor and eventually to the bench in the same sequence. Both were gingerly holding their own facial expressions.
This is what the Eastern Conference hasn't experienced in the playoffs in several years. Can Jermaine O'Neal handle this? Ben Wallace?
Rasho Nesterovic has, and he pushed back Friday night as well as he has. He fronted Shaq, hung on him, even blocked him once.
Nesterovic also played Shaq with a kind of relief. If he could survive this game, then that meant only one more, right?
"Two games a year are enough," Nesterovic said afterward. "Trust me."
But there are no guarantees that two games will be enough. If the Spurs advance through the playoffs as they hope, they should brace for someone they know too well.
The chance?
"High," Shaq repeated.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA111304.1D.COLharvey.4fc7dd7a.html