biba
05-20-2007, 06:38 AM
Would the media and the league brand the Spurs as the "villains" to make audience? That's the point of view of this article.
BAD BOYS, TOO: Spurs elbow and bump their way into infamy
May 20, 2007
BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
The Pistons should sue the San Antonio Spurs for copyright infringement. They're stealing the Bad Boys' persona, bodychecking a little point guard into the scorer's table one minute or testing his falsetto range with a shot to the groin the next.
Is nothing sacred anymore? Is there no respect for tradition?
More people are paying attention to the Spurs now than at any point during an eight-year run that has produced three NBA championships.
It's funny how they were boring when all they did was win titles. But now there's a passion following the Spurs after Robert Horry clipped Phoenix's Steve Nash at the end of Game 4, resulting in Horry's two-game suspension and a one-game suspension for the Suns' Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for leaving the bench.
It's great. You've now got people who just a week ago couldn't distinguish Tim Duncan from Duncan Hines now desperately thirsting for another Spurs' title.
It validates how the NBA is more about personality than performance.
It was 20 years ago in the 1987 Eastern Conference finals between the Pistons and Boston that the first seed of Pistons devilishness was planted in the public consciousness.
NBA Productions coined the phrase "Bad Boys," making it the title of the team's 1988 season video when they finished one game shy of winning the championship against the Lakers.
The Spurs aren't going anywhere, so why not construct an image that paints them as either hero or heretic?
It sells. The idea of a San Antonio-Detroit finals rematch from two years ago is a ratings nightmare for commissioner David Stern because of the public indifference regarding the teams. But there's increasingly little middle ground regarding the Spurs after the manner in which they knocked around the Suns.
BAD BOYS, TOO: Spurs elbow and bump their way into infamy
May 20, 2007
BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
The Pistons should sue the San Antonio Spurs for copyright infringement. They're stealing the Bad Boys' persona, bodychecking a little point guard into the scorer's table one minute or testing his falsetto range with a shot to the groin the next.
Is nothing sacred anymore? Is there no respect for tradition?
More people are paying attention to the Spurs now than at any point during an eight-year run that has produced three NBA championships.
It's funny how they were boring when all they did was win titles. But now there's a passion following the Spurs after Robert Horry clipped Phoenix's Steve Nash at the end of Game 4, resulting in Horry's two-game suspension and a one-game suspension for the Suns' Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for leaving the bench.
It's great. You've now got people who just a week ago couldn't distinguish Tim Duncan from Duncan Hines now desperately thirsting for another Spurs' title.
It validates how the NBA is more about personality than performance.
It was 20 years ago in the 1987 Eastern Conference finals between the Pistons and Boston that the first seed of Pistons devilishness was planted in the public consciousness.
NBA Productions coined the phrase "Bad Boys," making it the title of the team's 1988 season video when they finished one game shy of winning the championship against the Lakers.
The Spurs aren't going anywhere, so why not construct an image that paints them as either hero or heretic?
It sells. The idea of a San Antonio-Detroit finals rematch from two years ago is a ratings nightmare for commissioner David Stern because of the public indifference regarding the teams. But there's increasingly little middle ground regarding the Spurs after the manner in which they knocked around the Suns.