Spurs Brazil
05-30-2007, 10:01 AM
San Antonio Express-News
Fab. The name sounds slick. Smart. Kobe-cool.
But the Spurs can't even get that right. Instead of Fab, Gregg Popovich opts for Fabby.
"Fabby is a blue-collar guy," Popovich said Monday night.
Fabby sounds flabby, as well as floppy. And that fits the usual around here. Popovich once called Fabricio Oberto "the ugliest, most productive player I've ever been around," so it's no wonder Monday's game came with similar descriptions.
Ugly.
Fabby.
They will need to be the same tonight. Deron Williams is likely eating solids by now, and his teammates might join him any day. There have been bigger upsets than a team such as the Jazz winning where both the Nuggets and Suns did before this postseason.
Most around the country wouldn't mind. As these Spurs head toward another NBA Finals, the reaction is either a yawn or a groan.
The Pistons don't draw this reaction. David Stern's ties don't draw this reaction. It's as if the Spurs play hockey on C-SPAN instead of the best basketball of this era.
"Put our team in New York," Tony Parker told a reporter recently. "We're winning championships and stuff like that, and they'd be loving us. We'd be like the Yankees."
Parker wasn't saying he wished the Spurs played in New York. He was simply stating a truth. The Knicks won two championships more than a generation ago, and people still talk in awe of those glorious days. According to some, that was the last team to ever pass to the open man.
The Spurs' star, instead, merely ranks with the best in history. Their point guard speaks French and is engaged to Eva Longoria. Their defensive ace is reviled. Their coach has been around almost as long as Robert Horry. And then there's Manu Ginobili.
Wouldn't a man who took Argentina to a gold medal — who both looks and plays differently than anyone in league history — have his own musical on Broadway?
He should. But Kobe Bryant drew as much national attention over the Memorial Day weekend when he wished Jerry West would come back and find someone better than Kwame Brown.
This is what Parker was talking about. Put the Spurs in Los Angeles instead of New York, and Popovich would be Jerry West.
Oberto would be Kurt Rambis, a worker bee who famously buzzed around Showtime. If Oberto played in L.A. on a team heading to a fourth Finals, kids would be wearing their hair long with a rubber band at the hairline.
They would also be worrying that their beloved Fab might leave. A Spanish news outlet said last week that Real Madrid will try to lure Oberto and Golden State's Sarunas Jasikevicius in anticipation of hosting next year's European Final Four.
Jasikevicius makes sense. He has sat on the bench in America the past two years, and now he's on the end of Don Nelson's athletic roster.
Oberto, who played in Spain for years, would also have made sense — last season at this time. Then, he also watched without much of a future, and following that, the Spurs signed Jackie Butler and Francisco Elson to be their big men.
But Oberto was learning the details of the NBA last season. This composure — to wait without ego — would be itself worth a book in New York or a screenplay in Los Angeles.
Buck Harvey
"He was unbelievable, being so patient after all he accomplished overseas," Ginobili told the Express-News earlier this month. "He never got upset at anybody. He kept working hard, and people in Argentina were kind of pressuring him, saying, 'Why aren't you playing? Do you want to go back to Europe? You're a star, and you're not playing?' He's been amazing. I'm kind of surprised. I think I was even more impatient than him."
Now, Oberto is making smart passes, and he's moving when the defense turns its head, and he's slapping rebounds out to teammates. Now, he's playing tough at the toughest moments, changing from last year's oldest rookie to a vet who fits perfectly.
Ugly?
Fabby?
Anything but.
Fab. The name sounds slick. Smart. Kobe-cool.
But the Spurs can't even get that right. Instead of Fab, Gregg Popovich opts for Fabby.
"Fabby is a blue-collar guy," Popovich said Monday night.
Fabby sounds flabby, as well as floppy. And that fits the usual around here. Popovich once called Fabricio Oberto "the ugliest, most productive player I've ever been around," so it's no wonder Monday's game came with similar descriptions.
Ugly.
Fabby.
They will need to be the same tonight. Deron Williams is likely eating solids by now, and his teammates might join him any day. There have been bigger upsets than a team such as the Jazz winning where both the Nuggets and Suns did before this postseason.
Most around the country wouldn't mind. As these Spurs head toward another NBA Finals, the reaction is either a yawn or a groan.
The Pistons don't draw this reaction. David Stern's ties don't draw this reaction. It's as if the Spurs play hockey on C-SPAN instead of the best basketball of this era.
"Put our team in New York," Tony Parker told a reporter recently. "We're winning championships and stuff like that, and they'd be loving us. We'd be like the Yankees."
Parker wasn't saying he wished the Spurs played in New York. He was simply stating a truth. The Knicks won two championships more than a generation ago, and people still talk in awe of those glorious days. According to some, that was the last team to ever pass to the open man.
The Spurs' star, instead, merely ranks with the best in history. Their point guard speaks French and is engaged to Eva Longoria. Their defensive ace is reviled. Their coach has been around almost as long as Robert Horry. And then there's Manu Ginobili.
Wouldn't a man who took Argentina to a gold medal — who both looks and plays differently than anyone in league history — have his own musical on Broadway?
He should. But Kobe Bryant drew as much national attention over the Memorial Day weekend when he wished Jerry West would come back and find someone better than Kwame Brown.
This is what Parker was talking about. Put the Spurs in Los Angeles instead of New York, and Popovich would be Jerry West.
Oberto would be Kurt Rambis, a worker bee who famously buzzed around Showtime. If Oberto played in L.A. on a team heading to a fourth Finals, kids would be wearing their hair long with a rubber band at the hairline.
They would also be worrying that their beloved Fab might leave. A Spanish news outlet said last week that Real Madrid will try to lure Oberto and Golden State's Sarunas Jasikevicius in anticipation of hosting next year's European Final Four.
Jasikevicius makes sense. He has sat on the bench in America the past two years, and now he's on the end of Don Nelson's athletic roster.
Oberto, who played in Spain for years, would also have made sense — last season at this time. Then, he also watched without much of a future, and following that, the Spurs signed Jackie Butler and Francisco Elson to be their big men.
But Oberto was learning the details of the NBA last season. This composure — to wait without ego — would be itself worth a book in New York or a screenplay in Los Angeles.
Buck Harvey
"He was unbelievable, being so patient after all he accomplished overseas," Ginobili told the Express-News earlier this month. "He never got upset at anybody. He kept working hard, and people in Argentina were kind of pressuring him, saying, 'Why aren't you playing? Do you want to go back to Europe? You're a star, and you're not playing?' He's been amazing. I'm kind of surprised. I think I was even more impatient than him."
Now, Oberto is making smart passes, and he's moving when the defense turns its head, and he's slapping rebounds out to teammates. Now, he's playing tough at the toughest moments, changing from last year's oldest rookie to a vet who fits perfectly.
Ugly?
Fabby?
Anything but.