duncan228
06-06-2007, 02:52 PM
Didn't see it posted...Some re-hashing, some basic fact stuff...
http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_6070068
NBA FINALS: The Cavs have King James, but the Spurs are NBA royalty
By Ross Siler
The Salt Lake Tribune
They play in the NBA's third-smallest television market and have been toxic to ratings ever since they started playing for championships. They are led by a two-time league MVP with seemingly all the personality of a houseplant and a head coach with little in the way of a public profile.
Hard to believe, but the San Antonio Spurs are on the verge of securing their place alongside George Mikan's Minneapolis Lakers, Bill Russell's Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson's Los Angeles Lakers and Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls as the fifth dynasty in NBA history.
With the NBA Finals set to open Thursday, the Spurs stand only four victories away from winning their fourth championship in nine years. Maybe a reminder is needed that for all the talk about our LeBron James' future, the Spurs are the unquestioned team of the present.
What their place is in NBA history is a question almost impossible to answer.
Just consider that the Spurs have gone 559-229 in the 10 seasons since Tim Duncan's arrival, a .709 winning percentage that is unrivaled by any team in the four major professional sports leagues during that time.
Yet the Spurs always seem to play in the shadows of something, whether
it's Kobe Bryant's trade demand during the recently completed Western Conference finals or Phil Jackson's return as Lakers coach during the 2005 NBA Finals.
In the Spurs' world, though, there is little use for glitz and glamor. Just consider how David Robinson summed up his former team's season to reporters after the Spurs' clinching victory over the Jazz in the conference finals.
"They did a great job of getting better every month," Robinson told San Antonio reporters. "It was nothing spectacular this year. They kept plodding away. The team's motto is, 'We are going to keep beating on the rock until it cracks,' and they kept beating on it until they accomplished their goal."
The dynasties in NBA history have been few and far between.
The Minneapolis Lakers were the first, winning five championships between 1949 and 1954, led by Mikan, the bespectacled center who was selected as the greatest player in the first 50 years of basketball.
Russell led the Celtics to 11 championships in 13 seasons, changing the game with his shot blocking, defense and rebounding. He also was surrounded by a cast of Hall of Fame teammates, including Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tommy Heinsohn, John Havlicek and Sam Jones.
The "Showtime" Lakers won five championships from 1980 to 1988 with Johnson throwing no-look passes and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tossing in skyhooks.
The Chicago Bulls captured six titles in the 1990s, a run interrupted by Jordan's brief career as a Double-A outfielder.
Where does that leave the Spurs?
Their success certainly has been the product of good fortune, twice winning the NBA draft lottery and the right to select Robinson and Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick.
What they have been unable to change is the perception of being boring. Duncan rarely makes headlines; his most recent this season came in being ejected by referee Joey Crawford. Coach Gregg Popovich, meanwhile, has little patience for reporters and is the antithesis of celebrity coaches like Jackson and Pat Riley.
Former Spurs guard Avery Johnson, now coach of the Dallas Mavericks, told the Houston Chronicle that San Antonio should go down as a "dominant franchise and dominant era" if they can beat the Cavaliers and win a fourth championship.
"If Pop was a little more outspoken, if Tim Duncan was flashier, if they played in a bigger city, there would be more hoopla," said Johnson, who played on the Spurs' first championship team. "People have missed their consistency."
The Spurs' resume, though, does have its holes. They won their first title in the lockout-shortened 1999 season, have failed to ever repeat as champions and watched as the Lakers won three championships from 2000 to 2002 when Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were able to co-exist.
If television ratings are any guide, the Spurs are still searching for acceptance from casual fans. All three NBA Finals involving the Spurs have ranked among the five lowest-rated in the past 24 years. They play in a media market ranked one spot above West Palm Beach, Fla.
Yet the Spurs have succeeded when it comes to assembling a team around Duncan, who is bidding for a fourth Finals MVP award that would put him second only to Jordan.
Duncan has no bigger fan than Russell, who has contributed to an NBA.com blog throughout the playoffs and has routinely praised the Spurs forward, especially for the way that Duncan's passing provides direction to his team's offense.
"Just look at how many championships Tim Duncan has won," Russell said. "That should tell you something. If he wins four or five championships, to say that he is boring is like comparing Da Vinci and Picasso. They were both geniuses with two different styles.
"When Tim Duncan was a rookie, I said he was the most efficient player in the league at the time. In watching him play, he has the least wasted motion and emotion. . . . I love watching him."
Even with three more championship rings and two more MVP awards than James, Duncan already has joked about playing second fiddle in the Finals.
"I'm just hoping every once in a while, they'll throw the Spurs in there between LeBron highlights," Duncan told San Antonio reporters.
Where the Spurs lack compared to other dynasty teams might be in Hall of Fame players around Duncan. Nobody is expecting Brent Barry, Bruce Bowen or Fabricio Oberto to be inducted in Springfield, Mass. Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are elite players but perhaps not all-time greats.
But the Spurs play the league's best defense and have an unmatched supporting cast relative to today's NBA. Parker carved up the Jazz coming off the pick-and-roll in the conference finals. Ginobili brings instant offense off the bench and took over the fourth quarter of Game 4 in Utah.
The Spurs have one of the league's best defenders in Bowen, lethal shooters in Barry and Michael Finley and a veteran playing for a seventh championship in Robert Horry. If the Spurs are successful, Horry would become the first non-Celtics player with rings for that many fingers.
"That's a very great team," James told Cleveland reporters. "They're very experienced, they've been to the Finals before and they know how to handle adversity. We have to just attack, attack, attack. That has to be our mindset and we give ourselves a chance to win."
So often indifferent about the Spurs, the general public might treat them differently this time around. It was Horry's body-check on Steve Nash in the conference semifinals that led to one-game suspensions for Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw as they came charging off the bench.
The Suns lost their next game and ultimately the series to the Spurs. In the conference finals, the Spurs were the beneficiary of the referee's whistle in Game 4 against the Jazz, shooting 25 fourth-quarter free throws to 2 for Utah as Derek Fisher and Jerry Sloan both were ejected.
"We've been the bad boys since the second round. It's not going to change," Parker told San Antonio reporters. "We are not vanilla anymore. We are the bad boys."
They also have the chance to become a dynasty - if not the best one in NBA history, the only current one.
http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_6070068
NBA FINALS: The Cavs have King James, but the Spurs are NBA royalty
By Ross Siler
The Salt Lake Tribune
They play in the NBA's third-smallest television market and have been toxic to ratings ever since they started playing for championships. They are led by a two-time league MVP with seemingly all the personality of a houseplant and a head coach with little in the way of a public profile.
Hard to believe, but the San Antonio Spurs are on the verge of securing their place alongside George Mikan's Minneapolis Lakers, Bill Russell's Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson's Los Angeles Lakers and Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls as the fifth dynasty in NBA history.
With the NBA Finals set to open Thursday, the Spurs stand only four victories away from winning their fourth championship in nine years. Maybe a reminder is needed that for all the talk about our LeBron James' future, the Spurs are the unquestioned team of the present.
What their place is in NBA history is a question almost impossible to answer.
Just consider that the Spurs have gone 559-229 in the 10 seasons since Tim Duncan's arrival, a .709 winning percentage that is unrivaled by any team in the four major professional sports leagues during that time.
Yet the Spurs always seem to play in the shadows of something, whether
it's Kobe Bryant's trade demand during the recently completed Western Conference finals or Phil Jackson's return as Lakers coach during the 2005 NBA Finals.
In the Spurs' world, though, there is little use for glitz and glamor. Just consider how David Robinson summed up his former team's season to reporters after the Spurs' clinching victory over the Jazz in the conference finals.
"They did a great job of getting better every month," Robinson told San Antonio reporters. "It was nothing spectacular this year. They kept plodding away. The team's motto is, 'We are going to keep beating on the rock until it cracks,' and they kept beating on it until they accomplished their goal."
The dynasties in NBA history have been few and far between.
The Minneapolis Lakers were the first, winning five championships between 1949 and 1954, led by Mikan, the bespectacled center who was selected as the greatest player in the first 50 years of basketball.
Russell led the Celtics to 11 championships in 13 seasons, changing the game with his shot blocking, defense and rebounding. He also was surrounded by a cast of Hall of Fame teammates, including Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tommy Heinsohn, John Havlicek and Sam Jones.
The "Showtime" Lakers won five championships from 1980 to 1988 with Johnson throwing no-look passes and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tossing in skyhooks.
The Chicago Bulls captured six titles in the 1990s, a run interrupted by Jordan's brief career as a Double-A outfielder.
Where does that leave the Spurs?
Their success certainly has been the product of good fortune, twice winning the NBA draft lottery and the right to select Robinson and Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick.
What they have been unable to change is the perception of being boring. Duncan rarely makes headlines; his most recent this season came in being ejected by referee Joey Crawford. Coach Gregg Popovich, meanwhile, has little patience for reporters and is the antithesis of celebrity coaches like Jackson and Pat Riley.
Former Spurs guard Avery Johnson, now coach of the Dallas Mavericks, told the Houston Chronicle that San Antonio should go down as a "dominant franchise and dominant era" if they can beat the Cavaliers and win a fourth championship.
"If Pop was a little more outspoken, if Tim Duncan was flashier, if they played in a bigger city, there would be more hoopla," said Johnson, who played on the Spurs' first championship team. "People have missed their consistency."
The Spurs' resume, though, does have its holes. They won their first title in the lockout-shortened 1999 season, have failed to ever repeat as champions and watched as the Lakers won three championships from 2000 to 2002 when Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were able to co-exist.
If television ratings are any guide, the Spurs are still searching for acceptance from casual fans. All three NBA Finals involving the Spurs have ranked among the five lowest-rated in the past 24 years. They play in a media market ranked one spot above West Palm Beach, Fla.
Yet the Spurs have succeeded when it comes to assembling a team around Duncan, who is bidding for a fourth Finals MVP award that would put him second only to Jordan.
Duncan has no bigger fan than Russell, who has contributed to an NBA.com blog throughout the playoffs and has routinely praised the Spurs forward, especially for the way that Duncan's passing provides direction to his team's offense.
"Just look at how many championships Tim Duncan has won," Russell said. "That should tell you something. If he wins four or five championships, to say that he is boring is like comparing Da Vinci and Picasso. They were both geniuses with two different styles.
"When Tim Duncan was a rookie, I said he was the most efficient player in the league at the time. In watching him play, he has the least wasted motion and emotion. . . . I love watching him."
Even with three more championship rings and two more MVP awards than James, Duncan already has joked about playing second fiddle in the Finals.
"I'm just hoping every once in a while, they'll throw the Spurs in there between LeBron highlights," Duncan told San Antonio reporters.
Where the Spurs lack compared to other dynasty teams might be in Hall of Fame players around Duncan. Nobody is expecting Brent Barry, Bruce Bowen or Fabricio Oberto to be inducted in Springfield, Mass. Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are elite players but perhaps not all-time greats.
But the Spurs play the league's best defense and have an unmatched supporting cast relative to today's NBA. Parker carved up the Jazz coming off the pick-and-roll in the conference finals. Ginobili brings instant offense off the bench and took over the fourth quarter of Game 4 in Utah.
The Spurs have one of the league's best defenders in Bowen, lethal shooters in Barry and Michael Finley and a veteran playing for a seventh championship in Robert Horry. If the Spurs are successful, Horry would become the first non-Celtics player with rings for that many fingers.
"That's a very great team," James told Cleveland reporters. "They're very experienced, they've been to the Finals before and they know how to handle adversity. We have to just attack, attack, attack. That has to be our mindset and we give ourselves a chance to win."
So often indifferent about the Spurs, the general public might treat them differently this time around. It was Horry's body-check on Steve Nash in the conference semifinals that led to one-game suspensions for Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw as they came charging off the bench.
The Suns lost their next game and ultimately the series to the Spurs. In the conference finals, the Spurs were the beneficiary of the referee's whistle in Game 4 against the Jazz, shooting 25 fourth-quarter free throws to 2 for Utah as Derek Fisher and Jerry Sloan both were ejected.
"We've been the bad boys since the second round. It's not going to change," Parker told San Antonio reporters. "We are not vanilla anymore. We are the bad boys."
They also have the chance to become a dynasty - if not the best one in NBA history, the only current one.