some_user86
10-18-2007, 02:06 PM
It's not what Manu Ginobili was going for, because giving new nicknames to teammates to entertain the media is not exactly standard practice for the San Antonio Spurs, but Ginobili unintentionally tagged Tim Duncan with a pretty good one during the 2007 playoffs:
The Big Sense of Tranquility.
It isn't the catchiest or most economical, true, but that's what Ginobili called Duncan in the midst of the Phoenix series, aptly summing up what the franchise player more commonly known as The Big Fundamental gives to the Spurs, maybe now more than ever.
With Duncan at the center of it all, San Antonio has three championships in five seasons and a noticeably contented air in the locker room.
At least that's the impression you get around the Spurs these days, as they continue to bask in last season's run to the fourth title in Duncan's 10 seasons as a pro. The Spurs know lots of historians are hung up on the fact that they've never won back-to-back titles. They know that the suspensions incurred by the Suns in the teams' second-round classic have continued to generate heated debate and tainted title No. 4 to some. They also aren't apologizing.
The overwhelming sense emanating from Duncan, Ginobili and a growing-in-stature Tony Parker is that this is a team -- maybe the NBA's only team -- at peace with where it is, what it has achieved and the future it still has with its big security blanket at a mere 31 years old.
The Spurs have indeed failed three times to follow up a championship with another championship, resulting in an understandable reluctance to place them on the list of NBA dynasties. But that doesn't seem to bother the Spurs nearly as much as it used to, because they've apparently done the math and concluded that three titles in a half-decade is a stat worth repeating (and repeating).
"I don't think it's a big difference," Ginobili said. "I think winning three times in five years is tough enough."
It does sound pretty impressive when you say it a few times. So even if this isn't the season San Antonio finally goes back-to-back (a feat most every NBA team for the ages managed at least once), it seems safe to say that in-house stress about repeating won't be the Spurs' downfall.
Michael Finley insists that he can already sense a big difference in the Spurs now compared to the last time they were in this position, heading into the 2005-06 season. The opportunity to help the Spurs do something they had never done and win back-to-back titles was a big reason Finley chose San Antonio over teams such as Phoenix and Miami in the free-agent summer of 2005.
"But when I first came here," Finley said, "it was like a main issue that we had to do it."
Now?
"It's an unspoken thing," Finley said. "We don't even talk about it."
That's not to suggest that the Spurs are as satisfied or indifferent as coach Gregg Popovich made them sound back in June, after their NBA Finals sweep of Cleveland was complete, when Pop forgot that he was on live TV and responded to the inevitable mention of the Spurs' repeat shortcomings by saying: "I don't give a s---."
But the team-wide sentiment that its '07 crown proved something extra seems genuine. Ginobili is hardly alone in feeling a deep sense of fulfillment from San Antonio's peaking in the playoffs and claiming its third title since 2003.
Popovich? He probably feels the fulfillment more than anyone, readily admitting now that the 2007 championship is his favorite of the four -- even better than the Duncan-and-David Robinson breakthrough of 1999 -- given the circumstances surrounding their Game 7 loss at home to Dallas in 2006 and the fact that the Spurs were dismissed as has-beens throughout much of last season.
Overcoming their formidable rivals in the West as well as the doubts that began to seep in among his players, with eight of them in their 30s in 2006-07, moved Popovich to concede that "it did feel a little different" this October when the Spurs reconvened for training camp. Translation: Even the serial perfectionists -- like Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford -- have stopped to appreciate the achievement.
That raises the possibility, of course, that San Antonio will have a serious hunger problem this term. If the Spurs are so pleased with three titles in five seasons, skeptics will ask, how will the aging players manufacture the passion to at last make it two in two? The question becomes doubly pertinent given that, unlike 2005 when it signed Finley, San Antonio has reconvened with almost exactly the same roster and no new ring-starved vets for the rotation.
Popovich is hoping simply that winning back-to-back championships might be easier if the Spurs just play and obsess less about repeating than they've done in the past. So on top of his usual vows to avoid the NBA norm of twice-daily practices early in camp and his commitment to holding Duncan, Ginobili and Parker under 35 minutes per game throughout the regular season, Popovich is trying as hard as he can to treat the repeat story line as a non-story. He jokingly attempted to write off the Spurs' repeat chances as early as media day by suggesting that this season's major obstacle is the fact that even years -- after championships in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007 -- are "tough for us."
Spurs funny man Brent Barry has been chiming in, too, saying that he and his teammates find that "the whole subject of repeating is already getting repetitive."
Can the famously disciplined Spurs really stay this loose? Can they keep defying the aging process? Can they continue to convince themselves that they've got nothing to prove when they know the repeat questions will only keep coming?
The do-it-all Ginobili -- who turned 30 in the offseason, incidentally -- thinks so. For a couple of reasons.
Ginobili's No. 1, not surprisingly, is the tranquil big man who anchors it all.
No. 2? Ginobili says San Antonio draws even more security and self-esteem from the knowledge that its last two title defenses were hardly disasters.
Some in the organization believe, at least in their private moments, that the non-repeaters could have actually won five titles in a row, if not for Derek Fisher's Point-Four heroics in 2004 and Ginobili's foul on Dirk Nowitzki in 2006.
"We did a great job [in] all the seasons," Ginobili said. "It just happened that in two key games, we lost incredible ones. One was a seventh game against Dallas, so we didn't make so many mistakes [that season]. The other one was a shot by Fisher that was probably one in a hundred. So I don't feel like we failed the other two times [we tried to repeat as champs]."
Said Popovich, when asked if history will view the Spurs differently if they claim their first even-year crown: "That's up to you guys. I won't think about it too much. We're just going to do the best we can. We'll either repeat or we won't … and a whole lot more important things will go on."
Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/trainingcamp07/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=Spurs-071018
The Big Sense of Tranquility.
It isn't the catchiest or most economical, true, but that's what Ginobili called Duncan in the midst of the Phoenix series, aptly summing up what the franchise player more commonly known as The Big Fundamental gives to the Spurs, maybe now more than ever.
With Duncan at the center of it all, San Antonio has three championships in five seasons and a noticeably contented air in the locker room.
At least that's the impression you get around the Spurs these days, as they continue to bask in last season's run to the fourth title in Duncan's 10 seasons as a pro. The Spurs know lots of historians are hung up on the fact that they've never won back-to-back titles. They know that the suspensions incurred by the Suns in the teams' second-round classic have continued to generate heated debate and tainted title No. 4 to some. They also aren't apologizing.
The overwhelming sense emanating from Duncan, Ginobili and a growing-in-stature Tony Parker is that this is a team -- maybe the NBA's only team -- at peace with where it is, what it has achieved and the future it still has with its big security blanket at a mere 31 years old.
The Spurs have indeed failed three times to follow up a championship with another championship, resulting in an understandable reluctance to place them on the list of NBA dynasties. But that doesn't seem to bother the Spurs nearly as much as it used to, because they've apparently done the math and concluded that three titles in a half-decade is a stat worth repeating (and repeating).
"I don't think it's a big difference," Ginobili said. "I think winning three times in five years is tough enough."
It does sound pretty impressive when you say it a few times. So even if this isn't the season San Antonio finally goes back-to-back (a feat most every NBA team for the ages managed at least once), it seems safe to say that in-house stress about repeating won't be the Spurs' downfall.
Michael Finley insists that he can already sense a big difference in the Spurs now compared to the last time they were in this position, heading into the 2005-06 season. The opportunity to help the Spurs do something they had never done and win back-to-back titles was a big reason Finley chose San Antonio over teams such as Phoenix and Miami in the free-agent summer of 2005.
"But when I first came here," Finley said, "it was like a main issue that we had to do it."
Now?
"It's an unspoken thing," Finley said. "We don't even talk about it."
That's not to suggest that the Spurs are as satisfied or indifferent as coach Gregg Popovich made them sound back in June, after their NBA Finals sweep of Cleveland was complete, when Pop forgot that he was on live TV and responded to the inevitable mention of the Spurs' repeat shortcomings by saying: "I don't give a s---."
But the team-wide sentiment that its '07 crown proved something extra seems genuine. Ginobili is hardly alone in feeling a deep sense of fulfillment from San Antonio's peaking in the playoffs and claiming its third title since 2003.
Popovich? He probably feels the fulfillment more than anyone, readily admitting now that the 2007 championship is his favorite of the four -- even better than the Duncan-and-David Robinson breakthrough of 1999 -- given the circumstances surrounding their Game 7 loss at home to Dallas in 2006 and the fact that the Spurs were dismissed as has-beens throughout much of last season.
Overcoming their formidable rivals in the West as well as the doubts that began to seep in among his players, with eight of them in their 30s in 2006-07, moved Popovich to concede that "it did feel a little different" this October when the Spurs reconvened for training camp. Translation: Even the serial perfectionists -- like Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford -- have stopped to appreciate the achievement.
That raises the possibility, of course, that San Antonio will have a serious hunger problem this term. If the Spurs are so pleased with three titles in five seasons, skeptics will ask, how will the aging players manufacture the passion to at last make it two in two? The question becomes doubly pertinent given that, unlike 2005 when it signed Finley, San Antonio has reconvened with almost exactly the same roster and no new ring-starved vets for the rotation.
Popovich is hoping simply that winning back-to-back championships might be easier if the Spurs just play and obsess less about repeating than they've done in the past. So on top of his usual vows to avoid the NBA norm of twice-daily practices early in camp and his commitment to holding Duncan, Ginobili and Parker under 35 minutes per game throughout the regular season, Popovich is trying as hard as he can to treat the repeat story line as a non-story. He jokingly attempted to write off the Spurs' repeat chances as early as media day by suggesting that this season's major obstacle is the fact that even years -- after championships in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007 -- are "tough for us."
Spurs funny man Brent Barry has been chiming in, too, saying that he and his teammates find that "the whole subject of repeating is already getting repetitive."
Can the famously disciplined Spurs really stay this loose? Can they keep defying the aging process? Can they continue to convince themselves that they've got nothing to prove when they know the repeat questions will only keep coming?
The do-it-all Ginobili -- who turned 30 in the offseason, incidentally -- thinks so. For a couple of reasons.
Ginobili's No. 1, not surprisingly, is the tranquil big man who anchors it all.
No. 2? Ginobili says San Antonio draws even more security and self-esteem from the knowledge that its last two title defenses were hardly disasters.
Some in the organization believe, at least in their private moments, that the non-repeaters could have actually won five titles in a row, if not for Derek Fisher's Point-Four heroics in 2004 and Ginobili's foul on Dirk Nowitzki in 2006.
"We did a great job [in] all the seasons," Ginobili said. "It just happened that in two key games, we lost incredible ones. One was a seventh game against Dallas, so we didn't make so many mistakes [that season]. The other one was a shot by Fisher that was probably one in a hundred. So I don't feel like we failed the other two times [we tried to repeat as champs]."
Said Popovich, when asked if history will view the Spurs differently if they claim their first even-year crown: "That's up to you guys. I won't think about it too much. We're just going to do the best we can. We'll either repeat or we won't … and a whole lot more important things will go on."
Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/trainingcamp07/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=Spurs-071018