duncan228
11-09-2007, 12:58 PM
http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/?/base/sports-2/119458920614840.xml&coll=1
Spurs not flashy, except for those rings
Peter Finney
Let's all stand and applaud.
How about a Big Easy welcome to the Invisible Dynasty that goes by the name of the San Antonio Spurs?
If you follow the NBA, you know all about those Hall of Fame coaches who go by the name of Phil Jackson and Pat Riley, and the rings they won coaching in Chicago and Los Angeles and Miami.
But here's a quick question: Who's the coach of the San Antonio Spurs?
Well, in case you didn't know, he happens to be a wine connoisseur going by the name of Gregg Popovich.
And would you believe Coach Popovich, over the past nine seasons, has won four rings coaching, not on Broadway, not in Tinseltown, but in the shadow of the Alamo.
Well, Pop and the reigning champion of professional basketball are in town to face our 4-1 hometown heroes tonight, with a chance to extend their winning streak over the Hornets to eight.
Actually, it's a famine Byron Scott's troops shouldn't feel too badly about, that is, if you consider, when the Spurs went to 4-1 with Wednesday night's victory over Miami, the 2006 NBA champs, they were beating the Heat for the 20th time in 21 games played in San Antonio.
For the past decade, it has been no picnic doing business on the basketball court against a team that plays the old-fashioned way. The Spurs win by making plays that don't show up on "SportsCenter." They win with defense, by getting the ball to the open man, by wearing you down with basic fundamentals.
The Spurs' arrival leaves me wondering what a recent visitor to our city, NBA Commissioner David Stern, might be thinking if he could somehow change the current state of affairs in his league.
For example:
Wouldn't it be nice if the Spurs were playing their home games at Madison Square Garden?
Wouldn't it be nice if they had become the league's flagship franchise in a city that hasn't won a basketball ring since the early '70s?
Wouldn't it be nice if the No. 1 market in the U.S. was toasting Tim Duncan, one of the great power forwards of all time, and not having to deal with a Stephon "Animal House" Marbury?
Wouldn't it be great if New York could give the ticker-tape treatment to a team built around an international cast of gunslingers, like France's Tony Parker, MVP in last season's championship series, and Argentina's Manu Ginobili, MVP in his country's ride to a gold medal in the '94 Athens Olympics?
Yes, that would be nice.
In Peter Holt, the Spurs have an owner, a decorated Vietnam veteran, who said after last season's sweep of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, "I'm not interested in having our team in the tabloids."
In New York, the Knicks have an owner whose franchise recently lost a sexual harassment case to the tune of $11.6 million.
Which proves, if you're Commissioner Stern, you can't have everything.
Meanwhile, with Popovich's hand on the tiller ("Pop defines the team," says Duncan), the Spurs sail on to who knows where.
Have they become too old, as some suggest, to win another ring?
We'll find out.
The Spurs, it seems, have lived by the words posted in their locker room, words written by a guy named Jacob Riis, talking about a stonecutter who hammered away at a rock a hundred times without getting as much as a crack.
And then: "On the 101st blow, it split in two. I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had been done before."
Which is pretty much how Duncan and company have managed to grind on the enemy until they fold.
Former Spurs player Mario Elie once told the story, comparing his days in San Antonio to his days with the Houston Rockets, where on trips he found himself spending time in the back of the plane, gambling, rolling dice, playing blackjack.
"When you got on the plane with the Spurs," he said, "you came with your laptop computer. It's a smart team that handles its business, whether they're playing computer games, Scrabble or just writing e-mails."
Whatever happens tonight, win or lose, the Hornets will learn from the experience. The Spurs have a way of making you learn.
Obviously, at the moment, Scott has a ballclub that feels good about itself, a point guard fresh from a 21-assist game, a perimeter shooter fresh from a lights-out performance in Los Angeles, a group in tune with the coach's up-tempo philosophy.
Welcome, NBA champions.
Let the game begin.
Spurs not flashy, except for those rings
Peter Finney
Let's all stand and applaud.
How about a Big Easy welcome to the Invisible Dynasty that goes by the name of the San Antonio Spurs?
If you follow the NBA, you know all about those Hall of Fame coaches who go by the name of Phil Jackson and Pat Riley, and the rings they won coaching in Chicago and Los Angeles and Miami.
But here's a quick question: Who's the coach of the San Antonio Spurs?
Well, in case you didn't know, he happens to be a wine connoisseur going by the name of Gregg Popovich.
And would you believe Coach Popovich, over the past nine seasons, has won four rings coaching, not on Broadway, not in Tinseltown, but in the shadow of the Alamo.
Well, Pop and the reigning champion of professional basketball are in town to face our 4-1 hometown heroes tonight, with a chance to extend their winning streak over the Hornets to eight.
Actually, it's a famine Byron Scott's troops shouldn't feel too badly about, that is, if you consider, when the Spurs went to 4-1 with Wednesday night's victory over Miami, the 2006 NBA champs, they were beating the Heat for the 20th time in 21 games played in San Antonio.
For the past decade, it has been no picnic doing business on the basketball court against a team that plays the old-fashioned way. The Spurs win by making plays that don't show up on "SportsCenter." They win with defense, by getting the ball to the open man, by wearing you down with basic fundamentals.
The Spurs' arrival leaves me wondering what a recent visitor to our city, NBA Commissioner David Stern, might be thinking if he could somehow change the current state of affairs in his league.
For example:
Wouldn't it be nice if the Spurs were playing their home games at Madison Square Garden?
Wouldn't it be nice if they had become the league's flagship franchise in a city that hasn't won a basketball ring since the early '70s?
Wouldn't it be nice if the No. 1 market in the U.S. was toasting Tim Duncan, one of the great power forwards of all time, and not having to deal with a Stephon "Animal House" Marbury?
Wouldn't it be great if New York could give the ticker-tape treatment to a team built around an international cast of gunslingers, like France's Tony Parker, MVP in last season's championship series, and Argentina's Manu Ginobili, MVP in his country's ride to a gold medal in the '94 Athens Olympics?
Yes, that would be nice.
In Peter Holt, the Spurs have an owner, a decorated Vietnam veteran, who said after last season's sweep of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, "I'm not interested in having our team in the tabloids."
In New York, the Knicks have an owner whose franchise recently lost a sexual harassment case to the tune of $11.6 million.
Which proves, if you're Commissioner Stern, you can't have everything.
Meanwhile, with Popovich's hand on the tiller ("Pop defines the team," says Duncan), the Spurs sail on to who knows where.
Have they become too old, as some suggest, to win another ring?
We'll find out.
The Spurs, it seems, have lived by the words posted in their locker room, words written by a guy named Jacob Riis, talking about a stonecutter who hammered away at a rock a hundred times without getting as much as a crack.
And then: "On the 101st blow, it split in two. I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had been done before."
Which is pretty much how Duncan and company have managed to grind on the enemy until they fold.
Former Spurs player Mario Elie once told the story, comparing his days in San Antonio to his days with the Houston Rockets, where on trips he found himself spending time in the back of the plane, gambling, rolling dice, playing blackjack.
"When you got on the plane with the Spurs," he said, "you came with your laptop computer. It's a smart team that handles its business, whether they're playing computer games, Scrabble or just writing e-mails."
Whatever happens tonight, win or lose, the Hornets will learn from the experience. The Spurs have a way of making you learn.
Obviously, at the moment, Scott has a ballclub that feels good about itself, a point guard fresh from a 21-assist game, a perimeter shooter fresh from a lights-out performance in Los Angeles, a group in tune with the coach's up-tempo philosophy.
Welcome, NBA champions.
Let the game begin.