WildcardManu
04-26-2008, 02:15 AM
Not sure if this article has been posted before, but here it is. Pretty long article, but a good read overall.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/24307680/site/21683474/
By Steve Jones
NBCSports.com
updated 2:31 p.m. CT, Fri., April. 25, 2008
Steve Jones
The darling of the playoffs? Take your pick: Celtics or Lakers. Granted both have new additions and in the case of Boston a new look. Plus, they’ve got more than just buzz going for them in the postseason. There’s some serious talent on both teams. But the reality of these playoffs is that the defending champion Spurs are the team to beat.
This team on a mission
San Antonio is trying to do something it hasn’t done in winning four NBA championships since 1999 – and that is win back-to-back titles. Make no mistake, to the Spurs this goal is a tremendous incentive. Getting it done validates an even higher degree of greatness for the organization and what it has accomplished over the last decade.
Everyone who follows the NBA should have no excuse for not knowing how good the Spurs are and for not being able to see past all the ballyhoo over the chances of the Celtics and Lakers to win it all. Neither has done so in the eight years since the San Antonio franchise took its first turn in reigning as king over the league. Beat the Spurs in a hard-fought playoff series. That’s the acid test of these playoffs just as it has been for recent playoffs past.
The Spurs didn’t put on their usual sprint at the end of the regular season. They didn’t win their division and they lost out on the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, which is unusual for them. Therefore people think the defending champions are vulnerable, that they’re beatable and that they could get picked off before even making it back to the conference finals. A wise fan would think again.
Coach Gregg Popovich’s approach this season has been all about being ready for the playoffs. His stars had their minutes closely regulated. Injuries were given ample time to heal. There is an understanding among the Spurs about what’s most important to them and that is – as it has been for so long now – winning a championship. That’s what it’s all about for San Antonio, which is just as threatening and dangerous as it was in any of its previous four championship seasons.
A striking resemblance to NBA royalty
These Spurs have a remarkably similar look to the championship Boston teams of the Bill Russell era. Tim Duncan isn’t Russell, but like the Celtics’ all-time great the Spurs’ big man plays his biggest when it counts the most. He is to San Antonio what Russell was to Boston: A dominant player in the middle who has a couple of very talented teammates and more than a few role players to provide him help.
Manu Ginobili, who recently won the NBA’s sixth man award, is not John Havlicek but he’s pretty close to a modern-day Hondo. Ginobili comes off the bench, but the reality is his talent is that of a starter and one of the better ones in the league at that. But if the Spurs start Ginobili, they don’t have in their arsenal a huge weapon to bring off the bench, one who provides a spark and one who can change a game. With his growth as a player Ginobili now knows he can play against anybody in the NBA and he can have an impact against any team the Spurs come up against. He’s matured to where he is a fearless player.
Tony Parker is not Sam Jones, not yet anyway, but he is plenty effective at what he does. His penetrate-and-kick skills are dazzling and his overall game keeps getting better and better. Parker’s growth as an NBA star has been an amazing thing to watch.
Like the Celtics did the Spurs surround their trio of stars with role players, guys who are not only counted on to contribute to the team’s cause in various ways but who also are counted on to know their limitations and play within them. While Duncan, Parker and Ginobili do the heavy lifting, the contributions of their supporting cast can’t be overlooked in helping the Spurs past opponent after opponent.
Big Three vs. Big Three
Say “Big Three” around the NBA these days and people think Celtics with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. That’s a logical response after the tremendous turnaround the franchise has made over the course of just one season. But which is a better Big Three, the guys wearing green or the guys wearing rings?
The Spurs’ Big Three gets my vote because they have won championships together. Not only haven’t Garnett, Allen and Pierce won titles together, not one of them has won a championship apart from the other two. If and when Boston’s Big Three reign supreme in the NBA, then let the comparisons to Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili begin – not before.
Granted that during the regular season Boston’s Big Three was better than San Antonio’s Big Three in that the Celtics won more games (they had the league’s best record) than did the Spurs. But the playoffs are a different story. In the postseason the Duncan-Parker-Ginobili led Spurs have been there and done it all. The Garnett-Allen-Pierce led Celtics cannot yet say the same. And that makes a difference.
Not given their just due
Some believe Duncan is the most underrated great player in NBA history. I’ll stop short of that but he’s a rare gem indeed and the highest compliment paid to him and the most significant testament to his greatness is that every front office in the NBA is constantly looking for the next Tim Duncan.
Duncan would get even more recognition for his abundant talent if his personality were different. He’s quiet and understated, but that doesn’t make him any less of a dominating force. Even when Duncan complains to an official, it seems he’s doing it in a very polite way. He’s stoic and even boring in his greatness like Bjorn Borg was in tennis, an athlete who like Borg is beating the pulp out of an opponent but doing it in an almost discreet fashion. Take an effervescent personality and put it in Duncan’s body and the result would be a more emotional and acclaimed superstar.
Underrated is a term also attached to Popovich as a coach. Maybe that’s because he sticks to a pretty simple formula and marches to his own beat. He’s not interested in the spotlight so the depth of what he does and the impressiveness of his accomplishments tend to get somewhat passed over by too many.
By watching the Spurs it’s easy to see Popovich’s approach to winning is imprinted and imposed on his team. He has a great ability to communicate with all of his players and he’s so comfortable in doing so. He understands it’s too difficult and too counterproductive to put players with immense talent like Duncan, Parker and Ginobili in a box so he doesn’t. What does he get in return for not trying to be a control freak: championships, that’s all.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/24307680/site/21683474/
By Steve Jones
NBCSports.com
updated 2:31 p.m. CT, Fri., April. 25, 2008
Steve Jones
The darling of the playoffs? Take your pick: Celtics or Lakers. Granted both have new additions and in the case of Boston a new look. Plus, they’ve got more than just buzz going for them in the postseason. There’s some serious talent on both teams. But the reality of these playoffs is that the defending champion Spurs are the team to beat.
This team on a mission
San Antonio is trying to do something it hasn’t done in winning four NBA championships since 1999 – and that is win back-to-back titles. Make no mistake, to the Spurs this goal is a tremendous incentive. Getting it done validates an even higher degree of greatness for the organization and what it has accomplished over the last decade.
Everyone who follows the NBA should have no excuse for not knowing how good the Spurs are and for not being able to see past all the ballyhoo over the chances of the Celtics and Lakers to win it all. Neither has done so in the eight years since the San Antonio franchise took its first turn in reigning as king over the league. Beat the Spurs in a hard-fought playoff series. That’s the acid test of these playoffs just as it has been for recent playoffs past.
The Spurs didn’t put on their usual sprint at the end of the regular season. They didn’t win their division and they lost out on the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, which is unusual for them. Therefore people think the defending champions are vulnerable, that they’re beatable and that they could get picked off before even making it back to the conference finals. A wise fan would think again.
Coach Gregg Popovich’s approach this season has been all about being ready for the playoffs. His stars had their minutes closely regulated. Injuries were given ample time to heal. There is an understanding among the Spurs about what’s most important to them and that is – as it has been for so long now – winning a championship. That’s what it’s all about for San Antonio, which is just as threatening and dangerous as it was in any of its previous four championship seasons.
A striking resemblance to NBA royalty
These Spurs have a remarkably similar look to the championship Boston teams of the Bill Russell era. Tim Duncan isn’t Russell, but like the Celtics’ all-time great the Spurs’ big man plays his biggest when it counts the most. He is to San Antonio what Russell was to Boston: A dominant player in the middle who has a couple of very talented teammates and more than a few role players to provide him help.
Manu Ginobili, who recently won the NBA’s sixth man award, is not John Havlicek but he’s pretty close to a modern-day Hondo. Ginobili comes off the bench, but the reality is his talent is that of a starter and one of the better ones in the league at that. But if the Spurs start Ginobili, they don’t have in their arsenal a huge weapon to bring off the bench, one who provides a spark and one who can change a game. With his growth as a player Ginobili now knows he can play against anybody in the NBA and he can have an impact against any team the Spurs come up against. He’s matured to where he is a fearless player.
Tony Parker is not Sam Jones, not yet anyway, but he is plenty effective at what he does. His penetrate-and-kick skills are dazzling and his overall game keeps getting better and better. Parker’s growth as an NBA star has been an amazing thing to watch.
Like the Celtics did the Spurs surround their trio of stars with role players, guys who are not only counted on to contribute to the team’s cause in various ways but who also are counted on to know their limitations and play within them. While Duncan, Parker and Ginobili do the heavy lifting, the contributions of their supporting cast can’t be overlooked in helping the Spurs past opponent after opponent.
Big Three vs. Big Three
Say “Big Three” around the NBA these days and people think Celtics with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. That’s a logical response after the tremendous turnaround the franchise has made over the course of just one season. But which is a better Big Three, the guys wearing green or the guys wearing rings?
The Spurs’ Big Three gets my vote because they have won championships together. Not only haven’t Garnett, Allen and Pierce won titles together, not one of them has won a championship apart from the other two. If and when Boston’s Big Three reign supreme in the NBA, then let the comparisons to Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili begin – not before.
Granted that during the regular season Boston’s Big Three was better than San Antonio’s Big Three in that the Celtics won more games (they had the league’s best record) than did the Spurs. But the playoffs are a different story. In the postseason the Duncan-Parker-Ginobili led Spurs have been there and done it all. The Garnett-Allen-Pierce led Celtics cannot yet say the same. And that makes a difference.
Not given their just due
Some believe Duncan is the most underrated great player in NBA history. I’ll stop short of that but he’s a rare gem indeed and the highest compliment paid to him and the most significant testament to his greatness is that every front office in the NBA is constantly looking for the next Tim Duncan.
Duncan would get even more recognition for his abundant talent if his personality were different. He’s quiet and understated, but that doesn’t make him any less of a dominating force. Even when Duncan complains to an official, it seems he’s doing it in a very polite way. He’s stoic and even boring in his greatness like Bjorn Borg was in tennis, an athlete who like Borg is beating the pulp out of an opponent but doing it in an almost discreet fashion. Take an effervescent personality and put it in Duncan’s body and the result would be a more emotional and acclaimed superstar.
Underrated is a term also attached to Popovich as a coach. Maybe that’s because he sticks to a pretty simple formula and marches to his own beat. He’s not interested in the spotlight so the depth of what he does and the impressiveness of his accomplishments tend to get somewhat passed over by too many.
By watching the Spurs it’s easy to see Popovich’s approach to winning is imprinted and imposed on his team. He has a great ability to communicate with all of his players and he’s so comfortable in doing so. He understands it’s too difficult and too counterproductive to put players with immense talent like Duncan, Parker and Ginobili in a box so he doesn’t. What does he get in return for not trying to be a control freak: championships, that’s all.