duncan228
05-14-2008, 10:23 PM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA051508.FINGER.Lead.EN.ff8de11d.html
Food for Thought: Inuries, health too often on a need-to-know basis
Mike Finger
San Antonio Express-News
LEADING OFF
Wednesday morning, the New Orleans Hornets woke up with a lead in the Western Conference semifinals and a sneaking suspicion that they’d shut down the greatest power forward of all time.
They couldn’t be sure about the second part. After all, as Hornets coach Byron Scott pointed out, they’d overestimated their defensive efforts against Tim Duncan before.
“He wasn’t sick?” Scott asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t know. He was out there on the court.”
Whether he was aiming his barb at the Spurs or at the media was unclear, but the implication was obvious — Scott, a proud member of the NBA’s dwindling old-school club, didn’t much care for the after-the-fact news reports about Duncan playing with a 100-plus-degree temperature in Game 2.
This is why Duncan still hasn’t publicly acknowledged his illness and why Gregg Popovich’s only statement on the matter has been, “We’re fine.” For as long as there have been professional athletes, there has been a code — if you feel good enough to play, then you should feel good enough not to make any excuses afterward.
To be sure, the Spurs haven’t made any for themselves. They weren’t the ones who brought up Duncan’s bout with the fever, and both Duncan and Popovich were angry about the word leaking out. In fact, David West talked more about his back problems in Game 5 than the Spurs have about their various ailments during the entire series. But the mere fact that Duncan’s condition did leak made it look like the Spurs were rationalizing his miserable five-point performance in Game 2, and the Hornets clearly didn’t appreciate it.
Melvin Ely was one of the New Orleans big men who hounded Duncan in that game. As a member of the Spurs last season, he worked out against Duncan in practice in the morning, then would battle him on paintball fields in the afternoons. Ely said he has as much respect for Duncan as anyone he’s ever played with, but even he seemed a little miffed about hearing a fever might have had more to do with the Hornets’ victory than he did.
“If he was sick,” Ely said, “he did a pretty good job of hiding it.”
But sometimes one person hiding it isn’t enough. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb delivered an infamously lackluster performance in a Super Bowl loss to New England three years ago, and teammates told reporters McNabb was so sick during the game, he had vomited in the huddle.
At the Pro Bowl in Hawaii the next week, McNabb denied that any of it — the illness, the upchuck — had ever happened.
“When I seen it (the reports) and heard about it, obviously, I was kind of upset about the whole deal,” McNabb said. “To hear something like that takes obviously away from the excitement of the game and ..... the determination of trying to win.”
For McNabb, it was as if there was more shame in the excuse-making than there was in the interceptions. Texas quarterback Colt McCoy shared this approach when he downplayed talk of his poor health after a loss to Texas A&M in 2006, and Duncan — who has consistently avoided talking about everything from sore knees to plantar fasciitis — has done the same throughout his career. But even if that’s the prevailing sentiment in sports, not every athlete follows the code to the letter.
Last month, shortly after failing to win the Masters, Tiger Woods released a statement on his Web site announcing he was undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery to address the pain he’d been dealing with. He didn’t explicitly blame the pain for his play at Augusta, but that was the logical conclusion he allowed people to draw.
“He’s been having a lot of trouble,” Hank Haney, Woods’ swing coach, told the Associated Press the day Woods made his announcement. “He doesn’t talk about stuff like that. He doesn’t want to use excuses, you know?”
Still, that’s how some people took it, just as Scott apparently saw something distasteful about having to hear about Duncan’s fever. So it might turn out that Duncan went 5 for 18 in Game 5 because he unknowingly contracted rickets, or because he was served some bad crème brûlée, or because the locker-room attendant gave him a jockstrap two sizes too small.
Only one thing is certain. Duncan and Scott hope none of us ever hears about it.
HOT LIST
A glance at the top 10 trends of the week, along with the people making them popular:
1. Carrying the load: David West
2. Carrying a grudge? Joey Crawford
3. Letting it out: Gregg Popovich
4. Giving it a go: Kobe Bryant
5. Keeping mom in line: LeBron James
6. Dancing alongside T.O.? Joe Horn
7. Tripling the fun: Asdrubal Cabrera
8. Going out on top: Annika Sorenstam
9. Following Annika’s lead: Justine Henin
10. Following Reggie’s lead: O.J. Mayo
FINGER ROLLS
You might think your weekend here will be slow and plodding, but it’s deceptively quick: The owners of a French Lick, Ind., resort advertised as “the former home of Larry Bird” have been sued by the NBA Hall of Famer, with the lawsuit alleging trademark infringement. Making matters worse? Rumors have it they’re thinking about tearing down Bird’s high-school garage and putting up a Magic Johnson movie theater.
On the bright side, when the arena catches fire, most of the potential witnesses already will be asleep : Commissioner David Stern told reporters this week that blaring music and pyrotechnics at NBA games have gotten “ridiculous,” and that “the noise, the fire, the smoke is a kind of assault.” So to review, these are the commissioner’s stances on today’s pressing issues:
Mixing loud noise and basketball — bad. Mixing playoff games and 9 p.m. local tipoffs — OK. And mixing a game official with the team that brought about his season-ending suspension last season — no problems at all.
He’d ask for Nash and Stoudemire, but the cap figures don’t work: The New York Daily News reported this week that one of Mike D’Antoni’s first moves as coach of the Knicks will be to push to trade Stephon Marbury to Phoenix for Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw. But before he does that? He has to push for Isiah Thomas to become the next general manager of the Suns.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
To Don Nelson (68), George Brett (55), John Smoltz (41), Emmitt Smith (39), Ray Lewis (33), Josh Beckett (28) and Justin Morneau (27). Celebrate by wondering if you and your spouse have what it takes to produce a world-class athlete, then planning on getting started sometime around mid-August.
Food for Thought: Inuries, health too often on a need-to-know basis
Mike Finger
San Antonio Express-News
LEADING OFF
Wednesday morning, the New Orleans Hornets woke up with a lead in the Western Conference semifinals and a sneaking suspicion that they’d shut down the greatest power forward of all time.
They couldn’t be sure about the second part. After all, as Hornets coach Byron Scott pointed out, they’d overestimated their defensive efforts against Tim Duncan before.
“He wasn’t sick?” Scott asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t know. He was out there on the court.”
Whether he was aiming his barb at the Spurs or at the media was unclear, but the implication was obvious — Scott, a proud member of the NBA’s dwindling old-school club, didn’t much care for the after-the-fact news reports about Duncan playing with a 100-plus-degree temperature in Game 2.
This is why Duncan still hasn’t publicly acknowledged his illness and why Gregg Popovich’s only statement on the matter has been, “We’re fine.” For as long as there have been professional athletes, there has been a code — if you feel good enough to play, then you should feel good enough not to make any excuses afterward.
To be sure, the Spurs haven’t made any for themselves. They weren’t the ones who brought up Duncan’s bout with the fever, and both Duncan and Popovich were angry about the word leaking out. In fact, David West talked more about his back problems in Game 5 than the Spurs have about their various ailments during the entire series. But the mere fact that Duncan’s condition did leak made it look like the Spurs were rationalizing his miserable five-point performance in Game 2, and the Hornets clearly didn’t appreciate it.
Melvin Ely was one of the New Orleans big men who hounded Duncan in that game. As a member of the Spurs last season, he worked out against Duncan in practice in the morning, then would battle him on paintball fields in the afternoons. Ely said he has as much respect for Duncan as anyone he’s ever played with, but even he seemed a little miffed about hearing a fever might have had more to do with the Hornets’ victory than he did.
“If he was sick,” Ely said, “he did a pretty good job of hiding it.”
But sometimes one person hiding it isn’t enough. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb delivered an infamously lackluster performance in a Super Bowl loss to New England three years ago, and teammates told reporters McNabb was so sick during the game, he had vomited in the huddle.
At the Pro Bowl in Hawaii the next week, McNabb denied that any of it — the illness, the upchuck — had ever happened.
“When I seen it (the reports) and heard about it, obviously, I was kind of upset about the whole deal,” McNabb said. “To hear something like that takes obviously away from the excitement of the game and ..... the determination of trying to win.”
For McNabb, it was as if there was more shame in the excuse-making than there was in the interceptions. Texas quarterback Colt McCoy shared this approach when he downplayed talk of his poor health after a loss to Texas A&M in 2006, and Duncan — who has consistently avoided talking about everything from sore knees to plantar fasciitis — has done the same throughout his career. But even if that’s the prevailing sentiment in sports, not every athlete follows the code to the letter.
Last month, shortly after failing to win the Masters, Tiger Woods released a statement on his Web site announcing he was undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery to address the pain he’d been dealing with. He didn’t explicitly blame the pain for his play at Augusta, but that was the logical conclusion he allowed people to draw.
“He’s been having a lot of trouble,” Hank Haney, Woods’ swing coach, told the Associated Press the day Woods made his announcement. “He doesn’t talk about stuff like that. He doesn’t want to use excuses, you know?”
Still, that’s how some people took it, just as Scott apparently saw something distasteful about having to hear about Duncan’s fever. So it might turn out that Duncan went 5 for 18 in Game 5 because he unknowingly contracted rickets, or because he was served some bad crème brûlée, or because the locker-room attendant gave him a jockstrap two sizes too small.
Only one thing is certain. Duncan and Scott hope none of us ever hears about it.
HOT LIST
A glance at the top 10 trends of the week, along with the people making them popular:
1. Carrying the load: David West
2. Carrying a grudge? Joey Crawford
3. Letting it out: Gregg Popovich
4. Giving it a go: Kobe Bryant
5. Keeping mom in line: LeBron James
6. Dancing alongside T.O.? Joe Horn
7. Tripling the fun: Asdrubal Cabrera
8. Going out on top: Annika Sorenstam
9. Following Annika’s lead: Justine Henin
10. Following Reggie’s lead: O.J. Mayo
FINGER ROLLS
You might think your weekend here will be slow and plodding, but it’s deceptively quick: The owners of a French Lick, Ind., resort advertised as “the former home of Larry Bird” have been sued by the NBA Hall of Famer, with the lawsuit alleging trademark infringement. Making matters worse? Rumors have it they’re thinking about tearing down Bird’s high-school garage and putting up a Magic Johnson movie theater.
On the bright side, when the arena catches fire, most of the potential witnesses already will be asleep : Commissioner David Stern told reporters this week that blaring music and pyrotechnics at NBA games have gotten “ridiculous,” and that “the noise, the fire, the smoke is a kind of assault.” So to review, these are the commissioner’s stances on today’s pressing issues:
Mixing loud noise and basketball — bad. Mixing playoff games and 9 p.m. local tipoffs — OK. And mixing a game official with the team that brought about his season-ending suspension last season — no problems at all.
He’d ask for Nash and Stoudemire, but the cap figures don’t work: The New York Daily News reported this week that one of Mike D’Antoni’s first moves as coach of the Knicks will be to push to trade Stephon Marbury to Phoenix for Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw. But before he does that? He has to push for Isiah Thomas to become the next general manager of the Suns.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
To Don Nelson (68), George Brett (55), John Smoltz (41), Emmitt Smith (39), Ray Lewis (33), Josh Beckett (28) and Justin Morneau (27). Celebrate by wondering if you and your spouse have what it takes to produce a world-class athlete, then planning on getting started sometime around mid-August.