duncan228
05-20-2008, 03:44 PM
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2008-05-20-lopresti-spurs_N.htm
Lopresti: Spurs are a team any generation can respect
By Mike Lopresti, Gannett News Service
It was nearly midnight Monday, as the last seconds of Game 7 in New Orleans slipped away and the old guys began to smile, that the thought first occurred.
The San Antonio Spurs are the NBA's answer to Viagra.
Maybe we'd better explain.
It is a league that caters to the young 24/7. Hence the roof-rattling music, the pre-game fireballs, the hip and the hop. NBA arenas are now rock concerts occasionally interrupted by free throws. What the marketing strategy demands, one supposes.
But then there are the Spurs. Aging. High-mileage. A persona almost stodgy, if you can forget the point guard is married to Eva Longoria. But also stubborn and resilient and here to say that no matter what your age, you can do anything.
Modern Maturity
That's a creed right out of the magazine, Modern Maturity. They're AARP's Team.
They're also the champions until somebody gets rid of them, and so far, nobody has. The young and eager Hornets believed they had the Spurs cornered Monday in New Orleans — since nobody is supposed to win a playoff game on the road anymore, especially Game 7,
But the Spurs did.
Tim Duncan tried to explain how. "A lot of confidence," he said to reporters afterward. "A lot of games under our belt."
They will have to be carried out on their shields, this pack of 30-somethings. They are not pretentious or gaudy. Well, except for the four championship rings in nine years.
"People always talk about us being old," Robert Horry said. "They classify you as old because you don't dunk anymore or you don't slash as fast as you used to.
"But we're still smart."
There's a moral to the Spurs — even if Bruce Bowen said, "It's not up to us to send messages."
Maybe you can't do A, anymore. Maybe you can no longer do B. But you can still do C and D and E. That's speaking a language Baby Boomers understand. Here is an NBA product that appeals to those who remember Johnny Carson.
Horry is 37. Bowen — who will be chasing Kobe Bryant next round — is 36. Michael Finley and Kurt Thomas are 35, Duncan 32, Manu Ginobili 30. Gregg Popovich has been coach for 12 seasons, which is an eternity in the modern NBA.
Monday was Popovich's 100th playoff victory, tying Larry Brown for third place on the all-time list. Brown won his 100 with six different teams. Popovich did it with one.
He understands the narrow ledge his team now plays upon. To one side, the joys of wisdom that only age can give. To the other, the perils of the life clock. What means more on any particular night?
"There are no correct answers to those kind of questions," he said in his post-game press conference. "No one will ever know. If New Orleans had won tonight, you would have said it was because of their youth and their athleticism and their fire, and we would be too old.
"But since we won, then our experience did it."
Now come the Los Angeles Lakers, and that won't be very easy, either. Kobe Bryant. Pau Gasol. And glaring from the courtside seats, Jack Nicholson, who is even older than the Spurs.
So the defending champions will need even more of whatever it is that drives them. Over in the Eastern Conference, Boston and Detroit will be a slugfest. And the Lakers are always trendy. But the best plot now is Spurs trying to prove that time is not going to stop them, and neither is Kobe Bryant.
"It's part of the way of life," Bowen said about growing older. "But at the same time you have to understand within yourself and within your group we have a lot of competitive guys here.
"We understand it's still about plugging, plugging, plugging away. At the end of the day, we can't blame age on everything. It's all about continuing on, and trusting one another."
Nice to hear athletes talk, and out comes not empty and youthful bravado, but the insight of years. The Spurs say and do things that can be heard even above all the loud music.
Lopresti: Spurs are a team any generation can respect
By Mike Lopresti, Gannett News Service
It was nearly midnight Monday, as the last seconds of Game 7 in New Orleans slipped away and the old guys began to smile, that the thought first occurred.
The San Antonio Spurs are the NBA's answer to Viagra.
Maybe we'd better explain.
It is a league that caters to the young 24/7. Hence the roof-rattling music, the pre-game fireballs, the hip and the hop. NBA arenas are now rock concerts occasionally interrupted by free throws. What the marketing strategy demands, one supposes.
But then there are the Spurs. Aging. High-mileage. A persona almost stodgy, if you can forget the point guard is married to Eva Longoria. But also stubborn and resilient and here to say that no matter what your age, you can do anything.
Modern Maturity
That's a creed right out of the magazine, Modern Maturity. They're AARP's Team.
They're also the champions until somebody gets rid of them, and so far, nobody has. The young and eager Hornets believed they had the Spurs cornered Monday in New Orleans — since nobody is supposed to win a playoff game on the road anymore, especially Game 7,
But the Spurs did.
Tim Duncan tried to explain how. "A lot of confidence," he said to reporters afterward. "A lot of games under our belt."
They will have to be carried out on their shields, this pack of 30-somethings. They are not pretentious or gaudy. Well, except for the four championship rings in nine years.
"People always talk about us being old," Robert Horry said. "They classify you as old because you don't dunk anymore or you don't slash as fast as you used to.
"But we're still smart."
There's a moral to the Spurs — even if Bruce Bowen said, "It's not up to us to send messages."
Maybe you can't do A, anymore. Maybe you can no longer do B. But you can still do C and D and E. That's speaking a language Baby Boomers understand. Here is an NBA product that appeals to those who remember Johnny Carson.
Horry is 37. Bowen — who will be chasing Kobe Bryant next round — is 36. Michael Finley and Kurt Thomas are 35, Duncan 32, Manu Ginobili 30. Gregg Popovich has been coach for 12 seasons, which is an eternity in the modern NBA.
Monday was Popovich's 100th playoff victory, tying Larry Brown for third place on the all-time list. Brown won his 100 with six different teams. Popovich did it with one.
He understands the narrow ledge his team now plays upon. To one side, the joys of wisdom that only age can give. To the other, the perils of the life clock. What means more on any particular night?
"There are no correct answers to those kind of questions," he said in his post-game press conference. "No one will ever know. If New Orleans had won tonight, you would have said it was because of their youth and their athleticism and their fire, and we would be too old.
"But since we won, then our experience did it."
Now come the Los Angeles Lakers, and that won't be very easy, either. Kobe Bryant. Pau Gasol. And glaring from the courtside seats, Jack Nicholson, who is even older than the Spurs.
So the defending champions will need even more of whatever it is that drives them. Over in the Eastern Conference, Boston and Detroit will be a slugfest. And the Lakers are always trendy. But the best plot now is Spurs trying to prove that time is not going to stop them, and neither is Kobe Bryant.
"It's part of the way of life," Bowen said about growing older. "But at the same time you have to understand within yourself and within your group we have a lot of competitive guys here.
"We understand it's still about plugging, plugging, plugging away. At the end of the day, we can't blame age on everything. It's all about continuing on, and trusting one another."
Nice to hear athletes talk, and out comes not empty and youthful bravado, but the insight of years. The Spurs say and do things that can be heard even above all the loud music.