LOL, Spurs would have never gotten through Portland with Del Negro at the SG. JR Rider would have abused the hell out of him and no way they could have switched Sean onto him with Rasheed getting tons of minutes at the SF.
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LOL, Spurs would have never gotten through Portland with Del Negro at the SG. JR Rider would have abused the hell out of him and no way they could have switched Sean onto him with Rasheed getting tons of minutes at the SF.
Timvp bringing the goods. :toastQuote:
Originally Posted by timvp
You've stirred similiar thoughts of Vinny in my own head.
I confess. Out of all the players that have come and go through the Spurs organization, Del Negro is probably the one I hated the most - and for all the aforementioned reasons listed above. He was soft defensively and he weak mentally. He did personify all that was soft - whether actual or perceived - about the Spurs at that time.
Case in point, the '95 WCF playoff series versus the Rockets. That series was billed as Hakeem Olajuwon versus David Robinson - and rightfully so. While everyone focuses on how Hakeem "wiped the floor" with Dave, people forget that Dave have a great series statistically and did his own work against Olajuwon. People also forget that Olajuwon had plenty of help from complimentary players like a young Robert Horry, Sam Cassell and veterans like Otis Thorpe and Mario Elie. On the other side, Dave got some help from Dennis Rodman, but very little from anyone else - especially Del Negro, who choked away under the playoff pressure and wilted at having to go up against the defensive-minded Elie in each game. Elie reduced Del Negro to playing like a scared little girl. No one knew it more than Pop and Avery Johnson. I'm not surprised at all to hear that AJ led the charge to get him dismissed, while courting Mario Elie. The Spurs simply had to get tougher and Elie brought the unmatched toughness.
Del Negro NOT working out with the team, during that '99 strike season, was a selfish act and a career-ending decision for him in a Spurs uniform. Besides, he was probably out working on his golf game, at the time. I remembered hearing that story of Del Negro either asking for an autograph or soliciting MJ's participation in a golf tournament, while both were standing next to one another at the FT line. Whatever the case, that sealed my dislike for the guy.
For me, Del Negro was the 90's version of Matt Bonner. He'd convert a gang of open shots in a meaningless regular season game versus an inferior opponent, but then he'd be invisible against an upper-echelon opponent. And don't get me started on the playoffs, where, like Bonner, his mental cowardice would be on full display, while his jump shot was missing in action. Like Bonner, he was a one-trick pony, who, if his jumper was on vacation, he was of no use to the team.
Unlike Del Negro, I will give Bonner this. He is a team guy through and through. While he still gets thrown around in the post too often for my tastes and has yet to shed his label as a perennial playoff choker, he has improved his positional defense and has certainly developed a comfort level with taking opponents off the dribble and making shots in the lane.
Back to Del Negro though, reading Timvp's post only reminds me of a time, where I was actually ashamed at the decision of the Spurs to invest 6 years in a guy, whom former Spurs President Bob Bass publically proclaimed, "would be a suitable replacement for Rod Strickland", who was a solid and fierce PG the Spurs traded away and a player, whom I adored.
In the end, I don't remember why Del Negro left, but I certainly was one that rejoiced when he did.
I just remember everyone referring to him as Vinny el Negro cause he had no "D".
That and both his knees seemed to come up every time he did a jump shot.
Enjoyed him to a degree as a fan, but no sense of loss when he left.
Long Vinny article by Woj, mention of Pop (as posted above too)
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--cl...ygbpzJfDs5nYcB
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As Del Negro shoveled some popcorn into his mouth, he unearthed his BlackBerry out of his pocket. He squinted at the screen, held it up and said, "Fifty-two [text] messages. I bet there are five pro coaches in here."
However the rest of the world sees him, Del Negro refuses to accept that he's still some interloper into the coaching profession, an outsider who didn't pay the proper dues. Opportunities come when they come, and it's what you do with them, how you make the most of them.
He started to scroll the messages, and there was a congratulatory text from Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle. "Rick always calls me … and Doc [Rivers] … And Pop …
Hearing the AJ ran the guy out of town makes me love the Little General even more. Makes sense since he was pushing hard to get Mario to sign here that February.
DA was actually a malcontent, and he spoke bad about the Spurs simply because he wasn't the first priority for the team. Sorry that he doesn't fucking understand that signing David Robinson is more important than signing him. He also went on the local news to show off his new house and his cars while whining about how he wasn't getting paid enough. It looked like he signed the offer sheet with Portland as punishment for Pop putting a deadline on the deal (Timmy's wedding was that weekend). He wasn't worth 48 million for six years. It turns out it was probably an under-the-table deal with Portland for signing other clients of DA's agent and everything else was a smokescreen. The only reason he wasn't a Blazer the year before was because the Clippers messed up the trade.Quote:
Originally Posted by dunkman
Jack ended up signing with Atlanta for less money. His agent flubbed that negotiation. In fact, most of the situations cited could be attributed to bad representation on the part of the players, who only get their information from their agent.Quote:
Originally Posted by dunkman
I remember seeing Vinny on the Riverwalk during All-Star weekend with his date and a bodyguard.
I was amused.
Things were so bad with that agent, the Spurs only communicated with him via fax.Quote:
Originally Posted by Obstructed_View
Quote:
Originally Posted by Obstructed_View
I remember Pop complimenting Roger Mason Jr. for playing for less money, proving himself, and earning a much bigger contract afterwards. That's pretty much what Jackson did. I agree that his agent was incompetent, but he did pretty much say that's what they were doing.
Anderson definitely let his pride get in the way. But I think he probably got about $2M per season more out of Portland than he would have gotten here. That's not chump change. And the fact is, Anderson had a career FG% of around .410. The Spurs shouldn't have been so in love with him that they would try and match what Portland gave him.
Not fully knowing the backstory of the whole Derek Anderson fiasco, I cursed the Spurs for letting him walk, at that time. However seeing how Anderson host his own version of NBA Cribs for local SA Sports TV and seeing how much he flopped in Portland after getting the big contract, I had to eat some crow on that. I never knew Anderson deemed himself as offseason priority #1 for the Spurs. I guess he got his money - and later his commuppence.Quote:
Originally Posted by GSH
If the Spurs hadn't just expected Robinson to take the league minimum and found themselves having to scramble to make him happy, DA would have been offseason priority number one.Quote:
Originally Posted by SenorSpur
The Spurs seriously expected Robinson to take league minimum? If that's the case they probably could have gotten him for cheaper if they hadn't disrespected him like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Obstructed_View
Are you sure about this? Wasn't that the year that Chris Webber was offseason priority number one and that was why we didn't offer robinson so much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Obstructed_View
Why do I remember Vinny doing color on spurs games? Am I wrong?
spurs I think offered DRob like $4-5 million/season for 2? seasons. He balked and stories came of him signing in NYC. So spurs manned up and resigned him for like $10 million/season I think.
When spurs went after Webber, they also went after Kidd (I believe it was the same summer). I think the rumor with Webber was that the spurs contacted his brother, who purposely didn't tell Chris that the spurs were interested. Some mumbo jumbo like that.
Kidd flirted with the Spurs until NBC offered his then wife a job doing side line reporting in NY. Canned her once he resigned with the Nets.
Kidd was 03. I think Webber refused to call Pop back. Both FA losses worked out incredibly well for the team. The guard they went after in 01 was Finley.
that is what I thoughtQuote:
Originally Posted by baseline bum
Yes, was trying to be kind. :lolQuote:
Originally Posted by SenorSpur
As for the way Vinny left, everyone who works knows that it isn't always about performing your job well....it's about meeting expectations; and Vinny no longer met expectations....the rest of the story is all butt hurt.
The article O'Keefe wrote was childish and pointless....I wonder if he regrets writing it. I'm sure his bitterness and stubbornness would have him say otherwise but from a high level what went down with Vinny and Pop was just business.
I was exaggerating when I said league minimum, but my point still stands. To my memory, Spurs wanted to sign a big ticket free agent and there was discussion that Robinson would take less money for the good of the team, but somehow that snowballed into many people assuming that he would take next to nothing, and Robinson felt (rightfully) disrespected for all he had done for the team.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drachen
No kidding. A possible non-psycho version might go something like this:Quote:
Originally Posted by Obstructed_View
Pop's probably not planning on resigning Vinny, but like any reasonable GM, he doesn't want to burn any bridges until he's ready to make his moves.
Agent sets up a dinner, Pop goes. That's what you do to be polite.
Pop doesn't want to discuss specifics, so he just says "Make me an offer." With possible additions like "Whatever you want" or "whatever you think is fair" because he doesn't want to discuss specifics -- especially since he's probably not resigning Vinny anyway. The agent misreads the situation, and thinks that the absence of specifics means he can go as high as he wants, and they'll just sort it all out when they negotiate the deal for real.
The agent comes in way high, Pop more or less laughs at the proposal, and the agent and Vinny walk away butthurt because they think Pop played them.
Then again, maybe Pop did totally play them. Even if it's true, you can hardly fault the outcome.
There's one quote by Pop that I can just see him saying in a gangster outfit, whispering like Marlon Brando in the Godfather:Quote:
Originally Posted by sa_butta
:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Pop
I liked Vinny and I liked Bob Hill. And when O'Keefe got fired, I was wondering if Pop knew what the hell he was doing.
But it turns out he did and his defensive philosophy grew on me.
Though sometimes I wonder if the Spurs should have one more title in the time Dave and TD played together.
Vinny was a defensive liability and played like a sloth. And it was agonizing to watch him play point guard. But I recall he was one of the main reasons the Spurs tied up the series against the Rockets in '95. Both of the games in Houston, it seemed like he hit a bunch of key shots. I'm just going by memory because I haven't seen either game since the live broadcasts.
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...hat-he-missed/
Buck Harvey basically answered all of our questions in this thread. Kevin O'Keeffe was either full of crap (surprise, surprise) or Jack Marin was the one spreading all the obvious lies.
I can't believe anyone bought the stuff O'Keeffe publicized about how Pop tricked an agent into making an obscene offer. I mean, that's not even a good lie :lol
Good to know that Vinny got over it. I was always a bit confused about why Vinny liked Pop so much when he seemingly left on bad terms. Now we know why . . .
Quote:
That didn’t make sense then, and it makes less now. After all, how many times in the past decade has Popovich been accused of playing these kinds of games?
I got John Carrolled.Quote:
Originally Posted by Obstructed_View
BTW, it's really funny that the EN automatically filters Vinny's name because it won't let you say "negro".