http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b....f55bde5e.html
NBA: Pop's blunt truth won over Finley
By Mike Monroe
NEW ORLEANS — The suitors were arriving daily at Michael Finley’s suburban Chicago home in the summer of 2005, doing their best to coax him into signing a contract.
The Suns sent GM Bryan Colangelo and coach Mike D’Antoni, with videotaped pleas from Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire begging Finley to bring his sweet jumper to the Valley of the Sun.
Heat coach Pat Riley made a similar entreaty.
Then Spurs coach and executive vice president of basketball operations Gregg Popovich showed up with a different sort of spiel.
Fresh off the Spurs’ third championship in six years, Popovich told Finley the hard truth: That as much as the Spurs would love to have Finley, there would be no promises whatsoever. He would have to earn his spot in the regular playing rotation.
Candor prevailed, and Finley chose the Spurs because he believed they afforded the best opportunity to win a championship. His first season with the club ended in playoff frustration, but he took the game ball from the Spurs’ NBA le-clinching victory over the Cavaliers to bed with him after finally getting his first championship ring last June.
So when Popovich came to him before Game 3 of the Spurs-Hornets Western Conference semifinals series and told him he was going back to a bench role, behind Manu Ginobili?
Finley just nodded his head and thought about what he needed to do to optimize his play from the bench.
“I didn’t have a problem with it,” Finley said after scoring 12 points, on 5-for-7 shooting, in the Spurs’ 100-80 victory Sunday night at the AT&T Center. “When me and Pop sat down before I came here, he laid out the ground rules of what I was coming into. I told him I was willing to do whatever he wanted, if that was come off the bench, or whatever.
“I’m just doing my role.”
Popovich would have been amazed with anything less.
“Fin is a longtime veteran,” he said. “He’s a super-classy person in the sense that, like Manu, he only cares whether his team wins or loses. He’s a fantastic leader, really a well-respected part of everything that we do.”
Finley is smart enough to understand that he can’t try to be the same sort of sixth man as Ginobili, winner of this season’s Sixth Man Award.
“As much as I would love to do it,” he said, “I’m not Manu. I just come in and be me. That’s what the coaching staff asks of me: Just be me. They don’t want me to step out of character and try to do things I’m not capable of doing.”
In his new-old role as the Spurs’ sixth man, Finley has made 9 of 14 shots, including 5 of 9 3-pointers, and scored 23 points in 45 minutes of court time. He has continued to get open shots because of the Hornets’ double-teaming of Tim Duncan, and has helped make the Hornets pay for doing it.
He and his teammates are eager to discover how stubborn Hornets coach Byron Scott may be about his defensive approach.
“Well, you never know,” Finley said. “After these two games maybe they go home and make some changes. The most important thing for us is to make them pay when they do decide to leave guys open. When we share the ball and do those type of things, we’re a pretty dangerous team.”
Ginobili has made it clear he prefers starting because it gets him more playing time and allows him to let the game come to him without forcing the action. He also believes in what Finley can provide when he comes off the bench.
“With the way their defense is set,” Ginobili said, “Fin is going to be huge for us. They either blitz me on pick and rolls, or they collapse the paint on Tony’s (Parker’s) penetrations. They double Tim too, so we’re going to have a lot of open shots for him.
“If we are smart enough to find him open, we know he’s going to make those shots. It depends more on us than on him.”
This is sig worthy. Shows what our organization is all about.Fresh off the Spurs’ third championship in six years, Popovich told Finley the hard truth: That as much as the Spurs would love to have Finley, there would be no promises whatsoever. He would have to earn his spot in the regular playing rotation.
I remember being so pumped when we first signed Fin... Barry was heading into his second season... and Fab came in.
TP was emerging and Manu was playing like Super Man
I thought we were going to beat the Bulls 72 win mark that season.
I guess i should have known.
Church of Finley, RISE UP!!! Game 5 is Finley time!
Do you guys think Fin has provided more production than an average SG?
I was pretty pumped when he first came, but don't think he had as much left as we'd hoped.
When I saw the Spurs up close in Milwaukee, Finley EASILY had the smoothest, sweetest jumper of anyone on our team. Never doubted his shot after seeing him live like that.
Maybe your expectations were a bit high for someone who would be caddying for Manu, no matter who starts.
Michael and Brent should get the shots.
Hope Brent's leg wasn't re-injured in Game4.
That's what I was thinking, but if so we will most likely go to Udoka. If he shoots like he did last game then of coarse it's a plus.
<---HaHa! I just wanted to use this thing!
This is the best he can come up with? In the middle of a 2-2 series we have to get a recycled article that I've read countless times?
My hopes were too high for Findog when we first got him, I now know better but at least he is not Damon S.
It would be pretty tough for Finley to about going to the bench, given that he's been starting for the better part of his time in San Antonio specifically because Manu Ginobili put aside his ego and accepted that role.
I'm not surprised, however, that Fin has taken the demotion in stride and played well in the aftermath.
Why did you have to bring up Stoudamire?
Ya, Fin has been a godsend.
lol, did he do this in Dallas?
This whole series so far Spurs perimeter shooters are getting open looks because of the defense NO are employing on the big 3 . Manu summed it up well.“With the way their defense is set,” Ginobili said, “Fin is going to be huge for us. They either blitz me on pick and rolls, or they collapse the paint on Tony’s (Parker’s) penetrations. They double Tim too, so we’re going to have a lot of open shots for him.
A break-out performance from 3-point land is long overdue.
Last edited by Slippy; 05-13-2008 at 07:11 AM.
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