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This has also been Simmons' redemption season in my personal like and dislike book - I use to not be able to stand the guy, but he really knows his and was the only one I could stand to listen to on any network during this years run.
http://grantland.com/features/24-lin...he-nba-finals/
I watched every Finals game in San Antonio with Doug Collins from our set behind one of the baskets. He’s an old-school guy who gravitates toward gritty, compe ive, relentless players — basically, anyone he would have loved to coach. And when he’s watching games, he’s usually thinking out loud, so he’ll get super-excited about a player from time to time. And as we became buddies over the last eight months, I realized that Doug had something of a hierarchy of praise that went like this.
Level 1: “Coach, that guy is tough.”
Level 2: “Coach, that guy is a .”
Level 3: “Coach, that guy is a [12-letter word].”5
Level 3 didn’t happen that often (and never in mixed company). And if it happened, he’d usually nudge me and whisper, “Coach, coach, that guy is a [12-letter word].” There was no higher praise from him. During Game 5, Doug blessed Kawhi with Level 1 and Level 2, then something else happened (I think it was one of those big Kawhi 3s) and Doug briefly lost his mind, pounding my arm, breaking Level 3 code and yelping, “Coach, that guy is a [12-letter word]! He is a [TWELVE-LETTER WORD]!!!!!!” That’s right, Kawhi Leonard single-handedly created Level 4 on the Coach Collins Hierarchy of Praise. That was my favorite moment of the 2014 Finals, hands down. I wish everyone loved basketball as much as Doug Collins does.
Q: What was the best crowd-related moment of the 2014 Finals?
Manu’s retro lefty slam in Game 5 nearly caused a riot. I fully expected them to briefly stop the game, Rucker Park–style, so fans could deliriously wander onto the court. Runner-up choices: Spurs fans mocking the “Seven Nation Army” chant in Game 5 (never gets old), and Pop taking out Duncan, then Manu, then Diaw and Parker together in Game 5, just so all of them could get some extra love. Contrast that with …
What was the worst crowd-related moment of the 2014 Finals?
Miami fans hightailing it out of the Game 4 blowout over sticking around and showing their respect and cheering LeBron, Bosh and Wade for four great years. They’ll feel bad if that turned out to be their last home game. (Thinking.) You’re right, they won’t feel bad.
Last edited by spursparker9; 06-19-2014 at 09:03 AM.
This has also been Simmons' redemption season in my personal like and dislike book - I use to not be able to stand the guy, but he really knows his and was the only one I could stand to listen to on any network during this years run.
Nice little 2011 draft factoid:
HA HAThe following players were picked ahead of Leonard: Jan Vesely, Bismack Biyombo, Jimmer Fredette, Alec Burks and both Morris twins.
My favorite line from the article:
(About not trading Parker when they could have)- "The lessons: Trust your infrastructure, trust continuity, don’t make big trades just to make big trades, and if that’s not enough, count on the fact that you’re the Spurs and you have a steady stream of horseshoes falling out of your ass."
we can unretire all Dwyane Wade fat-guy jokes. Once upon a time, we wondered if he’d become the next Michael Jordan — in 2014, it’s actually happening.
Simmons is honestly the best writer in basketball. His articles whether I agree with them or not (and I usually do) are just so incredibly entertaining and he stuffs a ton of little details and jokes in it. Everyone else feel so bland and boring in comparison.
The two Tim Duncan career articles are far and away the best summaries on the Duncan era (we can quibble over minor facts and details but as a whole just so awesome to read):
http://grantland.com/features/tim-duncan-part-1/
http://grantland.com/features/tim-duncan-part-2/
I hope he can add a part 3 when Duncan retires.
You can question Simmon's TV Analyst skills all you want, but the guy is an exceptional writer, and an avid Spurs fan. Hard to not like that.
Q: Can we officially retire all Boris Diaw fat-guy jokes?
Absolutely! We’re even retiring Rafe Bartholomew’s epic “The real Big Three is Boris Diaw and his boobs” joke. I love having the 2006 Phoenix version of Boris back in the league. Is there anything goofier than looking up at that video screen and seeing that Boris has a 5-6-9 or a 3-9-7 going? I missed watching that guy; there’s just nobody like him. In his place, we can unretire all Dwyane Wade fat-guy jokes. Once upon a time, we wondered if he’d become the next Michael Jordan — in 2014, it’s actually happening.
His favorite moment? I guess it was SI's favorite moment as well.
Q: OK, so what was your favorite moment of the 2014 Finals?
Those 1.76 seconds in Game 4 when Kawhi got possessed by the spirit of ABA Doctor J, then went for a acious dunk over Chris Andersen … I mean, even if Andersen fouled him and screwed up the dunk at the last possible split second, that was nearly my favorite Finals moment anyway. Just breathtaking. I couldn’t believe he went for it. How much fun is Kawhi Leonard???
Is this our first le that doesn't get an asterisk? Or will Bill add #5 to his list of Spurs' asterisk les?
Good read.
Man that was a nice article.
enjoyed that a lot.
Leave it to the San Antonio Spurs. Just one day after celebrating one of the most emotional le clinchers in NBA history, the “Ozymandias” episode of the Duncan-Pop era was rendered irrelevant by America’s first World Cup game. The poor Spurs didn’t even make it through a 24-hour news cycle. So let’s belatedly celebrate them with a column that never uses the word “legacy.” In fact, the legacy of this column is going to be that it never included the word “legacy.”
Q: In recent sports history, how many redemption stories were better than that of the 2014 Spurs?
There are two kinds of sports redemption: The first is an individual battling back from a personal tragedy (think Michael Jordan after his father’s murder), major injury (think Derrick Rose next season) or career-threatening event (think Michael Vick post-jail or Tiger Woods post-Escalade); the second is an entire team recovering from an unforgettably devastating defeat (the 2014 Spurs). Ideally, the team would want to avenge the defeat right away. If it’s against the same opponent, even better. If it’s done convincingly, with all demons being exorcised, even better. There’s no way to rank the redemptive power; you’re either in the group or you’re not.
Read more: http://grantland.com/features/24-lin...he-nba-finals/
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For those that just want the burn:
Q: How much money did Patty Mills make in the playoffs?
Three times as much as Mario Chalmers lost.
Overall a nice article from Simmons. He's y at times but he's also hilarious. This in particular stood out to me:
Q: What was the best crowd-related moment of the 2014 Finals?
Manu’s retro lefty slam in Game 5 nearly caused a riot. I fully expected them to briefly stop the game, Rucker Park–style, so fans could deliriously wander onto the court.
Repost
, and I even looked for it. I'll bump the other thread.
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/show...77#post7442077
Bump.
My favorite bit, other than the Manu dunk:
Q: How much money did Patty Mills make in the playoffs?
Three times as much as Mario Chalmers lost.
Yeah, amazing kawhi fell that far and then Indy gave him up. Conspiracy
It was actually a really ty draft. Impressive things worked out the way they did.
Yeah, but we could have had Paul George instead!
Bill Simmons has been my favorite writer since his days writing the Daily Quickie for ESPN pg2. Guy knows his , and nobody on ESPN deserves the success more than that guy. He's been on The Spurs' and Duncan's nuts since at least 2003 and the guy is also one of the funniest writers in sports history. If I could hang out with 1 dude and be best friends, I would pick Bill Simmons tbh bffl
I love that the Lakers are paying a crippled Kobe Bryant $30mil/year.When you include Kawhi Leonard’s rookie salary ($1.9 million), the Spurs suddenly had a legitimate compe ive advantage. Their best four players earned $32.3 million combined last season … nearly $8 million less than Joe Johnson and Deron Williams, and only $1.85 million more than Kobe Bryant made by himself. That’s insane.
I also love that Kawhi Leonard on his rookie $1mil contract is unquestionably a better player than Kobe is right now for 1/30th of the price.
FTL.
There are definitely guys who know more than Simmons -- e.g. Zach Lowe nationally, and quite a few guys who cover a single team day in and day out and know all the nuances -- but for a guy who's not even full-time NBA, he's definitely knowledgeable.
He's still terrible on TV, IMO.
I've always loved his writing style, but this by far my new favorite Simmons article.
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