John Salley Says Spurs Will Win the Championship

[Chomag]

Wait... people ate actually saying that the Cavs are looking tough? They just played the 8th seed eastern conference team...well I sure hope they looked tough against that lol

[Dro210]

Stephen A. Smith says if no more Curry, whoever wins the le will have an asterisk without a doubt for not playing against Curry.

Wish I could have been there to ask him if he cares about the asterisk on his 2000 ring.

[Kawhitstorm]

Stephen A. Smith says if no more Curry, whoever wins the le will have an asterisk without a doubt for not playing against Curry.

I guess the '15 Duds deserve an asterisk for not playing the injury riddled defending champs (Spurs) & facing a Cavs squad w/o Kyrie/Love in the Finals. Oh yeah, they also didn't have to play the team w/ the reigning MVP (KD).

[K...]

The 2015 asterisks for the warriors is held in abeyance pending this years payoffs. If they flame out badly to the spurs or cavs then the asterisks applies.

Basically the astericks is a but for standard, but for not playing the spurs and not facing Kyrie the dubs won. We can never run 2015 over but 2016 results can be useful to litigate the issue. This is why the 99 sucks. It's not but for the lock out we won. We'd win the full season just as much, but the failure to repeat was so drastic to make it stick,

[Kidd K]

Stephen A. Smith says if no more Curry, whoever wins the le will have an asterisk without a doubt for not playing against Curry.

No team in NBA history has an asterisk when players on other teams were missing players due to injury including last year's Warriors.

Many teams have lost their best player or a key player for part of or the entire postseason. No one but fans of that team even remember it or cares. Stephen A Smith is just making pre-emptive excuses.

[dbestpro]

Stephen A. Smith says if no more Curry, whoever wins the le will have an asterisk without a doubt for not playing against Curry.

Every team that ever won a championship has an asterisk of some sort.

[Obstructed_View]

Unless it's a big market team like the Knicks. The media still sucks their s for winning a le they only got because Havlicek destroyed his shoulder so badly he could barely throw a pass to his teammates in the last 3 games of the ECF. That was a 68 win Celtics team those Knicks fluked into beating.

I really wish someone with Twitter would ask Screamin' A about that. Isn't he a knicks fanboy?

[cutewizard]

these playoffs have become very strange

[mingus]

What loss are you referring to? Phil was not yet the coach of the Lakers when we swept Kobe and Shaq in 99. I thought he brought up the whole asterisk thing to annoy a contending Spurs fans during 2000 or 2001 (years when LA would ring).



I agree they pushed themselves and took risk by going for the record.

Yeah, my bad. I don't know why I typed that when I knew he wasn't. I'm pretty sleep-deprived...

But my point about the stupidity of calling that championship an asterisk is still true IMO, regardless.

In other news...

Now that we know Curry won't be sidelined with a major injury for the rest of the year and can still come back for Playoffs, I'm curious if GS fans and GS nut-huggers/promoters in the media will view the situation now, going into the series against the Clippers w/o him, or after should they lose to them. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a GS pity-fest. Meanwhile, last year the Thunder maybe would've been their hardest compe ion but they couldn't stay healthy enough to play them.

[UZER]

Unless it's a big market team like the Knicks. The media still sucks their s for winning a le they only got because Havlicek destroyed his shoulder so badly he could barely throw a pass to his teammates in the last 3 games of the ECF. That was a 68 win Celtics team those Knicks fluked into beating.

I really wish someone with Twitter would ask Screamin' A about that. Isn't he a knicks fanboy?

The asterisk talk is stupid, especially for a team like SA. It's not like they haven't won 5 other rings with the most recent being just 2 years ago.

That's just Stephan A being Steven A Hole.

[Obstructed_View]

The asterisk talk is stupid, especially for a team like SA. It's not like they haven't won 5 other rings with the most recent being just 2 years ago.

That's just Stephan A being Steven A Hole.

Asterisk talk is always pretty stupid. I think the Spurs could have beaten the Lakers with a healthy Derek Anderson, but it doesn't make the Lakers' le less legit somehow. happens. That's supposed to be why we're sports fans in the first place.

[Sean Cagney]

Worriers were on as good a roll as this year last playoffs imo

Still. Cavs were missing their best player and took this same worrier team to 6 games.

Warriors destroyed the cavs this year both times too, by a large margin.

[Sean Cagney]

Asterisk talk is always pretty stupid. I think the Spurs could have beaten the Lakers with a healthy Derek Anderson, but it doesn't make the Lakers' le less legit somehow. happens. That's supposed to be why we're sports fans in the first place.

I agree on all except if DA were healthy, nobody was beating LA in 2001.

[Thomas82]

The asterisk is only popular because of Phil Jackson using that statement in the fall of '99. The media ran with it simply because they hated the Spurs and loved the Lakers. No one gave the bulls an asterisk when they beat the '91 Lakers without Worthy and Byron Scott or in '93 when they won against the Suns without Ceballos. No one gave the Lakers an asterisk in '88 when they beat the Pistons even though Isiah Thomas played the last two games of that series on a broken ankle.

And don't forget the Pistons beating them the next year even though Magic Johnson and Byron Scott were both out with hamstring injuries.

[pgardn]

Stephen A. Smith says if no more Curry, whoever wins the le will have an asterisk without a doubt for not playing against Curry.

Then the Warriors have an * on last year's le.

[Obstructed_View]

I agree on all except if DA were healthy, nobody was beating LA in 2001.

And I disagree.

[99 Problems]

Cavs have more around Delly this season. Last season he only had Bron playing 4 other role playing positions to help. And even so he annoyed the e out of Corrie on his own. But they not da Spurs.

[Sean Cagney]

And I disagree.

I don't see how he would make up that 20 some odd ppg they lost by in record fashion to beat LA but to each their own. DA was good but he was not THAT good. Now if you had Ginobili at the time or a young prime Parker I can see your point. LA just cruised and crushed everyone though, doubt DA makes a difference sides maybe a game or two win in that series at best.

[Sean Cagney]

And don't forget the Pistons beating them the next year even though Magic Johnson and Byron Scott were both out with hamstring injuries.

Your forgetting it's only an asterisk if it involves the SPURS! That is why they are saying it already and setting it up in case SA wins. If OKC or the Cavs win it all though then it will be forgotten and swept under the rug and legit.

[Obstructed_View]

I don't see how he would make up that 20 some odd ppg they lost by in record fashion to beat LA but to each their own. DA was good but he was not THAT good. Now if you had Ginobili at the time or a young prime Parker I can see your point. LA just cruised and crushed everyone though, doubt DA makes a difference sides maybe a game or two win in that series at best.

They lost by all those points because they knew they didn't have a chance. Their season ended when Anderson crumpled to the floor. The only reason they beat the Mavericks was for revenge, but they quit. Nobody in the city, nobody rooting for the team thought they had a chance without DA. Neither did anyone on the team.

[Sean Cagney]

They lost by all those points because they knew they didn't have a chance. Their season ended when Anderson crumpled to the floor. The only reason they beat the Mavericks was for revenge, but they quit. Nobody in the city, nobody rooting for the team thought they had a chance without DA. Neither did anyone on the team.

They did do well in round two without him though if I remember right, Daniels slipped right in there and was playing some ball at the 2 against Dallas. Revenge on the Mavs? That was their first playoff match up in 2001 right? Mavs were a later seed, Spurs were always going to take them out and quite easily then because they were a younger team. Mavs and Spurs rivalry was not that intense back then though, not even close. I agree on the last part too, he was a key part of their team that year and they were not going to beat LA regardless without him. With him it would have been tough though the way they were playing, you have to admit that. LA in those playoffs looked very focused and were rolling at the right time, very good run and their best run IMO out of the 3 peat by far (The other two they should have lost to Portland and Sac IMHO).

[dg7md]

Did the Warriors get an asterisk last year when they faced LeBron and the D-Leaguers in the Finals?

[Big Empty]

Hmmm, that is a great marketing idea to razz rival fan bases. T-shirt idea:

Lakers 2000 NBA Champions*

*(Tim Duncan was injured)

This

[Fireball]

Pop always says how many things have to come together for a team to win a championship ... injuries are a factor ... no asteriks on any championship teams necessary tbh

[cutewizard]

http://www.poundingtherock.com/2016/...-spurs-thunder