Wojnarowski: Hey, Adrian, Talk About Arrogant

[Mr. Body]

NBA will just 'help' the Suns to a victory in Game 6 they way they did in Game 4 with the crap fouls on Duncan. Guaranteed Game 7 in Phoenix... perfect for the league! Aces!

[Hook Dem]

Damm You Dirty Spurs!!

Just Like Your Dirty River!!!!

Your city looks much like Baghdad with all that sand.....oh wait......it's the dessert!

[miss paxton]

This writer's ability to read minds is pretty impressive. He was able to discern simply by watching TV that: (1) Bowen believed he could intimidate Stoudamire and Nash with "those hits" and (2) Horry "probably" wouldn't have felt he could get away with fouling Nash that hard if Bowen had been reprimanded earlier.

I was pleased that this morning on Mike and Mike's usually useless show, Greenberg asked Stu Jackson specifically about Bowen's two earlier crimes against humanity setting the tone. It was nice to hear Jackson explain that Bowen's foot had been removed by the time Amare came down so they didn't think it was anything to punish, and that although the foul against Nash came on a common jab step move, they felt it was reckless and thus upgraded it to a flagrant. I appreciated the reminder to the audience that not only did Bowen get called for the foul, it was later upgraded, since the media tends to conveniently overlook that.

[AFBlue]

Your city looks much like Baghdad with all that sand.....oh wait......it's the deSert!

you might want to change your last word....

[SA210]

OMG,

We were the softest team in all of sports, now we're the dirtiest cheaters who have lost all respect that we never had, all due to the crybaby whining sore loser opposing teams that can't stand teams that play on both ends of the court.

If you say it enough times "Spurs are dirty" the band waggoners will jump on board as they have.

That's how all the haters figured out how to try and beat us or tarnish our success. To call us dirty and call us cheaters. This is hysterical.

I wish someone would make a tape of all of Amare's, Bell's and Nash's dirty plays of this entire series that noone wants to talk about and put it out there.

Then we'll see what's up.

[AFBlue]

Dear God the national media has gone off the deep end. Aren't these the same guys who were touting the Spurs as the epitome of how a franchise should be run?

One foul. And one that wasn't even that bad, and they flip on the Spurs? Oh I'm sorry, it's because it was against their flavor of the month.

Sorry....I'm a clapper

But seriously you bring up a great point. I'm amazed at how the public perception of the Spurs, who were largely considered a "vanilla" team before this series, has changed. No, changed is too soft of a word....how is "transmogrophied"?

The media overblowing this whole thing has the potential to due long-term damage to the fan-base of the Spurs....and it's sad, because the public perception of the Spurs organization is so far off base right now it's rediculous.

[bdictjames]

MEDIA.

The media criticized us for being soft, now they're criticizing us for being dirty. What do they want?

[SA210]

MEDIA.

The media criticized us for being soft, now they're criticizing us for being dirty. What do they want?

Right in the middle, BORING.

[AFBlue]

MEDIA.

The media criticized us for being soft, now they're criticizing us for being dirty. What do they want?

For the Spurs to play no defense and have a megastar that does ESPN promos.

Unfortunately, we'd then be the Cleveland Cavaliers with no legitimate shot of winning the le....so I'll take a team that's "boring" or even a team that's "hated", because I know the truth.

[EYES ON THE PRIZE]

Your city looks much like Baghdad with all that sand.....oh wait......it's the dessert!

You have to get out more! You sound like that Idiot Texan we have for President.

[Budkin]

Boo ing hoo... deal with it asshole.

[ChumpDumper]

Phoenix isn't in the desert?

[violentkitten]

since this thread has descended into city/state/political smack...hey, at least texas has sent a few sons to the oval office. what'd goldwater lose by? 7 to 1?

[SRJ]

Horry had always been Big Shot Bob in the playoffs, never Cheap Shot Bob, but something about the tone of this series made Nash an appealing target late in Game 4.

"Something"?

Could it be that Phoenix has escalated the tension in this series complaining about every bit of incidental play? Could that be the something?

And when Phoenix's "make a molehill into a mountain" media campaign works to the tune of crap officiating in game four, could that be the something that makes a 15-year veteran go brain-dead out of frustration?

I thought the Phoenix Suns would have grown up since 2005; instead, they're bigger babies now.

[EYES ON THE PRIZE]

since this thread has descended into city/state/political smack...hey, at least texas has sent a few sons to the oval office. what'd goldwater lose by? 7 to 1?

Sounds like you voted for W?

[violentkitten]

Sounds like you voted for W?

sounds like i voted for lbj too, no?

[fyatuk]

Black and silver eye
But this doesn't excuse the instigating San Antonio has done in the series.

Okay...

The Suns have done more than their fair share of that as well. Selective memory much?

[Borosai]

He said taint!

I bet he reads these forums. What a .

[ca®lo]

fu*k em. we never had an * n our 03 championship when dirk got injured. cant see any reason why she should be concerned about this now.

[Spurs 4 The Win]

Black and silver eye

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
May 15, 2007

The San Antonio Spurs never much cared about endearing themselves, starting with sullen star Tim Duncan and grumpy coach Gregg Popovich. They won three championships wearing Al Davis' colors, but the kids never took to those black-and-silver jerseys the way the Oakland Raiders did. For so long, San Antonio has tortured the public with professionalism and poise.

After a decade of inspiring indifference, if not a grudging admiration, one series has suddenly reshaped and repackaged the Spurs. They'll no longer be simply celebrated as the relentlessly resourceful champions, but they'll also be derided as dirty, cheap-shot artists. They've earned it in these Western Conference semifinals against the Phoenix Suns.

What's worse, they've gotten away with it. Nothing happened when Bruce Bowen sideswiped Amare Stoudemire and kneed Steve Nash, and two games for Robert Horry drilling Nash into the scorer's table does little to balance the Game 5 suspensions for Stoudemire and Boris Diaw.

In some ways, the series has done irreparable damage to the Spurs' reputation. They've never cared about popularity, but they do relish respect. If they win this series, they'll do so with the taint of bad behavior and bad character.

Popovich doesn't help the Spurs' credibility when he defends Horry's vicious hit as "just an end-of-the-game foul." That's a load of crap and Popovich knows it. The Spurs are no less tough guys for Popovich, maybe the best pure coach in the NBA, to acknowledge that Horry's hit was over the line.

Horry had always been Big Shot Bob in the playoffs, never Cheap Shot Bob, but something about the tone of this series made Nash an appealing target late in Game 4. Once again, San Antonio provoked, the Suns reacted and they'll be playing at a steep incline without Stoudemire on Wednesday.

The Spurs are winning the battles on technicalities and letter of the law, but they're losing on spirit and intent. San Antonio hasn't gotten away with murder in this series, just aggravated assault. Rest assured, the NBA would love nothing more than figure a way to get the ratings-free Spurs out of these playoffs and move along Steve Nash and the space-age Suns.

Only, it doesn't work that way. The judgment was fair on Tuesday, suspending Horry for two games and delivering the hardest hit of all – Stoudemire and Boris Diaw out for Game 5.

"It's not a matter of fairness, it's a matter of correctness," NBA vice president of operations Stu Jackson said Wednesday.

Listen, all these people screaming for the league to selectively enforce the rule about leaving the bench for an altercation are missing the point. This rule is simple: It is there to stop that first punch getting thrown. That's it. Assistant Marc Iavaroni should've done his job on Phoenix's bench. For all the clipboards and notes these armies of assistants are buried under, they have but one job: When all breaks loose, stop the superstar.

Stop Stoudemire.

But this doesn't excuse the instigating San Antonio has done in the series. The shame is, the Spurs are good defensively and too talented to reduce themselves to this garbage. Bowen believed he could intimidate Stoudemire and Nash with those hits. It didn't happen. Yes, the Suns are the ultimate finesse team, but they've shown it shouldn't be mistaken for softness.

The irony is that, earlier this season, Popovich was livid with Jackson for telephoning Bowen without his knowledge to warn Bowen about sliding his foot under the ankles of jump shooters again. Vince Carter, Steve Francis and Isiah Thomas had complained about that with Bowen, and Popovich did not want Jackson getting into his star defender's head about the way he played the game. As it turns out, Horry probably never would've felt so empowered to slam Nash had Jackson punished Bowen for his transgressions in the series.

San Antonio is never a brash team, but it's never been so arrogant. The Spurs are a great franchise, great champions, but they've honored those black-and-silver colors in all the wrong ways this series. Right now, they're behaving like they're bullet-proof, like they can do whatever they want on the floor. So far, the NBA has given San Antonio no reason to feel otherwise.

Now, it's on the Suns. They were suckered into leaving the bench in Game 5, and now, they get to show whether they can stand up to the bully without their big tough guy, Stoudemire. Now, they get a chance to hit back the only way that'll work: running.

The West is still the Spurs' street corner. Whatever damage they've done to their good names, they'll always take the fight to you.


Adrian Wojnarowski is the national NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Send Adrian a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

[UZER]

Phoenix isn't in the desert?

stopped at 99,999