"Greg Ostertag killed Tim Duncan"

[ducks]

howard should not have to be big in 4 with dirk and stack on that team
especially since they have terry to

[O-Factor]

[Nathan Explosion]

I was playing 2K7 against my brother once, and he chased me down (as Parker) with Ostertag for the block on a fastbreak. We had to pause the game for about 5 minutes just to calm down from laughing so hard.

[Darkwaters]

I don't think it was exactly like that. As I remember reading the story, which I really wish I could find now, Pop asked Timmy to work on his left-handed game a little more. So Timmy proceeded to play the entire game with only his left hand. Pop could do nothing but laugh. I love Timmy's sense of humor.

I'd love to see that article, but it was a great story.

[milkyway21]

Oh and Jermaine O'Neal owned Duncan as well in that summer league. He went for something like 30 and 15 against Duncan and then after the game said that if he would have been in the draft, he would have been picked before Duncan.

Awesome

[Oh, Gee!!]

This isn't the first stupid thing that P.J. has said about the Spurs since he's taken over in Seattle.

He said something in an interview with SIRIUS 127 (Fred Hickman I believe) to the effect of "Well, the first thing I've gotta do is get my kids to burn their Spurs jerseys. Their wardrobe consists mainly of Tim, Tony, and Manu jerseys, so I've gotta get on that..."

I guess it was meant in jest but "BURN"?? Jeez Peej...he's gotta work on his comedic timing, it's lacking.

I think the Duncan reference was to shut-up those who have been over-analyzing Durant's performance in summer league as an indicator of how he'll perform in the regular season.

And the comment about his kids' jerseys was probably aimed at Sonic fan, who probably got a chuckle out of it.

Take off the homer glasses for a second and try to be objective.

[duncan228]

Update:

True Hoop chimes in.

Duncan's own words about it at very end from Slam link.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/...im-Duncan.html

Greg Ostertag's Legendary Domination of Tim Duncan

July 11, 2007 12:18 PM


It has been the best line of summer league. Maurice Cheeks has used it. P.J. Carlesimo has used it. Every journalist here, practically, has quoted it.

It's a story about how great players can have terrible games in their first summer league. And the story is that Greg Ostertag killed Tim Duncan in his first summer league appearance.

I linked to such a quote, from Cheeks, the other day, and enterprising TrueHoop reader Cyn spent a day at the library going through old newspaper stories proving Cheeks wrong.

Cyn writes:

As for Ostertag 'killing' TD ... that's a matter of opinion.

Certainly the Utah team killed the combined summer league team of the Spurs and 76ers, as the final score was Jazz 85 and Spurs/76ers 59. Ouch.

Ostertag was a second year player. The article describes Ostertag as going up to slam a dunk on Duncan, but he hit the back rim instead.

Ostertag did block some of Tim's shots. The article doesn't specify how many but Ostertag had six blocks in the game.

Anyway, here are the boxscore lines from both players:

Tim Duncan 14 points/6 of 10 FG/8 rebs/3 assists/2 blocks
Greg Ostertag 21 points/7 of 12 FG/10 rebs/0 assists/5 blocks
Tim fouled out of the game getting his sixth foul at 2:52 of the fourth quarter. Maurice Cheeks got the game wrong (fifth not first) and while 'killed' might be harsh; Ostertag did get the better of Tim.

I appreciate the legwork, Cyn.

This story has been used to laugh off performances like Kevin Durant's 4 for 19 in his second game. I'm not worried about Kevin Durant's future. But I am worried about using a tale of a player who shot 60% from the floor to explain a player who shot 21%.

UPDATE: Tim Duncan spoke about that experience with Slam's Lang Whitaker: "Jermaine (O'Neal) destroyed me. He was with Portland, was real young ... and Tag threw my stuff into the first couple of rows a few times."


Here's the Whitaker piece:

http://slamonline.com/online/2007/07...-has-problems/

When Greg Oden struggled early, everyone brought up the story of how Tim Duncan also struggled during his first summer league appearance. I actually asked Duncan about that last summer, and he said…

ME: I heard before your rookie season you played summer league and Ostertag killed you in a game. They were talking about how some guys come out of college and it takes them time to adjust.

TIM: He threw my sh*t into the first and second row a couple of times. Jermaine (O’Neal) destroyed me. He was with Portland, was real young…

ME: But he’d already been in the League for a while?

TIM: Yeah, he destroyed me, and Tag threw my stuff into the first couple of rows a few times.

ME: It takes you time to adjust to the speed, or what?

TIM: I don’t even know what it was, to be honest with you. I just wanted to get the experience of playing against NBA players. I’d been in college for four years and that was great, but it’s a different speed, it’s a different strength, it’s a different set of players, and I wanted to play as much as possible, so I jumped in the league and I thought it helped me a bunch, it helped me tremendously.

[Girasuck]

All of you can go to for making fun of Tag. How many of you have given up a kidney to save your sisters life?

btw...congrats on the le