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Thats pretty boss.
http://48minutesof .blogspot.com/...ter-glory.html
Got the link off of TrueHoop
A Greater Glory
I watched last night's Spurs-Wolves game on broadband, which is always good for local color. During their game call, Tom Hanneman and Jim Petersen waxed eloquent about how underrated Gregg Popovich is as a coach. Why, they wondered, is Pop's name not a constant fixture alongside Pat Riley and Phil Jackson? Is he the best coach in the league? Surely, his name is in that conversation.
Every postseason, without fail, brings the familiar moment when some national writer or radio host has a "Oh my, Tim Duncan is really, really good" epiphany. In recent years, this has morphed into the annual revelation that Duncan is the best power forward to ever play. Three years ago this revelation cons uted controverted discussion fodder, but increasingly it's more of an operating assumption. Or maybe something of a begrudging concession. Even this morning, ESPN is running a poll that asks, "Which big man is currently playing better?" Your choices: Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh. This despite the fact that ESPN's preferred metric rates Duncan ahead of Howard and Bosh.
ESPN is also running a teaser this morning which suggests that the second most dominating performance of the last decade was turned in by Manu Ginobili. Do you remember it? Probably not. Somehow one of the great games of basketball history has simply dissolved within our collective consciousness. It's sandwiched in between a threesome of Kobe Bryant performances, which we all recall with glee. Manu Ginobili is at least the third best shooting guard on the planet, and might be bested by only Bryant depending on how one rates him against Dwayne Wade. Yet, he's rarely spoken of in those terms.
Individually, Tim Duncan is the most successful--rated by win percentage and championships--player in team sports this decade. As you might expect, the Spurs are the most successful team in sports over that span. They're more dominant than the Patriots and Red Wings. Better than the Yankees and Red Sox. The Duncan-Popovich Spurs are one of the great teams in the history of American sports. This is fact.
So what are we to make of Tony Parker's epic 55, 10, and 7? He is only the third player in the history of the league to do so. The other two were Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan. If you didn't believe it before, believe it now. Tony Parker is one of the league's elite point guards. He's one of the world's great players. And, at this early stage, he's the best player in basketball. Yes, Tony Parker.
Some readers might find this laundry list tedious. "Another Spurs fan who thinks his team doesn't get enough attention," they're thinking. But here is the thing, I don't mean any of the above as a complaint. The Spurs lack of fanfare is their glory. The fact that their team is consistently under appreciated is the most telling testimony of their greatness.
Gregg Popovich likes to say that a Spur is someone who has "gotten over himself." In other words, in San Antonio you play as a team, and you play to win. Individual achievement be damned. So let Tony Parker's big night stand as a memorial to this. He could erupt for 40 0r 5o points a little more often, but he doesn't. He has the talent, but it rides in the back of the train. Team success is the lead car. Tim Duncan's usual 20 and 10 could just as well be a more occasional 30 and 15, if not for the fact that he is deferential and rations his minutes for when they count, the playoffs. Manu Ginobili is irreplaceable, as attested to by the Spurs 1-3 start.
Tony Parker's 55, 10, and 7 is a testimony to the fact that the glory he possesses as an individual, for all its illating brilliance, was forsaken long ago for the glory of the team. The glory of the Spurs is that sometimes their glory is lost to us, even though it could hardly shine brighter. They are, as the poet said, lost in a luminous light.
Thats pretty boss.
It would have been a good article had he said Parker should pass more.
Decent article.
wow....very good
Nice. I'm pretty sure that the writer posts here.
I'll let him reveal himself if he wants . . .
Rappin' Shaq?
I try to remember this every time I turn on Spurs basketball.The Duncan-Popovich Spurs are one of the great teams in the history of American sports
We are all lucky to witness the growth and flourish of three of the game's great players at the same time. Three players whose jerseys will one day hang in the rafters in San Antonio, the Hall in Springfield, and more and more assuredly, the Parthenon of the NBA's Greatest Players.
Enjoy these times, Spurs fans.
wow who wrote this? this is pretty bad ass!
nice one.
Marcus Bryant?
Indeed. We are so quick to forget all that we have been blessed with. We are fortunate enough to be alive during an era of Spurs basketball that may never happen again. The media has spent years looking for reasons to declare the Spurs irrelevant, but to their chagrin we still matter and continue to force ourselves into the conversation. If we aren't old we are boring, and our superstars our constantly pushed onto the fringes to make way for other more appealing names.
But no matter what is said, they can't take away our glory from us. They can't take away my memories of being at game 6 in the AT&T where we dumped the Suns yet again. We are who we are...and we the true fans will cherish these times for the rest of our lives.
Bruce Bowen is the 4th Musketeer !
Don't forget him.
Kill Bill Pana ?
Well said
Wow. that was pretty well written.
-Mars
I'm pretty sure the writer posts here too.
Damn i love that game...And parker clearly the man on the court that time..
i think it's lurker....
nice article.
I couldnt have written it any better!..... awesome.
yup this article was def not written by icecoldbrewski...
Mad Bonner?
Team is everything!
We’re very lucky to have such egoless and unselfish superstars on the Spurs.
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