http://www.aolsportsblog.com/2007/05...irts-off-suns/
The Debriefing: It's Time to Take the Skirts Off, Suns
Posted May 14th 2007 9:00AM by mjd
Filed under: Suns, Spurs, Western, NBA Playoffs, Featured Stories
If Tim Duncan openly laughing at the "physical" nature of your game doesn't hurt your pride, Phoenix Suns, then I don't know what to tell you. A man barely capable of human emotion thinks your masculinity is a joke.
As fantastic as the Warriors/Mavericks opening round series was, Spurs/Suns has a chance to eclipse it. To start with, they're better teams playing a higher level of basketball. More importantly, though, there's that playoff familiarity; the sort of mutual contempt that only builds up through multiple years of playoff compe ion.
By now, Amare Stoudemire and Tim Duncan are intimately familiar with each others' body odor, chest hair, and dental work. They might respect each other, but they also make each other sick. It's that dislike, that ability to get under an opponent's skin and push them around, that helps make playoff basketball so fantastic.
Unfortunately for the Suns, it's also what's about to send them home early, because they're not nearly as good at it as the Spurs.
There's no doubt about it, the Spurs are in the Suns' kitchen. They're making themselves at home, cooking up breakfast, having waffle fights, spilling the orange juice, and peeing in the silverware drawer just for the of it. And the Suns can't stop them.
Which is saying something, because the Spurs aren't even all that physical. One of the reasons the Nuggets played the Spurs so tough in the first round was that they were willing to be the aggressor. Sadly for the Nuggets, it didn't happen to be enough to overcome the Spurs' superior execution and trust of each other, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
The Suns can match the Spurs in basketball execution, cohesion, and ability. But when it comes to any kind of toughness, they're not close.
You've got Mike D'Antoni carrying on at press conferences, sounding like that toupee salesman in Goodfellas who kept nagging Robert DeNiro. You've got Amare Stoudemire bellyaching that Bruce Bowen's playing too dirty. And that's all they're doing, talking. Could I advance the radical notion that if the 6'10", 260-pound Stoudemire doesn't like something that the 6'6", 200-pound Bowen is doing, then Stoudemire is in a position do something about it?
It's not even about Stoudemire's being right or wrong. I'll even grant that he's right. Bowen's a dirty player who does dirty things. Fine. But the question is not what the league's going to do about it, the question is: What are the Phoenix Suns going to do about it?
Imagine Bill Laimbeer whining like that. Imagine Charles Barkley, Dennis Rodman, Charles Oakley, or Karl Malone complaining that a 200-pound small forward with almost no offensive game was bullying them.
You know what those guys would do? They'd mess Bruce Bowen up. They'd throw an elbow, a knee, a forearm, whatever they could. There are a million ways you can let a guy know that there are repercussions for things like kicking your achilles, undercutting you, or kneeing your point guard in the coin purse.
I'm not advocating violence on the court -- actually, wait, that's exactly what I'm doing. But would that be such a bad thing? I'm not saying that Stoudemire should wrap his hands in double-sided tape, and then roll them through broken glass for Game 4, but shouldn't someone do something?
If the Suns need an example of how to get physical with a guy without a suspension, fine or even a foul being incurred ... maybe they could get their hands on some San Antonio Spurs game film. Even better, some Denver Nuggets game film.
They don't even have to go that far. Not letting it bother you can be just as effective as responding in kind. If they turned the other cheek, shrugged it off, and upped the intensity, speed, and execution in their own game, that would be one thing. That would be a response. But it's not happening. They just take it and go, "Hey, I don't like that."
I hope this doesn't shatter any illusions for you, but most great teams have at least one guy that's willing to bend, break, or completely ignore the rules. If you want to call it cheating, fine. But Michael Jordan cheated when he pushed off on Bryon Russell, Rip Hamilton cheated by pushing off and holding jerseys, Dwyane Wade cheated by flopping constantly, and Bill Laimbeer cheated in about 1,000 different ways. All cheaters, all champions.
[QUOTE=nkdlunch]You've got Mike D'Antoni carrying on at press conferences, sounding like that toupee salesman in Goodfellas who kept nagging Robert DeNiro. QUOTE]
sig worthy
There's no doubt about it, the Spurs are in the Suns' kitchen. They're making themselves at home, cooking up breakfast, having waffle fights, spilling the orange juice, and peeing in the silverware drawer just for the of it. And the Suns can't stop them.
Funny article, but the Suns know they can't afford to foul the Spurs.
They just need to play through it, and if anything, foul even less.
That deserved four emoticons. God, that's the funniest I've read in a while. Hmmmm...maybe I should read more, but anyway back to:
The Spurs are going to have to match the energy the Suns bring.
Hmmm peeing on the silverware? I just got an image of all the Spurs just peeing in a kitchen. wierd.
No, the real joke here is how quickly Spurs' fans forget what happened to them a short year ago. Allow me to refresh your memory...
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showpost...36&postcount=1Whichever team will generate more profits for the NBA is the team that will win.
Referees have no trouble calling games. These are professional referees - they aren't just making mistakes over and over!
In this series they have been consistent in calling blatantly obvious bias against the team they are told to.
I am done watching. I hope everyone else follows suit.
I do not give a who wins game 5. the NBA, goodbye!
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showpost...55&postcount=1What a crock of s#@! NBA refs have become. This is the WWF now. It looks too obvious now. There is definately a case for fans to stop watching this farce. There is no way now that the Spurs will get the kind of calls that were made in this game.
Brent f#@%ed up royally with that inbound pass too; outside of that, I can live with what happened.
This game was a gift from the refs and Stern.
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showpost...9&postcount=49
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showpost...60&postcount=1
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showpost...14&postcount=1Is Spurs Nation the only ones noticing this bull officiating? It's like the rest of the world doesnt see it, i dont get it. When Duncan was called for a blocking foul when he was clearly 2 ft outside of the arc. I'm not gonna get pissed anymore cause it does no use. If David Stern wants the Mavs in it, he gets what he wants. Our back is against the wall boys, what do you say? Let's take it a game at a time, its all we can do since the world is against us. If we do this no one can question the heart of Duncan or his team.
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showpost...51&postcount=1
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showpost...7&postcount=99
I could find at least a hundred more examples easily, but I think I made my point.
That point being, it's a lot easier to play the "crybaby" card when your team is getting the benefit of most of the crappy calls. So keep calling out the Suns fans for being whiners, but do so knowing that, last May, it was you guys doing most of the whining.
For the record, I was watching that series last year as an unbiased observer, not really caring who won and I thought that the Spurs got completely screwed over for most of that series.
one thing is spurs fans crying on their own little forum.
another thing is the team's superstar and coach crying like es to the media and in front of the cameras. and Phoenix media publicly crying as well.
get real.
Sorry, no time to read your argument. This is getting old already. See you game 4.
I'm not asking you to make excuses, I'm just reminding you that it goes both ways.
Riiiight...Sorry, no time to read your argument. This is getting old already. See you game 4.
how does it go both ways?
show me 1 person that belongs to the Spurs organization that has complained one bit about officiating or fouling in this series. 1.
that's right. all the complaining has been coming from Suns organization.
both ways my ass.
The truth is that Smallball killed the Spurs in that series and allowed the games to be close enough for a call to decide the outcome of a game. There's absolutely no case to be made that anything approaching that is happening here.
BTW, go back and look. It was the Mavs coaches, players, and owner who were the ones complaining about calls, not the Spurs.
Sigh...I suppose this went in the wrong thread.
All I'm hearing is how Suns fans are a bunch of babies.
These posts are just a sampling of Spurs fans being a "bunch of babies".
Do you need a slide rule?
oh, yes I agree a lot of Spurs fans are babies.
Will Spursfans be wearing their "sun"-dresses tonght?
Spurs fans whining on a Spurs forum
vs.
the coach and players for the Phoenix Suns whining to the media, the Phoenix media whining on air and in print, and Suns fans screaming to any national outlet that will let them speak about the conspiracy being perpetrated against them.
Meanwhile, the Spurs still have the fewest FTA's of any team in the playoffs.
Your team's players (except for Steve Nash) are mentally soft, your coach's whining undermines their frame of mind, and your fan base and media are whining about the Spurs' "thuggishness" in a series that is less physical than the average NBA second-round series.
It's probably too much to ask for the people of Arizona to grow some testicles in the next week, but if the rest of the Suns themselves don't man up like their point guard already has, their season ends in two games.
Maybe Nash should be player-coach. D'Antoni is killing the Suns with his foppish at ude.
Again, it's very easy to assume this stance when you're up 2 games to 1.
Spurs fans are no better in this regard than anyone else's fans. Spurs players may not whine to the media, but is incessantly whining on the court really any better?
Everybody whines.
The Spurs' whining reached a crescendo in the 2005-06 season.
That year, in the playoffs, they got punked by a team that has done little but choke in the playoffs ever since.
Incessant whining = mental weakness = playoff elimination.
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