Reply With Quote
Here's my shot at, although my Spanish is a little rusty at the moment:
"To feel important in determining the outcome of a decisive game is fantastic, I think I've already mentioned this before. It's the most beautiful thing in basketball. To be the one who scores, on the other hand, is a matter of cir stance, and it happened to turn out that way. I knew that I wasn't going to have a bad game like Game 3, that I would attack the rim more and that I would be more in control of the ball. Luckily, at the end everything turned out well and we were able to celebrate a le that has a slightly different flavor to it. And like you guys have said, it was a final that had an Argentine stamp on it, because luckily, in the final minutes, Fabri and I put up points and made important rebounds. The truth is that we enjoyed it a lot more because of the fact that we were closing out a final [I think he means to say, that he and Fabricio were happier at closing out a game, than in performing well?].
When I went to make the last free throw and I saw the ball go in, I already began to celebrate because they didn't have any more timeouts left and they couldn't make up the difference of 4 points, that's why I began to hug the closest team member next to me.
The first championship that I was a part of was a new experience for me, I didn't even know what it was all about or how hard it is to arrive in the Finals. The 2005 le was more emotionally overwhelming, maybe because of how the series went between us and Detroit. And in this last one it was more passive, we did what we had to do. We achieved our goal.
The best thing for me is that we could help Michael Finley to get his first ring, and also Fabricio. They are two guys who are so exceptional, so hardworking and such good people that they totally deserve this championship. Seeing Michael's face, you felt satisfied and very happy.
A lot of people ask me if I see myself in the Hall of Fame and the Spurs retiring my jersey in a few years. If I get into the Hall of Fame, wonderful, and if they retire #20, even better, but the truth is that I don't play thinking about this. I don't have to position myself for this, I simply have to continue playing at a good level and be an important player for the franchise.
Also now everybody is talking about a dynasty. I don't know, the previous dynasties of the Lakers and Chicago were really great. The Spurs have won 4 les in 9 years and 3 in 5; they are the winningest team of the decade. I don't know. Others have to determine this. We now will have to concentrate on the challenge of winning for the first time two les back-to-back; repeat what we did this year. It's difficult to set goals this quickly, after this happiness, but we are going to try to repeat next season.
And this thing about being a boring team is something I don't agree with. Being entertaining, what does that allow you to achieve? San Antonio is the team that plays most like FIBA basketball, with esquemas [tactics? strategy?] and not so much one on one, that's why people say we're not entertaining. I believe that the key to our victory was in our character and our personality. We didn't have a great regular season, but in the playoffs we didn't have moments of weakness or emotional letdowns, hard work and experience were important. I would say that we were dominant.
In the Finals we were clearly better, above all in the first two games. The key was in the good defense we did on Lebron James. Now I'm going to take a good long vacation, which will be much better after this third le for me in the NBA.
