Here We Go: Spurs repeat good for them, bad for NBA

[duncan228]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21537863/

Spurs repeat good for them, bad for NBA
Boring champions likely to put fans to sleep with another le

OPINION
By Bob Cook
MSNBC contributor

Commissioner David Stern might believe the NBA’s biggest image problems involve gambling referees, miscreant players or fleeing franchises. But Stern has been slow to move on his league’s most devastating problem — the dominance of the San Antonio Spurs.

Look, you know and I know the Spurs aren’t really boring. But the so-called casual fan — well, that fickle beast just doesn’t care. How many dishy TV stars does Tony Parker have to marry before the Spurs get anyone’s attention? How many opponents does Bruce Bowen have to decapitate? Judging by the way America flees its television sets when the Spurs are on, the answer to either question is, never enough.

Stern is going to have to set up some sort of emergency command post to jazz (not Jazz) up the Spurs, the same way the NFL succeeded in convincing America Indianapolis is a glamour city. That’s because all indications point to the Spurs this year doing what it so far has not been able to do in its four- les-in-nine-years semi-dynasty: repeating as NBA champions.

Sure, it would be nice to pick a much more exciting team like Phoenix or Dallas, or even the Chicago Bulls if Kobe Bryant ever gets traded there.

But the Spurs still come with the NBA’s most dominant player, Tim Duncan, and a strong supporting cast that only got stronger when San Antonio the other day dumped Beno Udrih on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Really, without that guy, San Antonio’s sweep of Cleveland in last year’s finals wouldn’t have been nearly so tight. Man, what a drag on the team he was.

Plus, Phoenix’s Steve Nash is 34 and getting creakier by the day, and teammate Shawn Marion is threatening to eclipse Bryant as an All-Star whiner about wanting to be traded. You would think Dirk Nowitzki and coach Avery Johnson, after two straight colossal playoff chokes, would have this postseason thing down by now. But face it: we’re all waiting to see how the Mavericks kick their season away this year.

As for Chicago, the Bulls don’t have the dominant player to win a le without Bryant, but he would kill the team’s chemistry and flow if he arrived. Oh yeah, that new Boston big three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce? Great if they stay healthy. But who knows that a troika of high-mileage players over 30 will last long enough?


Team needs, predictions for season

San Antonio is the only team that can beat you when you want to run, and beat you when you don’t. The only question mark for the Spurs is whether they are complacent, but four les in nine years is one signal they aren’t getting sick of winning. Also, they could use one set of back-to-back les to burnish their dynastic credentials.

So while LeBron James hosts “Saturday Night Live,” Dwyane Wade hangs out with Charles Barkley in commercials, and Nowitzki and Nash cement permanent Internet fame with frequently posted pictures of their drunk night out, San Antonio’s players come up empty in the entertainment department. Whoopee, Duncan is in a new shoe commercial. So are four other NBA players and a group of kids, and the ad pushes a feel-good, join-the-team vibe.

[urunobili]

thank you man! this was a really a good one!

[Kamnik]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21537863/


But the Spurs still come with the NBA’s most dominant player, Tim Duncan, and a strong supporting cast that only got stronger when San Antonio the other day dumped Beno Udrih on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

[thispego]

sooooo he doesn't want anybody to win the le this year? i dont understand the purpose of these types of articles. someone needs to tell this guy it's been done before... to death

[Shank]

He's really reaching with those Wade and Nowitzki/Nash comments.

[maxpower]

they seem pretty dead on.

[samikeyp]

Nobody asked the rest of the NBA.

em.

[shelshor]

**YAWN**
Opening Day and another Spurs/Duncan are boring and therefore bad for the league article
The only thing boring about the Spurs is the number of articles generated about how boring they are
**YAWN**

[duncan228]

**YAWN**
Opening Day and another Spurs/Duncan are boring and therefore bad for the league article
The only thing boring about the Spurs is the number of articles generated about how boring they are
**YAWN**

Which is why I said "Here we go."
Same thing every year.
My only surprise was there weren't more of these articles in the last few days.

[thispego]

Which is why I said "Here we go."
Same thing every year.
My only surprise was there weren't more of these articles in the last few days.

most journalists are starting to realize that the concept doesn't really apply anymore.

[ambchang]

I actually thought the article was saying that people saying the Spurs are boring are stupid casual fans who know nothing of the game.
It's pretty funny (love the Beno throw-in comment), and pretty much dead on.

[Walter Craparita]

Bayless gave the Spurs props but said it was bad for the NBA. Maybe they are right, who cares, it's great for the Spurs.

Does this really hurt anyone's feelings? lol Look at the state of America ffs. If the majority don't like it, THAT'S A GOOD THING.

[waly.mg]

I have a Rating's Nice Team for David $tern

[BeerIsGood!]

As long as the Spurs win, I don't care who gets booty hurt.

[thispego]

I actually thought the article was saying that people saying the Spurs are boring are stupid casual fans who know nothing of the game.
It's pretty funny (love the Beno throw-in comment), and pretty much dead on.

that's exaclty what it's saying but why continue to propogate the "myth".

this is a case of a journalist not being smart enough or being too lazy to come up with something new and original. it's not the Spurs fault they're considered boring, it's the journailists and media

[duncan228]

page two was forgetton

The issue is not stopping the Spurs from winning. From the start, Stern couldn’t, say, pick the Knicks’ name out of a lottery envelope in the Patrick Ewing draft without drawing more conspiracy theorists than the Kennedy assassination. No, Stern needs to figure out how to give the Spurs an image — not a good one or a bad one, just any image at all.

Putting Duncan in every commercial on television — the Peyton Manning strategy — would help. Maybe getting Parker and his wife, Desperate Housewives’ Eva Longoria, into the act would juice up the Spurs as well.

Longoria has failed as bench eye candy, but maybe some sort of Manning-style, inside-Tony-Parker’s-brain commercial featuring multiple shots of Longoria in negligee would goose things a bit.

Or Stern could go the other way — making the Spurs an evil empire. For example, he could convince coach Gregg Popovich to hire a “video assistant” to hang out by the Suns’ bench and record all of their hand signals. Then Popovich could start wearing cutoff hooded sweatshirts.

Plus, Stern could dictate no more commercial bumpers featuring the Alamo. We all know the Alamo is in San Antonio, and that it hasn’t had any excitement since Pee Wee Herman learned it didn’t have a basement.

Find some shots of life — nothing but Riverwalk!

If Stern and the Spurs move quickly, they can start the buzz machine before people get tired of the San Antonio Spurs crashing the party like a nerd. Casual fans view their entry as an excuse to go to the bathroom — and escape out the window.

It’s unfair that the Spurs have this burden placed upon them, especially when basketball fans recognize this is the kind of fine, upstanding, fundamentally sound team fans of all kinds claim they love to love.

Stern’s crisis is recognizing that what fans say they love, and what they really do love, are completely different.

Gambling refs, miscreant players, fleeing franchises – exciting! The Spurs winning again — boring! It’s going to happen, so Stern had better be ready to deal with the yawning fallout.

Thank you. I obviously have not been doing a good job mul asking today.
Should I edit my post and put the 2 pieces together?

[dbreiden83080]

that's exaclty what it's saying but why continue to propogate the "myth".

this is a case of a journalist not being smart enough or being too lazy to come up with something new and original. it's not the Spurs fault they're considered boring, it's the journailists and media

Yes and the bigger picture here is people almost by itself lay the bad ratings for the finals at the feet of the Spurs. The reality is and the numbers bare this out since Jordan retired from the Bulls and the NBA made their new TV deal with ABC and ESPN the ratings as a whole have been not that good. When the Lakers got in, they were pretty good but still not what they were in the heyday with the Bulls in the finals every year. Look at Heat/Mavs ratings were only slightly higher than they were for Pistons/Spurs. Last year everyone said ratings will be BIG thanks to "KING JAMES" and when they were the lowest ever than that was all the Spurs fault. If Lebron had Jordan's crossover appeal those ratings would have been great, the Spurs not being this great appealing team would not have made any difference. I hate how so many people take this as the league as a whole is fine in terms of ratings it is just the Spurs that are dragging it down, that is just not true.