Sutherland Beard

4 games into the season...

Gregg Popovich has an awesome Beard.

Fabricio Oberto has a regular heartbeat again.

Tony Parker has a new personal best.

The Spurs have one win.

Sticktoitiveness

The Spurs have it.

I do not.

It's not my strong suite anyway. I leave a wake of unfinished projects and abandoned ambitions as I paddle through my days.

I'm trying to get better about staying with things I start. Well, no I'm not. But I'd like to, now that I think about it. So here's something: I'll get back to work on my radical Spurs blog here.

The NBA Season is back!!

There wasn't a ton of Spurs news I missed during the off-season.

* The only free agency splash made by the Spurs was the signing of Roger Mason Jr. The following article is the most interesting thing I've read about him. It's way interesting: Only 101 reasons to like Mason (highlights: he went to a fancy schmancy middle school with Chelsea Clinton...he owns a construction company...this summer he made 101 out of 107 3 pointers in one practice session)

* The S.A. Silver Stars were swept by the Detroit Shock in the 2008 WNBA Finals. The Austin Toros also lost in the Championship last year

* Brent Barry sent a mean and hilarious text message to Fabricio Oberto. I miss Brent Barry so much. So much. He'll still be funny in Houston. Just not as funny. Or cool.

Okay, that's all I'll make myself do today. Come by often. I'm going to stick to it. Spurs-style. Odd Years, baby! 2009! Title time!

The Marvin Gaye Olympic Nike Commercial

I won't try to speak for this.
Except to say please buy Nike's shoes forever, so they will keep making commercials.

The Good Kind of Mentally Twisted

An article by Mike Monroe in yesterday's San Antonio Express News points out that George Hill has missed "nearly every shot he attempted in the three games he played in the Las Vegas Summer Pro League this week."

Coach Popovich used the term "mentally twisted," to characterize Hill's shooting slump.

But, in what seems like a diliberate flaunting of his own mad genius, Popovich thinks this is great: because Hill has shown he can defend at an NBA level, and seems to recognize the amount of work it's going to take to start putting the ball through the hoop at this level.

Lafayette Lever was a similar style of 1-2 combo guard in the 80's, and averaged 18.9 points. 8.9 rebounds and 8.0 assists one season with the Denver Nuggets, despite coming into the league without much of a shot. Laver agrees with Pop:

“I made a bet with a bunch of scouts in Orlando (at the pre-draft camp). Some of them said George wouldn’t even get drafted. I told them I was sure he’d go in the first round. I’m just as sure he’s going to be fine for the Spurs, because he’s a basketball player and he knows how to play and he competes and he defends.”

There you go. You heard it from Lafayette first.

On Wind and T. Boone Pickens

A few weeks ago I relayed what I thought was--from an ecological standpoint--an exciting story about how the AT&T Center will now be fully wind powered.

Well it turns out, once again, that the Spurs were just a little ahead of the curve. A couple days ago, My Way News ran an article about how Texas is becoming a pioneer in the use of wind energy. Utility officials just okayed a $4.9 billion plan to construct new transmission lines from the breezy plains of West Texas to other parts of the state.

West Texas is most famous as the heart of the Texas Oil Industry; but now'days the oil derricks that speckle the landscape have taller, cleaner neighbors. It's a welcome change in the landscape, if you ask me. And it's an especially promising sign of the times when a billionare oil tycoon named T. Boone Pickens is dumping resources into creating a 200,000 acre windfarm that will eventually produce enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes. Propa'.

And to follow up on the Manu Olympic Games mini-saga, it was announced yesterday that, yes, he will be on the Argentina squad after all.

I mention that, mostly because I've kind of committed to including a picture in every post here, and Manu dunking is a lot more fun than the pictures I found of T. Boone Pickens.

Vegas Babies

This week in Las Vegas, Nevada, a bunch of NBA teams will suit up their youngest, least proven players--along with a lot of players who may or may not ever make a roster spot on any NBA squad--in very plain versions of their team's uniform to compete in something called the NBA Summer League. Last week some teams met in Orlando to do the same thing, but the Spurs weren't there. We played our first game of the Summer League yesterday against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Spurs won 78-76 (recap here). Ian Mahinmi scored 18 and pulled down 8 rebounds; George Hill debuted as a Spur with 17 points, 8 rebounds.

At the end of the first quarter, O.J. Mayo, the high school sensation and rookie guard out of USC, hit a last second 69-foot two-handed heave to score 13 of the Grizzlies 17 first-quarter points.

Darrell Arthur, whom I talked about getting the draft day shaft and falling all the way to the Hornet's 27th pick (before being traded to Memphis), made me look even smarter, and led all scorers with 23 points in this game.

These games don't mean anything. It's just a good chance to see some of these lesser known players get some burn against each other. Sometimes players will rule the Summer League, and fall completely flat in the NBA (Marco Belinelli was a perfect example last year--37 points in his Summer League debut, breathless comparisons to Larry Bird by respectable NBA journalists...then a total flame out in the regular season [source: True Hoop]). The same goes for a team's record; the Knicks went undefeated last Summer, but were one of the worst teams in the league this year [from same article].

In less interesting news, the Spurs have evidientally done some realligning of their front office. A guy named Rick Pych has been promoted to "President of Business Operations," while Greg Popovich will take over as "President of Spurs Basketball," while, of course, remaining the head coach. R.C. Buford will likewise remain the General Manager, but will also take on the role of "President of Sports Franchises." This means he'll be in charge of the WNBA Silver Stars, the American Hockey League San Antonio Rampage, and Austin's own Toros of the NDBL.

Like I said, not all that titilating, but if you consider how many guys in other front offices and head coaching positions around the league came from the current Spurs system (Danny Ferry in Cleveland, Steve Kerr in Phoenix, PJ Carlisimo in...Oklahoma, and Avery Johnson...well, nowhere at the moment, to name a few), it's a name worth taking note of. Pych will probably be a GM for some other team in a few years. Which will also barely be blog-worthy. But give me a break, it's the Summer.

Oh and now Manu says he thinks he'll be able to play in the Olympics. I'd be surprised if he didn't to be honest. I mean, it's Manu. Come on.

Farewell to Bones: "Mangos Don't Do That, Manu."

The Spurs have announced they will sign Roger Mason Jr. to a two year, $7.5 million dollar contract. Mason, entering his 5th season in the league, is a 6-5 defensive-minded guard who averaged 9.1 points per game with the Wizards last season in Gilbert Arenas's absence, and shot 40 percent from 3-point "land." He sounds like a good Spur, and he doesn't tie up a lot of cap space.

But with this addition comes a far greater loss for the Spurs--a loss that can't be quantified by statistics. That's not to say that Brent Barry's on-court contribution won't be missed. But what we're really losing (to the Houston Rockets. Brent Barry signed with them as a free agent this week) is--and I'll defend this point--the funniest active player in the NBA. Seriously. Gilbert Arenas is funny; Shaq is funny...but for my money, Brent "Bones" Barry is the most funniest of them all.

The main evidence of this I have observed in the form of post game interview quotes. A recent jewel came after Tim Duncan hit his 3-pointer to send Game 1 of this year's Spurs - Suns playoff series into a second overtime: "It's about time he did something like that," deadpanned Barry.

Then after game 5 against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, Barry responded to the NBA's admission that a foul should have been called on his last second shot attempt that could have tied the game: “That’s awesome because Doc Brown is waiting for me outside, and we’re going to get in the DeLorean and fire up the flux capacitor and we’re going to go back and shoot a couple of free throws.”

Brent Barry is also responsible for nicknaming Manu Ginobili "El Contusion."

He's also responsible for a series of surprisingly well-produced short musical parodies starring other Spurs players this season. They were part of an entire evening of entertainment that he volunteered to produce and emcee for this year's "Spurs Tux n' Tennies" fundraiser event for the Spurs Foundation. He was injured at the time and obviously had plenty of free time and energy to pour into this endeavor. The highlights included Robert Horry spinning around a hillside as Maria in a perfect, if slightly disturbing, send-up of The Sound of Music; the same can be said of Bruce Bowen in a shot-by-shot recreation of that famous Flashdance scene. Manu Ginobili dolled up as Evita Peron and lip-synched "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," and Matt Bonner continued the gender-bending trend as Little Orphan Annie. Actually Tony Parker was the only player that I recall assuming a male character, as Danny in a Grease spoof (Eva took some time off from her serious acting work to play Sandy).

Unfortunately these videos haven't been formally released on the net anywhere. A handheld video of the screen at the event was up for a while on someone's blog, but has since been removed. So for now you'll have to take my word for it: pretty funny.

In the stead of those clips, I'll post a few H-E-B commercials featuring Brent doing some funny stuff with Tim, Bruce and Manu. If you live in San Antonio you have probably had your fill of these spots already, but I think they are way way better than local grocery store commercials staring atheletes have any right to be.









Happy Trails, Mr. Barry. I'll look forward to some humorous quotes after the Rockets lose to the Spurs next season.

While I was Sleeping

Blogging aint easy, but it's neccessary.

But obviously it isn't neccessary either, so what is it? Well, I'm still figuring out what this blog is, or if this blog is (over the previous 10 days, this blog was not). It was very easy to keep up with when I had a desk job and nothing to really do for most of the day. But now I'm couch surfing and waiting for my sweet new Dell job to start up, and somehow I'm actually more busy than usual. It's not easy being homeless, I guess.

Here's the rundown of what's been going on. Sadly, not much of it is real cheery news:

Spurs Court and Fail to Sign Free Agent Corey Maggette


For most of the week, it looked as though the Spurs were the front-runners to sign the atheletic 28 year old 6'6" Small Forward, Corey Maggette. It didn't happen. Maggette is reportedly signing with the Golden State Warriors.

That stinks for the Spurs, because as the Spurs waited on Maggette, they appear to have missed out on other free agents such as Mikael Pietrus, who has reached an agreement with the Orlando Magic.

But if you're a Clippers fan (I know, you aren't), it's been a far more depressing series of events. Only two weeks ago, the Clippers were being talked about as having returned to playoff contention in the Western Conference after they signed Baron Davis from the Golden State Warriors. But today it's also been announced that Elton Brand, the Clipper's star Power Forward, has reached an agreement with the Philidelphia 76ers. So now, with Maggette leaving as well, they're left with Baron Davis, promising 2nd year player Al Thornton, and--seriously--that's about it. They're going to be one of the worst teams in the league again next year. I love it when teams that have been really hopeless for decades suddenly get good. It freshens up the landscape of a sport--like when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl a few years ago. But it just seems like there are some teams in the NBA for whom that is never ever going to happen. The Clippers may fit that definition better than anyone.

So now the Spurs will pursue J.R. Smith, and a bunch of 2nd tier free agents such as Roger Mason, Jr, Carlos Delfino, Jarvis Hayes, Eduardo Najera, and James Posey.

The good thing about these players, is that they would not tie up much cap space, and next Summer, we'd be able to make a serious run at whoever the top free agents are after this season.

The bad news might be that these aren't really impact players. They can all play, and some might add elements that were missing from the Spurs game against the Lakers--especially Smith--but will it be enough? That opens a whole other debate...a good one I think: do the Spurs really need to make drastic changes to have a chance at the title this year? They were awfully close...and seeing the way the younger Lakers players folded against the Celtics, I think the Conference Finals could have easily gone a different way. A healthy Manu would have made a particularly interesting difference.

Which brings us to news item 2 from the last 10 days:

The Spurs Don't Want Manu to Play in the Olympics

In what should be unbelievably fantastic news for the USA Men's Olympic Basketball team, the Spurs are asking Manu Ginobili to sit out the 2008 Olympic Games unless his left ankle, which slowed him down so much in the Spurs Western Conference loss to the Lakers, is completely healed. Ginobili led Argentina to a gold medal in the 2004 Olympic Games, and is scheduled to carry the Argentine flag in the opening ceremonies of these Olympics.

This is a tough one. When these guys play in the Olympics or FIBA, they end up spending almost two solid years doing nothing but playing top-level basketball games. That takes a big toll on their health. Which takes a big toll on their NBA team. We'll see how it shakes down.

And when it does you can read about it right here at Odd Years. No more than 10 days late, I promise.

The Man from Ooey-Pooey

So it turns out IUPUI (Spurs rookie, George Hill's alma matter, for those just joining us) stands for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Evidentally it's a little like UTSA, except two major Universities share the same regional campus. Sort of like those Pizza Hut/KFC stores.

Actually I shouldn't compare this place to those blights on humanity. IUPUI, and especially their basketball program, sounds like a pretty classy operation. The S.A. Express-News did their homework on the place and offer a basic rundown, including the fact that the name is informally pronounced "ooey-pooey."

Express-News also has an article lauding Hill as a player whose NBA-ready skills flew right under the radar of many teams in the first round because of his lack of exposure at Mid-Level Division I school, IUPUI.

Ron Hunter, Hill's coach at the obscure Indianapolis college, has this word of advice for Spurs fans when it comes to their new rookie point guard: Remember the name, if not the school.

“I've always said some guys have ‘it' and some guys develop ‘it,'” Hunter said. “This guy was born with it. People have no idea how talented this kid is.”

It also presents Hill as a player whose personality is perfectly suited for the Spurs system, and illustrates how these two details are not mutually exclusive, as Hill actually passed up opportunities to play for powerhouse programs such as Temple, Indiana and Florida, for a chance to play closer to his ailing grandfather. Unfortunately his grandfather passed away only two months after Hill signed his letter of intent with IUPUI.

Coach Popovich often uses a term to describe the kind of player personality that makes the Spurs work so well. He looks for individuals who are "over themselves." When you take stock of the range of personas in the NBA, and consider how delicate the function of a championship caliber NBA squad must be, it makes sense that pop would value this quality so highly. It suggests a selflessness, and a lack of unneccessary distraction in a person.

In my opinion this is the quality that allowed the Celtics to be so great this season. The talent of their three superstars is undeniable; but we've seen plenty of teams stacked with superstars fall short of doing what the Celtics did. The '04 Lakers are probably the best example. Kobe and Shaq, along with Karl Malone and Gary Payton failed to do what Shaq and Kobe did three times with far inferior supporting casts. Shortly after that series everyone started to realize just now not "over themselves" those guys were--especially Kobe.

It's obviously not the only factor: Kobe and Shaq have one a hand-full of titles while being distractions from the purpose of their team. But it's not easy. And I agree with one of Travis's comments earlier--it helps when they don't call fouls on your 400lb player.

Anyway, it's great to hear that George is a Pop sort of player. And even more encouraging to hear how ready the Spurs and Hill's former coach think he is to come in and contribute basketball-wise.

One NBA scout, after watching Hill up close for much of the year, said he thought the guard could have started for any college team in the country...

“He's a freak of nature,” Hunter said. “He's a guy that could play three-straight NBA games, then go out and run a mile — and run it in five minutes.”

He should come in very handy if the NBA ever switches to a triple-header / foot race playoff format.

Charles Barkley Smelling a Fart

And other hilarious basketball bloopers:

Millions pt 2. - Exactly What I Was Talking About

Bill Self is furious.

Darrell Arthur is not sick.

And it turns out I'm clairvoyant or something. That last post I "blogged" this afternoon--the one about how disappointing (and financially costly) it can be when a player falls to a lower draft order than he anticipated--couldn't have set the stage more perfectly for a story emerging today about a player, Darrell Arthur, who plummeted from his projected spot in the early teens to the 27th pick. This nosedive down the draft board could have cost the Arthur family as much as a million dollars per year.

The really crappy thing is that this sudden devaluation was fomented by a false rumor of a mysterious kidney ailment. Arthur's coach at Kansas, Bill Self, worked the phones to try to quash the misinformation as he watched one team after another pass on the talented 6-9 Forward who helped the Jayhawks win last year's NCAA Championship. (view the entire AP article here).

Watching the draft with his players at his home in Lawrence, Self wound up making frantic calls trying to help Arthur get things straightened out.

"I was scrambling around trying to get information myself because this was unknown to me until [Wednesday night] and apparently was unknown to many of the NBA teams until the very end.

"They said one minute before the draft, 'Can't take him. Doctors won't let us take him,' which is sad because then somebody really dropped the ball. I don't know what the reasoning was, but hopefully they had a valid reason."

Arthur was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets and eventually traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.

From a Spurs perspective, it is worth noting that we were the last team to pass on Arthur at the 26th pick. If he ends up being a monster in the league for years to come--perhaps motivated to even greater heights by the injustice served to him yesterday--the Spurs will be one of about 15 teams who will lament this Kidney prank even more than he does.

The Last of the Millionaires

The amount of money a rookie makes from his first NBA contract is dependent on the order in which he is drafted. The number one draft pick makes the most of any rookie ($4,822,800 for Derrick Rose this year), and every player selected after the first pick makes less by increments that decrease from about $500,000 between the first and second pick (Michael Beasely will make $4,314,960 per year in his first contract) to about $7000 between the 29th and 30th pick (Indiana will pay DJ White $964,080 a year, while the Celtics owe JR Giddens $957,120).

So when you see some of these guys who expect to be drafted very high fall a bunch of spots (Mario Chalmers, for instance, was predicted to go in mid to late first round even in the latest mock drafts, but he fell all the way out of the first round to Miami by way of a trade with Minnesota--at 34th overall). It's a big deal for them, and not only because of pride. It could mean a difference of several hundred thousand, or even several million dollars.

Hoopshype.com has a chart that lists every salary for the players taken in the first round.

For what it's worth, our man George Hill is the last player in the draft to earn a million dollar payday at $1,006,200.

Please Don't Call Him a Soufflé

I've started my digging to see just who this George Hill cat is. The more I turn up the more exciting the pick seems.

Mike Monroe of San Antonio Express-News has an encouraging report on how excited the Spurs are about this guy:

All you need to know about George Hill, the player the Spurs drafted in the first round of Thursday's NBA draft, is this: There was a celebration in the Spurs' draft night war room when the Houston Rockets made Frenchman Nicolas Batum the 25th selection of the first round, leaving Hill to the Spurs.

He also picks up on the quote from Pop I referenced yesterday about some players needing to be left "baking in the oven" for a while before joining the team, and claims the Spurs think Hill is, as Mike Monroe puts it, a "perfectly risen soufflé."

Another Express-News piece by Jeff McDonald inflicts yet another food metaphor (Hill isn't big on Tex Mex yet), but gives even more detail on how stoked Pop and the other Spurs brass are on this guy.

A 6-foot-2 scorer who played both guard positions in college, Hill is projected as a point guard in the NBA. The Spurs expect him to compete with Jacque Vaughn for the backup position behind Tony Parker next season.

“He's a really solid player at both ends of the court,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “I honestly believe he will make our team better right off the bat.”

No D-League? No 4 years playing for an Eastern Block European team? If you believe Pop, then this is a very un-Spurs kind of draft. And in this case that's actually a good thing.

UPDATE: I may have been a little hard on the Express-News guys for their food analogies, especially considering some of the silly content of my writing so far. I just really, seriously, don't want "The Soufflé" to catch on as Hill's (or anyone's) nickname.

In the Room with George Hill

Here's an interesting blog that gave a live update of how tonight progressed for George Hill and about 50 of his closest associates. It's interesting to get a glimpse into what a huge and somewhat surreal event this is for the people involved. He was hoping to be drafted by Indiana, but seems pretty happy to be a new Spur.

Is There a Draft in Here?

With the 26th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, the San Antonio Spurs select George Hill a guard from IUPUI. I'll find out more about this character (along with what exactly IUPUI stands for) tomorrow.
Other notable draft events that I've caught on ESPN in the last few minutes:

*** The Heat did indeed draft Michael Beasley. That sneaky Pat Riley.

*** The Pacers are making a bunch of trades. Jermaine O'Neal is going to Toronto for T.J. Ford. They're also going to have both of the Rush brothers--Brandon and Kareem--after a trade with Portland.

*** The crazy fans at the draft keep chanting "Silver! Silver!" every time Adam Silver, the NBA Deputy Commissioner, comes to the podium to announce a pick. He looks like he's getting a real kick out of it.

With the 45th pick, the Spurs select Goran Dragic, a point guard from Slovenia.*** The Mavericks just selected Shan Foster with the 52nd pick. The commentators are making a big deal out of how he looks just like Usher and that he even plays the piano. Then they showed a clip of him singing a song that he wrote just for draft day. He was sitting in front of a keyboard while it was playing a preset song (or maybe he had recorded it--but he wasn't playing it at that time), and singing about how "no one shoots the 3 like me / I can't wait to play in the NBA.") It was awesome.

*** The Portland Trailblazers have like 20 picks in this draft.

*** 5 Kansas Jayhawks were drafted this year.

Okay, the Spurs have one more pick at 57 in the draft. That's 4 picks away. Hurry up Houston. You know who you're going to pick, just pick. OK. here comes Adam Silver. Maarty Loonin (Maarty with two a's).

OK, Spurs on the clock. It's the 57th pick overall. That's almost exactly where the Spurs got Manu Ginobili.

And...aw, crap. They made a pick during a commercial. I didn't see who they got. Here we go: James Gist, a Forward from Maryland.
Okay, there we go. That's a draft for me. I have beers that need drinking at Don's with my man Matt Cross.

UPDATE: The Spurs have traded Goran Dragic to the Suns for Malik Harrison, a 6-6 Small Forward from Oregon.

Now Tony's Made It

EA Sports announced yesterday that Tony Parker will be the 09 coverboy for their once-great-turned-sucky-now-getting-good-again NBA video game franchise, NBA Live.

Toros on the Clock

There's plenty of drama at the top of this year's NBA draft. Michael Beasley, a player recently expected to be a lock for the first (Chicago Bulls) or second (Miami Heat) pick, seems to be in danger of goofying himself down a few spots. The kid is a joker, and to me that's great. But evidently Heat Honcho Pat Riley is squeamish about drafting the next Agent Zero or Jerry Sienfeld. David Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinal thinks that's all a smoke screen:

Theory I: Beasley is Riley’s hands-down choice. The Heat keeps throwing off the scent by suggesting through back channels (never on the record) they have issues with him. That’s why they brought in Mayo on Tuesday. Everything supports Chicago’s decision for Rose with the first pick, thus leaving Beasley.

Theory II: It really doesn’t like Beasley’s game (no chance). It really thinks Mayo can play point guard (who cares when Wade’s in the same backcourt?) It even thinks Jerryd Bayless could be The One (come on.).

As you can see, Theory I sounds smarter to me.

I'm not sure if I agree. I could see them taking Mayo, or, more likely, trading the pick. How is he going to draft Beasley now after making such a big deal out of disliking his personality?

Anyway it will be interesting to see what happens.

A little further down the draft board, things get much less interesting.

Today's ESPN Mock Draft 7.0 has Ryan Anderson's stock rising a few places to be picked by the Nets at 21, and claims the Spurs may have focused in on one of Tony Parker's countrymen, 6-8 French small forward, Nicolas Batum. But it's also been reported that there may be cause for concern over Batum's heart health after stress echo test returned in the "borderline" area.

Either way, it's almost impossible to know what's going to happen that late in the draft. And, more to the point, it's sort of hard to get too excited about it. The Spurs stole Manu with the 28th pick in the second round in 1999 and Tony Parker 28th in 2001. But those two, along with Tim Duncan, are the only players in the Spurs active rotation this season who were actually drafted by the Spurs. It's not that the Spurs have drafted poorly: other picks such as Luis Scola (2002), John Salmons (2002), Leandro Barbosa (2003), and Beno Udrih (2004) are all playing well for other teams right now. It just seems like it's hard for a young player to break into the Spurs system.

It also seems like the Spurs foreign farm system is running into more problems than it did when they let Manu develop overseas before bringing him in. The Spurs 2007 draft pick, Tiago Splitter, looked like a steal. But it was announced earlier this month that the promising 6-11 power forward from Brazil is signing an extension with his Spanish League Team, Tau Ceramica, that will keep him overseas possibly until the 2011-2012 season. In an article from yesterday's S.A. Express-News, Jeff McDonald includes a great quote from Pop about why the Spurs have continued to work this way:

High-profile struggles in getting draft picks Luis Scola and, more recently, Tiago Splitter into a Spurs jersey apparently have not made the team skittish about going that route again.

“It’s better to have someone baking in the oven than to take somebody who you know can’t play,” Popovich said.

But, to me, it looks like more and more players drafted by the Spurs will do their baking right here in Austin, with the Toros, the Spurs' NDBL franchise.

Spurs 2005 draft selection, Ian Mahimni, led the Toros to the NBDL Championship this year. He was injured and the Toros lost to the Idaho Stampede. But it looks like he'll be able to contribute to the Spurs this season. And there won't be any hang-ups in getting him to San Antonio.

For this reason, I think the NBDL is a far better system than drafting players who then become pros in Europe. Because the Toros are a direct Spurs affiliate, players can be called up and sent back by the Spurs on nearly a daily basis. Toros players also work in the same coaching system as the Spurs (you were wondering why they went to the Championship this year?); plus they don't get a chance to find out how much stronger the Euro is than the dollar.

So whomever the Spurs pick tonight, my only hope is that they'll either use them in San Antonio right away, or that they send them to Austin to laze around at Barton Springs until they figure out how to play basketball.

I'll find some info on whoever we do select either tonight or tomorrow.

Lady-dunks

I'm a big proponent of the quality of basketball in the WNBA.

While I don't think that dunks are the best indicator of skill in basketball, they are probably the best demonstration of sheer athleticism. So it's worth noting that over the course of the last two Los Angeles Sparks games, rookie Candace Parker has dunked the ball for the 2nd and 3rd times in WNBA league history.



By the way, the San Antonio Silver Stars (8-5) are currently second in the Western Conference behind the Sparks (10-3). Silver Stars point guard Becky Hammond is often referred to as the 'Steve Nash' of the WNBA. I watched some of their game against the Houston Comets yesterday. Entertaining stuff.

Hammond is also currently embroiled in a controversy over this Summer's Olympic Games: the US team didn't offer her a spot, even though she's one of the league's top MVP candidates. So she established residency in Russia, and is going to play on their squad. International intrigue, dunks...highly watchable stuff, I say.

A Shot at J.R.?

At some point during this year's Western Conference Finals, you most likely heard someone say (or maybe it was you that said it) that the Spurs looked old and slow. They looked like they were being out-jumped, out-ran, and, um...out-scored (this one is verifiable) by the L.A. Lakers.

Nevermind that the Spurs did just complete smack-downs of much younger, far more athletic foes during the first and second round of the playoffs in the Suns and Hornets, respectively. Part of what's so important about athleticism for an NBA team is the ability to sustain a level of play over all four rounds of the tournament. The Spurs had what it takes against Phoenix and New Orleans, but really did seem to run out of gas against the Lakers.

A deeper analysis will lead to the conclusion that the Spurs, while already old, are likely to become even more old between now and June of 2009. For Tony Parker, and recent draft selection / Austin Toros star, Ian Mahimni, getting older is likely to be a good thing. For everyone else on their team, it will probably suck.

For other teams this paradigm is reversed: the Lakers and Hornets, for instance, have enough great young players that time is, as the Stones put so well, on their side (yes it is!). They should only be better next year.

So how do the Spurs overcome this obstacle and continue their six-year trend of winning an NBA Championship every odd year? New blood!

The NBA Draft is tomorrow. We'll get three players there, and odds are they'll all be fairly young. The latest espn mock draft (6.0) have the Spurs using their 26th pick to select a player from Cal named Ryan Anderson, a 6-10 power forward with a great outside shot.

If that's who the Spurs pick tomorrow, all well and good. But he (or any player selected with that late of a pick) is likely to be a lot more help in 2010 or 11 than he is in the 4th quarter of game 7 of next year's Finals.

All this sets the stage for an interesting dilemma for Pop and the Spurs front office. How badly do we want to mix things up? Bad enough to sign a talented, athletic 22-year old swingman with 30-foot range who has managed to overshadow his formidable athletic talent with a reputation for dumb decisions and lack of maturity and self-control? If the answer is yes, J.R. Smith may be our dude.

He's a restricted free agent this Summer and, as Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express News points out, he's everything the Spurs need, and nothing they want.

My favorite segment from the article features a quote from former (very former) Spur, and underachieving head coach of the Denver Nuggets, George Karl.

Smith committed such a sequence of selfish, foolish plays in one game that George Karl benched Smith for the finale. “I just love the dignity of the game,” Karl said of Smith's play, “being insulted right in front of me.”

I think the article is probably a little harsh to call Smith an "anti-human," but the dilemma it presents is hard to deny.

Whatever team ends up signing this guy, it will probably be to a fairly lengthy, fairly expensive contract. So in 2012, when Tony Parker is 30, Tim Duncan is 38, and Robert Horry is 57, J.R. Smith will be 26, and at the beginning of his prime as a player. That could be perfect timing for the Spurs. But is he the guy who can carry the torch? Or is he more likely to torch the Spurs cap space and their reputation for the highest standards of character in pro sports?

The easiest comparison--and it's made in the aforementioned article--is Stephen Jackson: a hot-tempered, self-absorbed player who was pivotal in the Spurs 2003 title run; later signed by the Indiana Pacers, where he followed Ron Artest into the crowd to fight with fans; and is now team captain for the Golden State Warriors.

The character arc of "Captain Jack" illustrates the fact that players, like almost all young people, mature at some point. Being on a winning team under a coach who can handle that sort of personality makes a big difference. The Spurs are that if anybody is. But still you have to wonder about this J.R. kid. Could he help the Spurs to Championship number five? Or are his most embarrassing moments ahead of him?

How about a poll to settle Odd Years' official position on the subject? I'll see if I can get it to work.

Vinny the Bull

I think one function this blog will serve is to highlight former Spurs who are in the news for one reason or another. Today it's Vinny Del Negro. Or as I sometimes like to think of him: Manu Ginobili's Dad.

So here's the lowdown: The Chicago Bulls announced this week that Vinny Del Negro will be their new head coach. This is Del Negro's first coaching job of any kind. The 2-year contract at roughly $2 million per year makes him the lowest paid coach in the NBA.

A few facts about Vinny's playing days: (if you don't like boring timeline-stuff, skip over this paragraph. But it couldn't hurt you to fill your brain with a little more totally irrelevant sports information, right?)

(right. So...)

After becoming the Sacramento King's 29th overall pick in the 1988 NBA Draft, Vinny Del Negro played in Sacramento for two years before signing with Benetton Treviso in the Italian Pro Basketball League. He led Benetton Treviso to the Italian Championship in 1992, averaging 25 points a game. He played with the Spurs from 1992 to 1998, and then bounced around to teams including the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers. He retired in 2001 after being traded to the Orlando Magic.

Then he did some other non-sports related stuff, I assume, that isn't mentioned on his wikipedia page or nba.com. And then he became a radio commentator. After working as a radio commentator for the Phoenix Suns, Del Negro was tapped by another former Spur and Suns GM/Minority Owner, Steve Kerr, to be the Suns Director of Player Personnel in 2006. Then in 2007 he was promoted to the position of Assistant General Manager. After the Suns were eliminated this year, yet again by the Spurs, Mike D'Antoni left as head coach. Del Negro interviewed with Kerr for this job, but did not become a finalist because of his lack of coaching experience. But supposedly Kerr really likes him. Apparently John Paxon, Chicago's GM, likes him too. The Bulls hired him, and he now moves from relative obscurity into the spotlight of coaching one of the NBA's largest market teams.

This is interesting for a few reasons. First, to me, Vinny Del Negro is one of the most awesome and hilarious Spurs ever. For some reason (see above image), whenever you mention his name to a Spurs fan, or really to anyone who was paying close attention to the NBA during the mid-90's, you'll usually get a laugh or at least a smile. It's not that he was a laughable player--i mean he wasn't an all-star or anything but he was alright; he's just kind of funny for some reason. My best friend's mom claimed to have a big crush on him at that time, and likened his dapper looks to that of a ski instructor. It's hard to argue with her. Slightly poofy hair, short but neatly trimmed beard, exotic last name: he's the only NBA player past or present that I can imagine playing in a turtle neck.

Second, he's never been a coach before. Ever. He landed this job over candidates like Dwayne Casey, Marc Jackson and Avery Johnson, both of whom are still without coaching jobs for next season. Avery Johnson, another former Spur, was 2 wins away from the 2006 NBA Championship, and now somehow seems untouchable as a head coach. I'm sure the aforementioned small price tag for Del Negro's services figures into this. I'm sure because the Bulls are so bad and so young, they wanted someone who was also young and unproven. If he's successful, great...but if not--and it may be that no coach would be able to do much with this team for a year or two--they can can him without taking too much of a hit financially.

Third, thanks to a strange set of circumstances pointed out by K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, this hiring, coupled with Mike D'Antoni's new job with the Knicks could rekindle a New York Knicks / Chicago Bulls rivalry:

The first curveball came when D'Antoni spurned the Bulls for the Knicks on May 10. D'Antoni signed a four-year, $24 million deal.

And the Knicks-Bulls rivalry begins anew: Word in Phoenix is that D'Antoni's displeasure with management meddling extended beyond Kerr to Del Negro, whom he felt quietly criticized his coaching.

But I guess the rivalry looses a little sizzle when it's between two of the very worst NBA teams in recent memory.

So we'll see what happens. Hopefully Vinny will be fantastically successful in Chi-town. At very least I hope his players can learn a thing or two about proper slalom technique.

Spurs Tilting at Windmills

The Spurs' AT&T Center will be 100% wind powered from now on. This is awesome, of course; but when I first imagined it, it was even awesomer:


How I pictured the AT&T Center looking when I heard this news, realized with the help of Google Images and MS Paint. This is not a real picture, unfortunately.

As it turns out, the power will be supplied by "wind farms" in West Texas--not from giant turbines towering over the actual AT&T Center. I'm just saying...that would have been cool.

The article about what they're actually doing can be found here.

Perfect Timing, as Usual: or Tim Duncan's Tattoos

So...

Yeah.

It seems that a couple weeks after starting my big new fancypants Spurs Blog, the NBA season is now over.

Ha! Great.

I see this as a crucial time for Odd Years. I mean, right at the point where things were starting to pick up, starting to build steam--I had 3 comments last week!--there is a very real danger that I will not be able to think of anything to talk about.

I think Joni Mitchell had a song that explored similar themes. It was called "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" and if you think for a second that that song doesn't get you pumped up, you're kidding yourself. Just go to your nearest bar and find that song on the juke box. Press in the numbers for it and go stand on top of a table. Then see what happens. I'll spoil the surprise: interpretive dancing is what happens.

See? There I go, wandering into some sarcastic tangential side note that has nothing to do with the Spurs, or anything else really. Because there is nothing else to talk about!

Tim Duncan has a tattoo of a wizard on his chest. And of a jester on his back. He got them because he likes playing Dungeons and Dragons so much.

Your thoughts?

Washington Generals Prepare Class Action Lawsuit...

...against the Lakers of Los Angeles for infringement against the Generals trademarked ability to look foolish while playing basketball.

Lawyer Chet Gundleburger addressed the media early Wednesday Morning after witnessing the 39 point embarrassment handed to the "LakeShow" by last years worst team in the NBA, the Boston Celtics: "any of that look familiar? I mean, come on, jeez, guys, seriously. That was classic Globetrotter/Generals shtick! Am I the only one who noticed??"

Gundleburger points specifically to instances involving the Lakers standing around with frustrated looks on their faces; cowering while being dunked on; having no-look passes whizz by them; and getting their shorts pulled down to their ankles while at the free throw line.

NBA league officials point to the fact that Harlem Globetrotter games usually stay within at least 20 points or so.
\\\\

aww snap! Burned! You got STOLE, Lakers!

Just kidding, I don't really even hate this Lakers team. I kind of like them, even though they ousted my Spurs. I was just hoping for some competitive basketball. Seriously, 39 points? In the last game of the Finals? The Celtics really are that good. Way to go Boston.

But the game did make me contemplate one theory that's only slightly less silly than the Harlem Globetrotter comparison. You may want to stop reading here if you're tired of hearing about the reffing scandals in the NBA...

OK, still with me?

Do blowouts like this happen when refs aren't fixing the spread?? Just saying. Probably not. It's just a thought. But...If there have indeed been fixed games and fixed series, as disgraced former NBA ref Tim Donaghey claimed recently, a side-effect, as I understand it, would have been a greater tendency toward closer scores and longer series. With no guidance from the refs, is it the natural tendency for NBA Playoff games to be 20+ pt home team blowouts? That happened a lot in this year's playoffs.

Again, this theory is totally unsubstantiated, and only suggests that the Celtics demolition of the Lakers might be even more credible than it would have been in previous years.

Also, it's worth noting that this isn't the first time a best of 7 series has been finished with a blowout of similar proportion. The 1965 Championship ended in a 33-point game 5 blowout by the Boston Celtics over--you guessed it--the Los Angeles Lakers.

Even that was nothing too new. The Generals have been losing to the Globetrotters since the 20's.

Back In the High Life (Again)

On a wide set of bookshelves in a little-used loft area of my parent's house in San Antonio, there is a VHS cassette labeled "1987 NBA Finals: a Great Win Lakers!" It's a recording of Game 6 of that series, in which the Lakers closed out the Celtics to win the championship. I haven't popped this artifact into a VCR in probably close to 20 years. But from June of 1987 to some time in 1988, the tape got quite a bit of play at the Newman household.

Aside from demonstrating my predisposition for awkward wordy titles, the tape is significant because it is the one pro basketball event in my life that preceded my relationship with the Spurs. It's strange that it exists: for a short time, when I was 10 years old, I was a huge Lakers fan. It was my first taste of the NBA, and I remember being completely engrossed.

The game was amazing, but what really got me, what forced me to rewatch the tape so many times over the next few months, was what they played after the game. If this year's Finals end tonight--and they could, the Lakers are down 3-1 to the Celtics--you'll see a video montage of highlights set to one of this year's most popular songs. Usually it's hard to describe how much these suck. Maybe that's too strong an evaluation, but I have honestly never seen another one that really excites me or makes me want to watch it over even once--and that includes the Red Hot Chilli Pepper's video for the Spurs 2003 Championship. But in 1987 the montage commemorating that year's Finals was, for me, the height of the art form:

Steve Winwood.

"Back in the High Life Again."

I'm sure if you know this song, it is immediately obvious to you how incredible the montage must have been. You aren't wrong. It is full of glitz and class, and creates a sensation of accomplishment and uphoria; it's the sound of someone at the slow motion zenith of their life pursuit.

It didn't hurt that the highlights from that series still stand as some of the jazziest and most entertaining in any Finals since. But really. That song.

It's rare that you think of something as awesome as this video that isn't already on youtube. But unfortunately that is the case in this instance. This clip of the Top 10 plays of that series are the closest thing I can find to it.

I'm also including the actual music video for this classic hit song. Try turning the volume on the highlights all the way down and playing both of these at the same time. Maybe you'll have a small idea of the just what made me love this game so much as a 10 year old.





UPDATE: holy crap, it worked.

The Morning After: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the NBA

It's Over.

Last night the San Antonio Spurs were eliminated from the 2008 NBA Playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers, ending the Spurs quest for their first ever back-to-back championship.

And I'm OK.

Let me start out by saying I'm a fairly intense fan of these San Antonio Spurs. In 1992 my family moved to Kerrville, Texas, which is a little over an hour from San Antonio. David Robinson was in his first few years out of the Academy and could be compared, I think, to a narrower version of today's Dwight Howard. Just a total freak. I can remember him being likened to a 7 foot "gazelle," which I've heard used to describe other players, and didn't realize how strange a simile that is until I mentioned it to one of my female friends. Her response was laughter, and questioning the masculinity of anyone who would revel in such a descriptive--which I've noticed many non-sports lovers just love to do. This is probably an annoyance that dates back to fans of naked wrestling in ancient Greece. I just don't understand why they keep calling this homoerotic!

Anyway, yeah. I became a fan of Mr. Robinson, and of the Spurs as soon as I got to Kerrville. 8th Grade. I've been a badass Spurs fan ever since. Through playoff losses to Utah, playoff losses to Houston, playoff losses to plenty of other teams we obviously should have defeated; through the Alamo Dome years, the teal, the pink, the orange, the Worm, Nique's last stand, Vinny "Ski Instructor" Del Negro, playoff losses to Shaq and Kobe--and, of course, through the Spurs last 10 years of consistent dominance and 4 NBA championships--through all of this, I've been a pretty big Spurs fan.

They've been a steady source of both great joy, and misplaced, but very real and excruciating pain. To be honest, I'm not even proud of the way they make me feel sometimes. I don't know what the honest experience of other sports fans is like; but for me, watching the Spurs is either pure ecstasy, or complete, nearly uncontrollable fury.

It has made me call into question whether this is a love for the game, a healthy passion...or if it's a manifestation of some pent up rage. I mean, I'm not a violent person. But of course everyone has violence in them. And it makes sense that the more restrained and peaceful someone is, the more their natural aggression and primal violence needs to manifest itself somewhere. That isn't to say I go off the handle when the Spurs are losing. But I do inside. I sit there and flinch and stare off into space while I enact atrocious scenarios of carnage in my mind. Against the opposing players mostly...or their coach or fans. Or those refs! Brutal fantasies of snapping limbs, splitting skulls, tearing flesh. It's horrible. The only other time I get like that is when I drive. And sometimes when I play video games. But really only sports games...not murder and meyhem games...which tells something about games, and vicarious fantasy, I think.

I've been working on it...trying to become more zen about it...very consciously trying to remove myself from my over-involvement in the game. Reminding myself that I have no control over what happens; that I've been very lucky that the Spurs have given their fans 4 trophies in 9 years; and that anger like that can only hurt and embarrass me.

And last night, I let go. I did it. When the clock ran out, and the Spurs' season was over, I was able to nod, shrug, and toast a final "Go Spurs Go" of the season. All the murderous impulses left me, and I was at peace.

The Lakers were a better team. There were some close calls--like the game 1 collapse, and the uncalled foul against Brent Barry in Game 4. But the Spurs lost, and I was immediately okay with it. I didn't want to throw anything or mentally attack anyone.

It's a small victory. One that may only make sense to me. But as a result I feel like a better Spurs fan, and a slightly less derranged human being.

Go Spurs Go.