San Antonio Spurs

[tackielarla]

---

hahahahah daghan napud ni maglagut.

Tagna jud nimo bai. Down to the T. Just look at those suckers replying to your message!

[tackielarla]

Not to worry boys! The WCF is still in range! It's a big and lofty goal but not impossible! Let's do tihs one game at a time!

[Archer sensAtion]

Tagna jud nimo bai. Down to the T. Just look at those suckers replying to your message!

hahahaha taehhhhh man gud kaau ang gi post niya



.

[tackielarla]

Next for Manu – one lefty to another
Buck Harvey

Manu Ginobili isn't finished. Doctors see no reason he won't be fine after this summer, assuming the Argentina national team isn't in charge of rehab.

He will come back with one year left on his contract, and we will see.

But instead of being consumed with that, or with the Manu-less Spurs looking like the Duncan-less Spurs of 2000, think about what will become of this brittle lefty.

Someday, he will be like another brittle lefty.

There's never been such a juxtaposition of news in franchise history. Ginobili had one of his worst Mondays, while

David Robinson had one of his best.

Robinson deserved to have the day to himself. One of his fellow Hall of Fame classmates, Michael Jordan, had already stolen most of the national attention.

But such things never mattered to Robinson. And, really, the Hall of Fame was anticlimactic for him anyway. Everyone knew early in his career he would see Springfield.

That's a contrast to Ginobili. In 1999, when he was drafted just days after Robinson won his first title, Ginobili was sure to someday see Perú.

There were other contrasts. Robinson went at the top of the draft, Ginobili near the bottom. Robinson battled questions about his toughness, Ginobili never did.

And then there were their bodies. Robinson's was taller and stronger and faster.

Still, beefy men beat on Robinson for a decade, and Ginobili punished himself. Eventually both broke down. Just as Robinson returned from a strained back to break a foot in 1996, Ginobili returned from ankle surgery to hurt the other foot.

An Olympic similarity: Robinson played in Atlanta in 1996 with a hernia, weakening his core, likely leading to what followed.

Some of it is luck, but the physicians who tend to these world-class athletes see a trend. These bodies are finely tuned machines. When one piece gets out of whack, that affects other pieces.

When their pieces were whole, these two were brilliant. Robinson and Ginobili were unique, with skill sets and mind-sets that didn't match up with the crowd.

And when they were together, they won. The only season they played together, they earned rings.

That 2003 team might eventually go down as a lineup of legends. If Tony Parker can continue to impress — and winning a first-round series this season would impress — then those Spurs could count four Hall of Fame players on their roster.

Robinson certainly has memories of that team. Monday in Detroit, when the class of 2009 was announced, he went back to his final game.

“If I had to pick one night in my career,” he told reporters there, “it would probably be walking off the court as a champion and knowing that was going to be my last memory of basketball.”

Those memories stick with those who vote for the Hall of Fame. But championships are not the only requirement; Jerry Sloan and John Stockton prove that.

This honor can be about other achievements, and those on the world stage mean a lot. Robinson was the most active men's basketball player in USA Basketball history, playing in three Olympics. And Ginobili, with his gold medal in 2004, took Argentina to a place no one dreamed possible.

Add his successes in Italy and no one will care that he was an NBA All-Star only once. He will see Springfield someday, too.

Then?

When medical opinions don't matter anymore, Ginobili will again be like Robinson.

[ju-Luis]

OMG, manu is done for the season.... bye2 championship... nxt time nlang... huhuhuhu

[juan penduko]

hahahaha taehhhhh man gud kaau ang gi post niya



.

lagot lagi. nangusi nasad ka ha. sakit kau to ba. hahahahahha

[mab]

manta ma fill lng ni mason ang spot nga na biyaan ni manu..

[tackielarla]

Pop: Loss of Ginobili all about attitude
Mike Monroe

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Spurs must accept the loss of star guard Manu Ginobili for the remainder of the season, including the playoffs, as a challenge that must be taken on, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Tuesday morning.

As devastated as the Spurs were to learn that Ginobili will not play again this season after renewed discomfort in his right ankle was diagnosed Monday as a stress fracture of the right distal fibula, Popovich is counting on his players' collective character to do what it takes to win games without one of their most important teammates.

“It's about attitude,” Popovich said. “We can do the best possible job we can of believing in each other and put out the effort that's required to win basketball games, or we can feel sorry for ourselves and say, ‘Gosh, without Manu it's going to be really difficult to reach our goals.'”

Popovich expects determination to overcome adversity and to outweigh self pity.

“That's not how the team is built, character-wise, I don't think, so we look at it as a challenge and take it on,” he said after the team's morning practice to prepare for Tuesday night's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Ford Center here.

Ginobili was declared out for the season after CT scans and an MRI revealed that the stress reaction in his right distal fibula, one of three bones that make up the ankle joint, had become a stress fracture.

Roger Mason Jr., the player who will take Manu Ginobili's spot in the starting lineup against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Ford Center here tonight, called Monday's news about Ginobili's injury “devastating,” but said the team's attitude at Tuesday's shootaround was one of determination to do what will be necessary to adjust to his absence.

“We were going to take those last six games to get back adjusted to having him on the floor,” Mason said. “Now, he's back off, and we've got to get adjusted to not having him again. But it was devastating.

“At the same time, it's going to test our will and our character to see how we respond.”

Popovich said he and the rest of the Spurs basketball staff were surprised when Ginobili reported a problem after Sunday's game.

“I was (surprised),” he said. “We had proceeded under the impression he was healed; not getting better, but he was ready to go. At the time, it wasn't a stress fracture. It was a stress reaction. All the indications — all the films, all the things the medical people do — came out positive, with re-growth and no indications whatsoever.

“On top of that, he's taken extra time from when they said he was ready. We held him out longer. On top of that, he's played (six) games, and has felt great after every game and the next day. Then, all of a sudden, he felt what he felt, and that was a surprise.”

Popovich said the medical regimen for Ginobili will be the same as it had been with the stress reaction: Rest and treatment that will stimulate the natural healing process.

“This isn't a surgical deal, as far as I've been told,” Popovich said. “He'll heal and be 100 percent, that kind of thing. Obviously, I wouldn't want to bring him back again (this season).”

[tackielarla]

From a Spurs fan in ESPN:

This is the first season in over a decade the Spurs head into the playoffs out of contention.
Our spoiled upbringing does not make that a less difficult pill to swallow. But what I am about to say, I say unequivocally: I am looking forward to this postseason more than any I can remember. After today's events, that sounds like lunacy. And in all fairness, I never claimed to be sane. But it is genuinely how I feel nonetheless.

I say that because we still have an opportunity to play our game; to play to our full potential (as currently constructed). And every time we do, I'll be here writing about it. We can still make it to the Western Conference Finals. It will be difficult; much more difficult than before. But it is still possible. And this time, when we win, nobody will look back and say, "it was inevitable." Because inevitability has nothing to do with that happens from here on out.

Starting April 18th, the Spurs will earn every inch they take. There will be no easy wins. There will be no 4 or 5 game series. We will be a fraction of our former selves but that does not mean we can't play our game.

We may lose in the first round. We may make what will be described by superficial analysts as a "characteristically deep" playoff run. But no matter what happens, I won't sit down at my television confidently expecting a particular outcome. We are back in the pack. But as a fan, that is reason to rejoice. Each game will be a testament to basketball's dramatic capacity. Yes, the history books will remember '99, '03, '05, and '07. But many insightful observers of the NBA may remember this year. They'll remember because this was the season the Spurs would not go gentle into that good night.

Go Spurs Ggo!

[footlose]

malasa sa Spurs oy, sus sayanga.

kahinumdom man pud ko ani last season, na kung unsa na team ako labanan matagak hahaha

nisool napud ako ka jinx... I hope this time molosot ni ang Spurs hehehe