San Antonio Spurs

[tackielarla]

---

shaq is 38

spurs should get him too!

Naaah... Kobe needs him more.

[koontz_circle]

ginobili should not take any risk this offseason. ipahuway nalang na imong tiil para maka yatak taman next season.

[tackielarla]

^ I agree. Pero everything hinges on that MRI exam later this week. If the MRI says it's not serious, most probably he'd play...

[tackielarla]

JR Smith to the Spurs?!?

The one who makes the most sense for the Spurs is the one with the least sense.

That would be J.R. Smith, the flawed diamond of this summer's free-agent class. He has been everything the Spurs are not, and he also has everything the Spurs need.

For one, he can dunk.

So he's worth a look. And if the Spurs go in that direction on July 1, and if they interview Smith, then what follows will hinge on this:

Can Gregg Popovich see something he likes in someone he shouldn't?

Next season might hinge on it, too. The Spurs likely won't get enough from the draft to help them immediately, even if they find a way to move up.

The other free agents are equally uninspiring. Role players are available, not much more.

But then there is Smith, a remarkable athlete who the Spurs previously tried to acquire in a trade. Then, just before the 2006 trade deadline, a deal fell through that would have sent Brent Barry to New Orleans in exchange for Smith.

Byron Scott had given up on the kid, but the Spurs thought they had missed out. Given their locker room, couldn't they have reached Smith as they once did Stephen Jackson?

Smith eventually went to Denver instead. In 2007, against the Spurs in the playoffs, Smith gave the Spurs little reason to regret anything.

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.”

A headline from the Denver Post then summed up Smith's standing: “Who shot the Nuggets? J.R.”

The absence of gunfire is one of Smith's few selling points. He is a middle-class, gangsta wannabe. He's been suspended a couple of times, brawling both on the court and off, and all he's ever led the league in is apologies.

Jackson once proudly called himself the anti-Spur. Smith comes closer to being the anti-human.

His life has included tragedy. He once ran a stop sign, which ultimately resulted in the death of one of his passengers, a childhood friend.

And his life has included comedy. He yapped at Kobe Bryant in a playoff game this spring — while Bryant was going for 49 points.

Then there's the defect that would never work on a Popovich team: Scouts say he is “an unwilling defender.”

Given that, maybe the Spurs decide they would be crazier than Smith to consider him. Unlike Jackson, after all, this risk would require a financial investment.

Still, there's no one out there like Smith. He's 6-foot-6 with 30-foot range, and he's only 22. He averaged more than a dozen points for the Nuggets last year despite averaging less than 20 minutes. That's also why the Nuggets want him back.

But the Nuggets are being squeezed. After Allen Iverson chose not to opt out of his contract last week, Denver has eight players with guaranteed contracts totaling more than $78 million. If the Spurs dangle, say, $4 million a year, would the Nuggets want to match the offer and pay even more luxury tax?

Smith may get a better offer elsewhere. Smith also may not want to play in a regimented system.

But if he's open to the Spurs, and Popovich is open to sitting down with him, a franchise-changing decision would come down to one thing. Popovich's gut.

Popovich hasn't had to do this lately. Mostly he's been talking someone such as Michael Finley into signing. This time Popovich would be listening.

Statistics wouldn't matter, nor would stories from the past. It would be about Popovich getting a sense of Smith; knowing Popovich, he might challenge Smith, as he once did Dennis Rodman, just to see the reaction.

If Smith walked away with an attitude, then Popovich would save money and time. But maybe something else happens, and maybe Popovich thinks a follower such as Smith might prosper following Tim Duncan.

This is all the Spurs can go on, and this is how they would make such a gamble. Good sense has little to do with any of it.

- Buck Harvey

[tackielarla]

Return of the Red Rocket

An article about Matt Bonner

While the Raptors brain trust spent yesterday morning presiding over yet another workout for prospects in the furious lead-up to Thursday night's NBA draft, an established NBA asset loped into the Air Canada Centre to keep in shape.

Matt Bonner, who has been employed by the San Antonio Spurs since the Raptors traded him a couple of summers ago, isn't simply living in Toronto during the offseason; he's getting married here in August. Bonner was scarce with the details, but he did offer that his bride-to-be's name is Nadia, that she grew up in the Beach, and that they've known each other about two years.

"I never knew her when I played here," said Bonner, 28. "It's a long story. I'm not going to let the tabloids have the details ..."

Bonner laughed, and then he talked some hoops, providing a post-mortem on the Spurs' five-game bow-out to the L.A. Lakers in the Western final.

"I don't want to make excuses, but we caught a tough break with the scheduling," he said, noting that San Antonio, after winning a seven-game Western semifinal against New Orleans, was forced to spend the night on a team plane beset by mechanical troubles.

"We had half a day on no night's sleep to prepare for the Lakers, who'd been waiting for five days ... and we blew a 20-point lead (in Game 1)."

And as for Manu Ginobili's bum left ankle: "I think it was worse than he lets on. When I was watching (Boston's) Ray Allen go right by (L.A.'s Sasha) Vujacic and lay it in every time (this after Vujacic hamstrung Ginobili) I was like, `Yeah, it must have really been hurting.'"

Bonner, who said his wedding's guest list is expected to number about 140, about half as many family and friends as he'd like to invite, can scratch one could-be invitee. Sam Mitchell, the Raptors coach, said that while he is more than happy to open Toronto's gym to an old friend, he's not so sure there's an opening in his August schedule.

"I don't think I'd want to go to Matt Bonner's wedding," said Mitchell, chuckling. "It would be Dorkville."

Indeed, Bonner does little to play down his image as the league's resident geek, a rare proponent of public transit over private jets, Timex over Rolex, old-fashioned rock over new-school rap. Some NBAers come to Toronto to frequent various late-night hotspots. Said Bonner, nodding his head: "I've already hit Tim Hortons and Mr. Sub."

If it's an act, it's elaborate and sustained. Last summer, Bonner turned down an invitation to the celebrity nuptials of this young century because he had a previous engagement at a basketball camp. No matter that the Paris wedding of Spurs teammate Tony Parker to actress Eva Longoria fetched breathless reportage around the globe; Bonner said he didn't want to let down the hoop-loving kids in his hometown of Concord, N.H. Not that he's averse to cashing in on his big day.

"We've got people offering a few mill to cover (the wedding) exclusive," he said, and he shrugged. "It pays for the castle. ... No, I'm joking."

Indeed, the kid they called the Red Rocket proved his lack of cachet a little later yesterday, when he strolled through Union Station. He was spotted by a couple of reporters and exactly nobody else. Perhaps it was because he was wearing a Red Sox cap and a T-shirt and shorts, a backpack slung over both shoulders. Perhaps it's because a wedding-day tux will be a stretch, and not because he's 6-foot-8.

"If it was me, we'd get married at, I don't know, Sneaky Dee's," said Bonner, speaking of the College Street rock-and-nachos dive. "But you know how it is, the guy doesn't have much say about the wedding day. We don't grow up dreaming about our wedding. It's her day. I understand that. Girls like nice flowers and stuff."

- Dave Feschuk

[sadahkingjam]

the question here is what went wrong? they could have beaten the Lakers in 5..

tanawa ang LA gipanitan sa Boston.

[kamikaze426]

the question here is what went wrong? they could have beaten the Lakers in 5..

tanawa ang LA gipanitan sa Boston.

they were dependent on Manu, manu was the key in the lakers series and he was injured and did not deliver

[tackielarla]

And as per Manu, they were just hit by a really tough playoff scheduling. Plus they had to sleep on the plane while it was being repaired before playing Game 1 of the LA series.

[johnphil7]

sos maygani no kai wa jud na sweep...

[tackielarla]

sos maygani no kai wa jud na sweep...

Maygani.