San Antonio Spurs

[tackielarla]

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kuhaa ninyo si rasheed bro uy... sayang kaayo to. hehehe! para balik ang twin towers sa san antonio... this time, with rasheed and tim...

Boston lead owner Wyc Grousbeck, general manager Danny Ainge, head coach Doc Rivers, Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce all went to Detroit on Thursday to formally present Wallace with an offer for the full mid-level exception. But they left town without Wallace agreeing to a deal. Wallace will visit San Antonio and Orlando next week, according to a source, before making up his mind. Wallace is not likely to visit Cleveland.

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/feature...artest.lakers/

[tackielarla]

Makes you wanna think about it: after the Celtics management and players sent a contingent to his home in Detroit, Wallace willingly comes to San Antonio next week.

[tackielarla]

Spurs' McClinton combines sharpshooting, defense
Mike Monroe

When you're the 51st selection in the NBA draft, you try harder to make a good first impression.

Jack McClinton, a 6-foot-1 shooting star from the University of Miami, showed up Thursday to meet his prospective bosses on the Spurs looking as if he had stepped off the cover of GQ Magazine. His dark gray, pinstriped suit was set off perfectly by a hot pink tie, and he wore a well-shined pair of black leather dress shoes.

Then he got a look at a piece of clothing that looked nattier than anything he'd ever seen in a fashion magazine: A white Spurs home jersey, No. 33, trimmed in silver and black, with “McClinton” emblazoned across the back.

“You want me to put this on right now?” he said to Spurs general manager R.C. Buford as he held up the jersey and posed for photos.

The game jersey will have to wait for the Spurs' first preseason game in October. In the interim, McClinton promised to work hard to prove to Buford and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich that selecting him was no mistake.

Like DeJuan Blair, who dropped to the Spurs at pick No. 37, McClinton has something to prove to the teams that passed on him.

“I'm not going to tell you my grudge list,” he said, “but I've got some teams that passed on me that I'd like to show they passed on a diamond in the rough.”

McClinton comes to the Spurs with one skill that can't be overvalued in the NBA: He is an uncanny shooter from long range. He left Miami as the all-time leader in 3-point accuracy in the history of the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference, shooting 44.6 percent.

In three seasons with the Hurricanes, he made 286 of 650 college 3-pointers. He averaged 19.3 points as a senior, when he was a first-team All-ACC selection.

J.J. Redick was the first-round pick of the Orlando Magic after a four-year career at Duke that had some experts hailing him as the greatest shooter in ACC history. But even in his senior season he didn't shoot as well (42.1 percent) as McClinton did in his two full seasons with the Hurricanes.

Redick still holds the ACC record for free-throw accuracy (91.1 percent), but McClinton ranks second at 90.0 percent.

“It's been proven over the course of his career he's one of the best shooters in college basketball,” Buford said. “Shooting is a difficult skill to translate between the NBA and college because of the difference in the (3-point) lines. But if you really study Jack's shooting, he's already used to the NBA 3-point line. He's proven he can shoot from that range at a high level.”

There was another skill that drew Popovich's attention during McClinton's two workouts in San Antonio in the weeks leading up to the draft: defensive agility and intensity.

“As far as defenders go, he was probably the one guy who impressed Pop the most in all the workouts we had,” Buford said. “He came here with a purpose. From the minute he walked into the gym until the second he left, he was here with a reason. I'm sure he approached every workout like that.”

McClinton worked out for a lot of teams, but he thought the Spurs would be the team to take him when their first pick of draft night — the seventh of the second round — came around.

Instead, draft night turned into a hand-wringing test of his nerves.

“I was hoping San Antonio would take me at 37,” he said, “but DeJuan Blair was still on the board. Then, I started getting nervous. Thirty-eight, 39, 40. Oh, sheesh. Then 45, 48, 49.”

About the time the Spurs' second selection of the second round, No. 51, was coming up, ESPN cut to a commercial.

“It was funny,” McClinton said. “We had commercials on, and I got a text message from somebody who said, ‘Congratulations.' I said, ‘Congratulations for what? Nothing happened yet.'”

McClinton, watching in his room at his family's home in Baltimore, ran downstairs, somewhat perplexed.

“I said, ‘Mom and Dad, somebody said I got drafted by the Spurs.' But nothing had happened yet. Then (the telecast) came back on, and it was the Spurs' pick, and the guy said I'd been picked.”

McClinton wasn't wearing his pinstriped suit, which would have looked stunning if he had been on hand at Madison Square Garden for the selection process. He was, however, wearing a pair of lime green “Air Max” basketball shoes.

“I ran outside, did a sprint up and down the block. My neighbors probably just saw lime green going up and down the block.”

[tackielarla]

Food for thought:

Kobe(lead player) attempted over 1700 shots in 82 games last season. Pau Gasol(lead player) attempted over 1000 in 81 games. On the other hand...Odom(significant role player) only attempted 700 shots in 78 games last season.

Ron Artest in the past three seasons...1040 in 70 games, 962 in 57 games and 1037 in 69 games.

Good luck LA.

[cxtknight]

tony p mayneeeee

[tackielarla]

Overcoming a bad bounce with grace
By Dawn Cole
San Antonio Express-News

His story starts, as too many children’s stories do, with an absent father who drank too much, a mother caught in the grip of drug addiction.

The big problem with that, he soon learned, is that drugs always come first.

Always. He recalls dreaming of an Atari for his birthday and waking to find that the TV was gone.

“Where is it?” he asked.

“Someone borrowed it,” came the response.

I hear the story while sitting in a church pew. As he tells it now, for an audience of several thousand, Bruce Bowen — the San Antonio Spur recently traded to Milwaukee — plays it for laughs.

He jokes that people borrow a cup of sugar, not a television. He smiles a million-dollar smile, raises his eyebrows and invites his audience to laugh at his childhood indignation before he delivers the gut punch.

Of course, the TV had been sold for crack money.

But the absent dad and addicted mom weren’t the only forces who would shape Bowen. A grandmother fiercely faithful, prone to old-school prayer meetings and old-school switchings, instilled him with discipline. A grandfather who drove a garbage truck schooled him on life lessons.

He tells his story now, no bitterness in his voice. His faith in God and understanding of grace have taught him to sort the wheat from the chaff, to value the lessons learned in bad times as well as good.

When he went to college on a scholarship, a young preacher and his wife took him into their home and hearts, offering the stability he hadn’t had growing up.

He tells about how, after a disagreement, he started packing up, figuring he was about to be tossed out. That’s what had happened most of his life, after all. Someone got mad, got tired, got high and shipped him off to another relative for a while.

But this family was different. The unconditional love they talked about in church on Sundays they lived out in the heat of conflict. “That’s what families do,” they told him. “We discipline, but we work it out.”

To this day, Bowen calls Robert and Sandra Thrash Mom and Dad.

As he talks about them, I glance over at my own brown-eyed boy, sitting on the pew alongside me. He is listening to the NBA star with rapt attention.

This child has his own dark stories. I read them first in a binder at the Child Protective Services office. Absent father, addicted mother. Bounced from grandmother to other relatives to the foster system. Shipped off when someone got high or tired or frustrated.

Then, a little over a year ago, we stood in an adoption ceremony with him and said “no more bouncing.” It’s not always easy. Eight years of uncertainty take a toll on a child, and my parenting imperfections are many.

But we work it out. That’s what families do.

As he listens to Bowen, I hope he’s truly hearing these lessons. Where we have come from does not define where we are going. All things, even the hard and horrifying ones, really can work together for good. People fail us, but God does not.

NBA fans know the rest of Bruce Bowen’s story. How he went to Europe to play basketball, made it to the NBA, earned three championship rings playing for the San Antonio Spurs. How he and his beautiful wife, Yardley, are raising two boys, boys blessed with a father determined to stop a cycle and step up to the plate.

As he talks about those chapters of his story, Bowen has a few basketballs signed and inscribed with his favorite Bible verse to be passed on to kids who need a reminder, a little encouragement to keep moving forward.

One of them makes its way to a set of hands I know well, a little boy whose story started the same way as Bowen’s. And because an NBA star was willing to share, he has a reminder that the ending to his story is between him and God.

[cxtknight]

bsta aq gamiton sa nba live kay spurs wah juy kapildi naq, samot na ni tony p oh yeaaa hahahaha

[tackielarla]

Tony Parker interview (lequipe.fr)

About Spurs' changes:
At the end, I think it was a blessing in disguise to lose in the first round. We needed it to open the eyes of our owner and to improve the team. Every year, we had the same team. We now just got Richard Jefferson. It's a new threat in the paint. Before, teams needed two players to be champion like with Kobe and Shaq. After, it was us with Ginobili, Duncan and me. This year, We have seen with Lakers that teams needed 4 great players to win it all. I was happy to see out owner spend money to improve the team. Spurs used to be under the salary cap and they make now a true effort. We have now a two years window to win it all with Duncan being 33 years old and Ginobili being 32 years old. After that, it will be really difficult. We will be at the end of a cycle. And we still hope to be stronger inside with Rasheed Wallace or Antonio McDyess.

About his future in NBA:
There are a lot of young PG coming from the draft. I will have to practice harder (smile). But don't worry, I will be ready. They will need to prove what they are worth. This year, I've felt that I've turned the corner. Manu's and Tim's injury have put more pressure on me. I've took my responsibilities and my role has grown. Since I've scored 55 points, people at looking at me differently. Even Spurs staff looks at me differently. My goal is always to surprise people. But it's true that it's strange when I heard people comparing young PG to Tony Parker. It means that you are getting older (smile). But the goal is still the same: win the championship. Personally, I want to continue being an all star and have an even bigger role for Spurs.

[EvenStar]

ill take EVA over TP.


Parker
Duncan
Manu
R-Jeff
Wallace

lig-on pod ni nga line up

[vcmov_15]

ill take EVA over TP.


Parker
Duncan
Manu
R-Jeff
Wallace

lig-on pod ni nga line up

sus maryusep!!!!!! pagka ahak nalang ani... ako lang textsan carmelo ani na hinayhinay nalang ug pray sa inyu future hahahahahaha.... naunsa naman ni oie ug tinuod man gani ni unya mu work ila chemistry.. its SCARY..... ang upat sa ila line-up except duncan can hit a 3 pointer anytime if libre. i saw duncan hit a game winning 3 pt shot vs the suns in the playoffs couple of years ago i think. tsk tsk tsk tsk SCARY thats all i can say...