We have a special affinity here for those who stand up to authority, and this week that affinity translates into a new hombre at the top of our MVP rankings.
And this despite the fact that our new No. 1 spent Thursday night in San Antonio while his team donut fetchers were playing their asses off in Miami, only to blow the game in the final 3 minutes (giving credence to the argument that it helps to have your best players available at crunch time).
A majority of folks around the NBA have come out in support of coach Gregg Popovich for sending Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green back to San Antonio instead of bringing them to Miami for the nationally televised game against the Miami Heat, which was tight for 48 minutes despite the absence of star power from the visitors.
We’ve written it to death on this site, with items from myself, new columnist Charley Rosen, Miami columnist Chris Perkins, who was at the game, and in this blog, and this blog.
All seem to be of the same opinion: The coach of the San Antonio Spurs gets to determine who plays for the San Antonio Spurs. And it is up to Gregg Popovich, not David Stern, to decide what is best for the San Antonio Spurs.
And as for those “substantial sanctions?”
A 250K fine is a slap on the wrist. Way to back off, Easy Dave. Was the right thing to do, so kudos to you.
Sometimes, you need to stand up to the commish and hold your ground, and he’ll eventually back off or back down. Video evidence below, if you’ll pardon the self-promotion.
The extra rest paid of Saturday night when the Spurs defeated the Grizzlies with the help of an egregious non-call in the final seconds of the game. (This one wasn’t merely a blown 24-second call; it was more like a blown 26-second call). It gave San Antonio a victory in a game that could have huge tiebreaker ramifications at the end of the regular season.
So as the new week begins, we will put the light suspension of Rajon Rondo, the blown non-call in San Antonio and all of the rest of last week’s shenanigans behind us — but not without letting them impact these rankings, which are done for fun and to foster debate — y nada mas.
Here they are …
I’m sorry, but these are horrible. You have a guy who is averaging 13.3 PPG, 2.1 APG, 3.0 RPG in your top ten MVP. How do you publish that? Your a nationally known writer and you put this out here, its laughable.
No Rondo, Westbrook, or even players like Bosh? Come on this is just bad!
Not to get too nitpicky, but that comment about Varejao’s rebounding is wrong. Are memories really that short? Kevin Love averaged 15.2 rebounds a game less than two years ago. Or is 15.3 exponentially more than 15.2.
Where’s The Bucks Larry Sanders? He should be up there too, but probably will next week.
Knicks started at noon because there was supposed to be NHL at 7pm at MSG. Also the Warriors are tied for 4th with LAC, behind Memphis, SA, and OKC
I agree on the bad call, but there were a few bad calls that decided that outcome. No calls on the Spurs but ticky tack calls on the Grizz. I’ll just write it off as home team calls, it happens, all you can do is move to the next one
If you watched the game Spurs did get the call he mentions as well as the opening tip that went off Ginobili’s knee. But a huge play earlier was a 3 point play for the Grizz when Bonner was shoved in the back by Randolph into the Conley resulting in a 3 point play that should have been an offensive foul on Randolph. To publicly nit pick a call as much as Sheridan has done on twitter and multiple articles already is pretty crazy. There are missed calls all the time. If the shotclock call was made they are down 2 inbounding the ball with 16 seconds left versus a defense they had only scored 22 combined pts in the previous 17 mins (4th + OT). Did the call cost them the game? No. Cost them a chance at tying it, yes… kind of, didn’t they still get the ball after the no call… Yes they did and then threw it deep and out of bounds.
Chris. You are reaching quite hard on the whole Memphis blown call deal. Was it a shot clock violation? Yes. But Memphis still retained the ball. Bayless got the ball and heaved an ill advised pass up the court. If he calls timeout there you don’t say a word. If they complete the pass and Gay scores do you complain the Spurs were screwed on lack of the call when they should have stopped play, which would have given the Spurs a chance to set up their half court defense? Reaching pretty hard here Chris. That non call didn’t cost them the game, the lack of compusure from Bayless did. It’d be different if the ball hit the rim and Spurs got the rebound. Come on Chris!