After Friday’s dispiriting home loss to the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni could not take it any longer. D’Antoni went on a wide-ranging rant against his team, targeting its lack of commitment and effort on both sides of the ball. He said the Lakers were “messing with the basketball gods” and called their championship aspirations “laughable.” Although D’Antoni mentioned no one by name, very few wearing the forum blue and gold appeared exempt. [Read more…]
Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan are becoming timeless figures in the NBA. Actually, that statement could have been made for at least the past five seasons. The two have teamed up to dominate the league for 15-plus seasons, and every time you start to wonder if age – at least for Duncan – would finally catch up to him, he somehow manages to come back even stronger. [Read more…]
In the fifth and final installment from his new book The History of the San Antonio Spurs (© Whitman Publishing, LLC), Sheridanhoops columnist Jan Hubbard (twitter: @whyhub) writes about what is arguably the greatest Spurs’ team ever – the only championship team that included Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. (You can order the book here.) The story in 2003 wasn’t Parker or Ginobili. It wasn’t even Duncan, who was the first player since Michael Jordan to win
This is the fourth in a five-part series on The History of the San Antonio Spurs (© Whitman Publishing, LLC), which was recently released and is written by Sheridanhoops.com columnist Jan Hubbard (twitter: @whyhub). In the third excerpt, Hubbard recounted the crafty dealings that went into the Spurs’ acquisition from the financially strapped Virginia Squires, who has traded Julius Erving to the New York Nets earlier this season. In this installment, the drafting of Tony Parker is described. (You can
Now what, Pop? With Tony Parker out for a month, do you turn to the French rookie (Nando DeColo) … or the Aussie speedster (Patty Mills)? And yes, we agree with your statement that Parker should be given major consideration for every award out there, and yes, we agree that there hasn’t been an NBA point guard who has done as much for his team as Parker has done for the Spurs. [Read more…]
If you wanted to compare the possibilities of who might be the next U.S. Olympic basketball coach to the weather, the following would make perfect sense: A heat wave will soon hit Antarctica, a driving rainstorm will be pelting the Sahara and Jerry Colangelo will no doubt hire Gregg Popovich. [Read more…]
En route to the best record in the NBA, the San Antonio Spurs have withstood injuries to Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard. Now they will have to do without Tony Parker, their most indispensable player. The Spurs announced Saturday that Parker had an MRI that revealed a Grade 2 sprain of his left ankle that will sideline him for four weeks. Parker was hurt in the third quarter of Friday’s 130-102 home rout of Sacramento. He is averaging a career-high 21.0
The San Antonio Spurs are currently in the midst of a five-game win streak, extending their league-best 44-12 (.786%) overall record by six games in the wins column and 2 games in the loss column over the Eastern Conference’s Miami Heat, who sit at 38-14 (.731%). According to their head coach, Gregg Popovich, none of that matters. [Read more…]