Tag: chairman

Leonard makes fast first impression

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Spurs rookie Kawhi Leonard was the first player off Gregg Popovich’s bench in the team’s 95-82 season-opening victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night at the ATT Center, but it didn’t take him long to make an impact.

Entering the game with 6:57 left in the first quarter, Leonard’s first official statistic as an NBA player was a steal a minute after taking the court.

That his next statistic was a missed layup when he tried to turn the steal into a basket seemed somehow fitting. The Spurs gave up one of their top defenders, combo guard George Hill, in a draft-day trade because they believed Leonard could be an impact defender, rather than a ready-made scorer.

By game’s end, Leonard had taken nine shots in 13 minutes but missed seven and scored only six points. However, his energy and defense were vital as the Spurs gained their 25th victory in 36 NBA season openers.

“Kawhi is a very athletic individual,” Popovich said. “He’s got good size, good strength, and he possesses great length. It really helps him, and he’s active. He wants to be involved on the boards, running the floor and defensively. He’s not afraid to put up a shot.”

Leonard finished with six rebounds and two steals and declared his professional debut a success for the most important of reasons.

“We got our victory, and that’s what made it fun,” he said.

Admitting to pregame jitters, he attributed a pair of early turnovers to trying to play at too fast a pace.

“I was just trying to find the rhythm of an NBA game,” he said. “I was going a little bit too fast.”

His veteran teammates preached patience.

“It was his first official game,” point guard Tony Parker said. “You have to be patient.”

HOLT RELIEVED: Spurs managing general partner Peter Holt shared a hug and a laugh with Parker just before tipoff of a game played before a sellout crowd of 18,581.

“You had me scared over in France,” Parker told Holt, who served as chairman of the NBA owners labor relations committee and spent much of October and December in New York for negotiations with the players union.

Holt wished Parker luck in the opener before praising Spurs fans, who filled the arena to its capacity.

“I’ve got to tell you, that (lockout) wore me out,” he said. “I know why I never became a lawyer.

“At the end of the day, I’m just so happy we’re playing basketball again. These great fans here deserve it.”

HEISMAN WINNER IN THE HOUSE: Players from both the Baylor and Washington football teams that will play in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Thursday attended the game, including Bears quarterback Robert Griffin III, the Heisman Trophy winner.

“The Heisman was in the house?” swingman Danny Green said. “Why didn’t someone tell us? I could have run up and talked to him.”

Mike Monroe: Big Shot Rob finds more thrills

When Robert Horry’s 3-point basket with 5.8 seconds left in overtime gave the Spurs a 96-95 victory in Game 5 of the 2005 NBA Finals, the game’s announcers called it another dagger from “Big Shot Bob.”

It was a name Horry accepted but didn’t really like, so after the game teammate Tim Duncan delighted in his teammate’s minor discomfort.

On Tuesday afternoon, someone at the White House called Horry “Big Shot Bob,” and it was perfectly fine with a player who ranks among the greatest clutch shooters in NBA history.

“President Obama walked up and said, ‘Big Shot Bob, it’s nice to meet you,’” Horry said after returning to his home in Houston from a week-long USO tour that took him to Kuwait, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Germany.

“It was very cool meeting him. It’s OK that he called me Bob. It really doesn’t matter that much to me, ‘Big Shot Rob’ or ‘Big Shot Bob.’ Either one is OK.”

The occasion was the return of the United States Forces-Iraq colors, the battle flag under which U.S. troops had served during the Iraq war. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the colors in ceremonies at Andrews AFB.

Horry had been aboard Air Force Two, the aircraft used by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, along with the other participants in the USO tour — comedian Thomas Miles, actress Minka Kelly and RB singer Jordin Sparks — when it landed at Andrews with the colors.

“That was the part that really hit you,” Horry said. “Bringing that flag home, well, it just hit you what that meant.”

The NBA reached out to Horry several weeks ago when the USO coordinators asked for a retired player the troops would enjoy meeting. A member of seven NBA championship teams in Houston, Los Angeles and San Antonio, Horry was a natural.

“It was an amazing experience,” said Horry, now 41. “Visiting with the troops was what it was mostly about, just hanging out with them, taking pictures with them and talking. Just trying to break up the monotony of the war.

“I don’t know if we were in any dangerous areas in Afghanistan or not, but we kind of figured out that if they were asking us to wear IBA (individual body armor), it was probably a little dangerous.”

Amazingly, Horry ran into two old friends.

“Willie Locke was my company commander in ROTC (at Alabama),” he said. “My other friend from my hometown was Claude Burnett. His mom always baked my birthday cakes.”

Back on his home turf in Houston, Horry will try to reconnect soon with another old friend. He hasn’t spoken to Antonio McDyess for more than a month because McDyess hasn’t been answering his phone.

Horry knew McDyess’ decision to retire was final, despite the Spurs’ attempts to get him to change his mind.

“When you’ve had knee injuries like he had, you know when it’s time,” Horry said. “That last year I was with the Spurs, I knew it was time after I banged knees in a game in Sacramento. It just wouldn’t heal. Every morning I’d get up, and it would kill me just walking to the bathroom.”

Horry believes the Spurs will be well served in a short season by a core that has been together for years, instead of weeks or months. Lack of time to school new players offsets some of that edge.

“They can sneak out some wins because they’ve got their core back,” he said. “It’s hard to get in a rhythm with new teammates. I know its going to be difficult to beat those young teams, especially Oklahoma City, the Clippers and, well, yeah, the Lakers, too.

“To be honest, I’m thinking 5 or 6 seed, just because of the age of the team and not being able to incorporate new guys into the system in a short season.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

NBA talks go on after deadline

NEW YORK — Deadline Day became Dialogue Day for the .

An ultimatum that had threatened negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement between owners and players was set aside so negotiations could resume, the sides closer to an agreement than they have been since imposition of a lockout by the league July 1.

The talks aimed at ending the lockout continued after the close of business Wednesday, with the league’s owners and players once again searching for the final pieces of a deal to save the season.

Negotiations continued into this morning over “system” issues the players insist they must have if they’re to agree to a 50-50 split of basketball-related income.

The , through president , the guard, Tuesday indicated its willingness to accept the 50-50 deal in exchange for some “tweaks” in the system issues.

Commissioner had warned the National Basketball Players Association that an offer from the league that promised the players the 50-50 split would disappear forever if they declined to accept it by 4 p.m. CST, the close of the league’s business day Wednesday.

Inflammatory rhetoric followed warning, characterized by the union as an ultimatum. Among the incendiary remarks: A charge by National Basketball Players Association outside counsel and lead negotiator that Stern had treated the players “like plantation workers.”

Kessler apologized to Stern on Wednesday morning, and talks resumed around 12:30 CST on Wednesday afternoon. Stern, Deputy Commissioner and Spurs owner , chairman of the owners’ labor relations committee represented the league, along with league attorneys and Dan Rube. Fisher, NBPA executive director , Kessler, attorney and economist represented the players.

With the union’s willingness to yield to the owners’ insistence on a 50-50 split of revenue — a precipitous drop from their 57 percent share that represents a pay cut of 12 percent and an immediate loss of $280 million in salaries — came an appeal to the league to re-open talks to address system issues.

Stern was said to be authorized to make some compromises, and the length of time spent in small-group discussion gave rise to some optimism that a breakthrough might be possible, given the small number of outstanding issues.

Most of the disagreements centered on the luxury tax system that serves as a brake on runaway spending by some teams.

The owners want to stiffen the financial penalties for profligate spending. The players are willing to see the penalties increased but object to some of the rules the owners want to impose.

The league’s proposal on Saturday would ban luxury-tax-paying teams from executing sign-and-trade deals and from using the full mid-level salary cap exception, worth $5 million.

Fearing a chilling effect such rules would have on the free-agent market, the players want to see those rules “tweaked” to promote a more robust free agent market.

Failure by the two sides to reach agreement promises to lead to increased effort by some players to decertify the union as its bargaining unit. This would open the way for a federal antitrust suit, but the process of decertification figures to take about 45 days. The NBPA would be able to negotiate with the league before a decertification vote were taken.

Stern’s warning to the union Saturday was simple: Accept the league’s offer or face a much worse offer in the future. The league’s economic offer would be reset to 47 percent of revenue for the players, with a “flex” salary cap the union already has deemed a hard cap. Further, the reset offer will seek to roll back current contracts.

Such an offer would almost certainly lead to the decertification vote going forward.

Wednesday’s talks aimed to avoid that Doomsday scenario.