Pop scolds reporters, wife scolds Pop




































































































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Almost as much as his championship pedigree, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is well known for his snarky sideline demeanor. Indeed, how many NBA coaches have their own highlight reels on Youtube? (See below. Personal favorite: Former Spurs assistant Don Newman cackling “Look at the shoes!” as Pop questions Craig Sager’s sartorial splendor.)

It turns out even Pop has someone to answer to: His wife, who apparently isn’t a fan of his sarcastic manner.  As he told Miami radio station :

“I know. I’m a jerk. I’m going to go ahead and admit it publically to the whole world. Tell me what to do. What should I do?… I don’t know how to answer so sue me for being stupid and not having the answers to the questions. (Host: Keep doing it, it’s entertaining.) It entertains everybody but my wife. When I get home and she says ‘geez why are you so mean? You’re a jerk, people hate you.’ I go I’m sorry honey, I have to do better next time.”

“And there’s no exaggeration. Did you see that guy honey? Did you see him? All you have to do is see him and you know why I answered the way I did. (She says) ‘That’s no excuse, you’re a grown man. Show some maturity.’ I said ‘I can’t, I can’t do it.”

Timely double-team from: .

‘Spur for life’ star emphasizes winning over 54 percent pay cut










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Given the chance to do it all over again, Tim Duncan might have opted to hold his tongue, or at least offer a polite “no comment.”

He might have considered the wartime aphorism about loose lips sinking ships and how the idea might also apply to NBA contract talks.

When, on the cusp of free agency last May, Duncan christened himself a “Spur for life,” it was a heartening moment to fans who hoped he might end his Hall of Fame career in the place it began.

The sentiment turned out to be devastating to any chance Duncan had of playing hardball with Spurs management at the negotiating table.

“I’m an awful negotiator,” Duncan said, chuckling. “My agent was mad at me the whole time.”

Duncan was on hand at the Spurs’ practice facility Tuesday for the start of his 16th NBA training camp. That would have been surprising only if the notoriously casual dresser had arrived in something out of Craig Sager’s wardrobe.

Though technically a free agent for about a week in early July, the 36-year-old Duncan said he never seriously considered retirement and never remotely entertained the idea of playing elsewhere.

“I’ve been here for so long,” said Duncan, who took no calls from rival teams. “This is home for me.”

That’s a welcome statement for NBA observers who still cringe at the memory of Hakeem Olajuwon in a Toronto Raptors jersey or Patrick Ewing in Seattle SuperSonics green.

By accepting a three-year, $30 million deal to return to the Spurs, Duncan put his money where his mouth was.

Last season, Duncan earned $21.15 million, making him one of the NBA’s highest-paid players. This year, he will take home $9.6 million, a 54 percent pay cut that ranks below such not-so-luminaries as Corey Maggette, DeAndre Jordan and Hedo Turkoglu on the league’s salary list.

A 13-time All-Star and two-time league MVP, Duncan will be the fourth-highest paid player on the Spurs this season, behind Manu Ginobili ($14.1 million), Tony Parker ($12.5 million) and Stephen Jackson ($10.05 million).

If Duncan can resume his mid-30s mini-renaissance — he averaged 15.4 points and nine rebounds in a career-low 28.2 minutes per game last season — the power forward could rate as one of the league’s biggest bargains in 2012-13.

The last time the public saw Duncan on a basketball court, he put up 25 points and 14 rebounds in the Spurs’ Western Conference finals ouster at Oklahoma City.

“The way I felt and the way I was getting up and down and the way I was moving, I had no doubt I’d play a couple more (seasons),” Duncan said.

Duncan’s decision to return at a cut rate might also be read as a referendum on his team.

The captain would not have returned if he did not believe the Spurs — two wins away from a return to the NBA Finals a season ago — can remain among the league’s elite for at least a couple more years.

“We all hate losing,” Duncan said. “We all hate coming out here and feeling like we wasted our time. That’s why you want to put it all on the floor and do the best that we can.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich — Duncan’s coach since the day he was drafted No. 1 overall in 1997 — joked the summertime negotiations with his star power forward grew contentious.

“He was just as big a pain in the neck as he was when he almost went to Orlando,” Popovich said, referencing Duncan’s serious flirtation with the Magic during free agency in 2000. “He toyed with me. He lied to me. He intimidated me. He threatened me.

“In the end, it worked out. But I had to take much abuse to get it done.”

Duncan describes a more laid-back approach to contract talks: “Sat down with Pop. He said, ‘Do you want to get it done?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘OK, let’s go.’ It was pretty easy.”

As has been his custom for the past several years, the 6-foot-11 Duncan reported to camp looking trim at 255 pounds.

Throughout last season’s lockout-shortened campaign, Duncan complained less frequently about the knee soreness that had plagued him in recent years. He missed just eight games last season, all for rest purposes.

Encouraged by his health last season, Duncan says he can envision playing out the duration of his new contract, which would take him to age 39.

He has not ruled out signing on for another tour of duty when this deal is up.

“I hope I feel that good at the end of this contract,” Duncan said.

If that’s the case, and Duncan does decide he wants a deal to keep playing, here’s one piece of unsolicited advice: Let your agent do the talking.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Key dates

Today: Intrasquad scrimmage (free admission, open seating) — 7:30 p.m., ATT Center

Saturday: First preseason game — vs. Montepaschi Siena, 7:30 p.m., ATT Center

Oct. 31: Regular-season opener — @Hornets, 7 p.m., KENS NBA TV

Nov. 1: Home opener — vs. Thunder, 8:30 p.m., TNT




























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Spurs memory No. 23: Horry-Nash rumble turns 2007 West semifinal series

  Horry’s tussle with Nash helps spark Spurs 2007 semifinal series victory over Phoenix

Date: Monday May 14, 2007
Place: ATT Center, San Antonio
Score: Phoenix Suns 104, San Antonio Spurs 98 

 It was a moment that turned around a series and may have provided the opening which enabled the Spurs to claim their most recent NBA championships. 

And if you ask any Phoenix fan today –more than four years after the fact – most remain firmly convinced that Robert Horry morphed from “Big Shot Rob” to “Cheap Shot Rob” in a matter of seconds.

Phoenix had just taken control of a 104-98 Game 4 victory in San Antonio that evened the best-of-seven series at two games apiece. The Suns overcame a 10-point deficit in the final nine minutes to earn the victory and reclaim homecourt advantage in the series. Steve Nash was the instigator of the comeback with 24 points and 15 assists.

In the final seconds of the game, Horry delivered a hard body check of Nash that pushed him into the scorer’s table. Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni initially charged at Horry before Raja Bell went after Horry.

“You got 250 going up against 150, it’s going to happen that way,” Horry explained to the Express-News.

As the rumble ensued, starting Phoenix center Amar’e Stoudemire and backup forward Boris Diaw left the team’s bench for a couple of steps as they advanced towards Horry and Bell.  

Horry was suspended with a flagrant 2 foul, leading to his suspension from the next two games because of the altercation and also because he used his forearm to shove away Bell in the resulting scrum. Stoudemire and Diaw both picked up one game suspensions from the league for leaving the bench area.

The suspensions cost Horry for two games, but the Suns lost more with Stoudemire and Diaw out of the lineup for Game 5. The league claimed the players violated a clear rule that forbids them from leaving their bench area during an altercation.

“I don’t like suspending players from games, and the commissioner doesn’t like suspending players from games, let alone a game in the middle of the second round of a playoff series,” said Stu Jackson, who, as the league’s executive vice president of basketball operations, assisted NBA commisioiner David Stern in determining the punishment.

“That’s unfortunate. But in this case, the rule is what it is.”

What they said, part I: “So I was like, ‘I’m going to just bump him a little bit. As you know the great acting skills Steve has when he hit the floor, he flopped and was, ‘Oh, I’m dying over here.’ It happens. I had no malicious intent to hurt Steve. I like Steve, and he’s a good person,” Horry, explaining the incident to the Express-News.

What they said, part II: “Sometimes in the playoffs, things get blown out of perspective, and it’s really going to be blown out of perspective because the other two players got suspended for a game. If that wouldn’t have happened, and if it wasn’t Steven Nash, it wouldn’t have been as big a deal,” Horry on the aftermath of the incident.

What they said, part III: ”Here in Arizona, we do have the most powerful microscopes and telescopes in the world. You could use those instruments and not find a shred of fairness or common sense in that decision,”  D’Antoni, trying to comprehend the suspensions on both teams.

What they said, part IV: ”As loose guidelines, you should probably punish the bad guys and bad deeds. The good guys and the no deeds — you kind of have to talk about,” D’Antoni, on the suspension of his two players.

What they said, part V: “It was just an end-of game foul and Steve fell down,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, on the rumble that sparked the incident.

What they said, part VI: “There was not going to be a fight. We  don’t have guys like that. You lump everybody together, and that’s not fair to the good guys,” D’Antoni on why he believed the NBA overreacted with the suspensions.

What they said, part VII: ”As I told you all over the past 15 or 40 years, I never liked ‘Big Shot Rob,’ so now that I go to ‘Big Cheap Shot Rob,’ it doesn’t bother me; I was already hated here,” Horry, on his image change in Phoenix after the suspension.

What they said, part  VIII: ”I was going to try to take a charge, and then it was, ‘Oh, he’s too fast, so let me bump him a little bit.’ As you know, the great acting skills Steve has, he hits the floor, gets the flop, and it’s, ‘Oh, I’m dying over here.’ I wasn’t trying to hurt him.” Horry on Nash’s reaction after the foul.

What they said, part IX: ”We went from soft to meaner than hell real quick,” Popovich on the Spurs’ national reputation transformation after the Horry incident.

What they said, part X: “As I sat in the lobby thinking to myself why would somebody make a bomb threat, along walks (TNT’s) Craig Sager, and the light went off,” Spurs guard Brent Barry explaining to the Express-News his rationale why a bomb threat was made at his team’s hotel.

What they said, part XI: “Everybody has to make their own decisions. But we have a good group of guys who are playing a very physical series, and what happens is what happens. Horry has never been known as a dirty player his whole career. It was just a unique set of circumstances,” Spurs majority owner Peter Holt, explaining the Horry-Nash altercation.

What they said, part XII: ”I know you have to roll with the punches literally a lot of the time. I felt like that was uncalled for. It’s hard to always take the high road,” Nash, to the Associated Press about the incident with Horry.

The upshot: Before Game 5, Horry was vilified outside America West Arena, where vendors hawked “DIRTY HORRY — Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?” T-shirts …  After Stern made his determination of the suspensions to Stoudemire and Diaw, he decided not to attend Game 6 in Phoenix.  On the night before Game 5, irate Phoenix fans called in a bomb threat to the Spurs’ team hotel, leading to a sweep of the building. But it didn’t matter to them. The Spurs took advantage of the absences of Stoudemire and Diaw to come back from a 16-point deficit to claim a gritty 88-85 victory over Phoenix in Game 5, winning the game on Bowen’s clutch 3-pointer with 36.4 seconds left in the game. Stoudemire and Diaw were back in the lineup for Game 6, but the Spurs claimed a 114-106 victory to wrap up the series – the Spurs’ most difficult in the 2007 playoffs. San Antonio then beat Utah in five games for the Western Conference title and swept Cleveland in four games to win their fourth NBA championship in a nine-season span.  D’Antoini’s whining caught up with him. His team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in the following season by the Spurs and was released after that season. He’s never won a playoff series since the Horry-Nash incident.

Previous Spurs most memorable moments:

No. 24: Ice’s clandestine arrival .

No. 25: Barkleywith series-clinching shot.

No. 26: Silas becomes first Spur.

No. 27: Robinson makes history with .

No. 28: after crucial 1999 victory at Houston.

No. 29: on Halloween night.

No. 30: Torrid San Diego shooting