Tag: Gregg Popovich

Buford: Spurs not caught up in Parker’s pessimism

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Spurs general manager R.C. Buford was at the NBA’s pre-draft combine in Chicago on Thursday when he heard that point guard Tony Parker this week said the Spurs, as constituted, aren’t capable of contending for an NBA championship.

“Who knows what the motivation is to say something like that,” Buford said. “I’m not going to get caught up in comments. All I can say is that we’re going to continue to build our team and try to be as good as we can be in the future.”

At a press conference in Paris early this week Parker was asked about the Spurs and their disappointing finish to a 61-win season.

The French sports publication L’Equipe quoted Parker on his concern about the team’s ability to remain among the NBA’s legitimate title contenders.

“Our team can still perform at the highest level, but next year I don’t think we can play for the title,” he said. “We have to be realistic. It was kind of our last chance this season because (Tim) Duncan and (Manu) Ginobili are getting older.”

Parker also said he understands it will be difficult for the Spurs to improve through trades because of the nature of the team’s contracts.

“We don’t have many players that can be traded, and we’re going to have to be lucky during the draft,” he said. “But Pop (head coach and president of basketball Gregg Popovich) always makes the right choices.”

Parker acknowledged that, as a 29-year-old three-time All-Star with a hefty contract, he has more trade value than his teammates.

“If they have a player they can trade, it is clearly me,” he said, “but Pop told me I will not go anywhere, so we’ll see. Obviously, the NBA is a business. You have to be ready for everything.

“That being said, I don’t think they would have signed me for four more years to trade me, but you just never know.”

Buford understands that Parker’s comments are apt to spawn another round of trade speculation.

“I can’t control that,” he said, “and I’m not going to worry about it. We’re just going to move forward and work to improve the team.”

Mike Monroe: Pop sees possible Phil successor down on the farm

After his Mavericks chased Phil Jackson into retirement a few weeks earlier than planned, Rick Carlisle famously speculated how long the Lakers coach “ … can go to Montana and meditate and smoke peyote, or whatever he does there. I don’t know. He’s going to get bored, and I mean that in an endearing manner.”

Gregg Popovich wonders how long another old coach can watch corn grow without feeling the pull of competition.

Shouldn’t the Lakers ask Jerry Sloan if he would like to discuss replacing Jackson?

“I just can’t see him staying on the farm,” the Spurs coach said. “Jerry’s too freakin’ competitive.”

It’s hard to imagine Sloan, who swears he is perfectly content on his Macleansboro, Ill., farm, adapting to the go-go life in La-La Land.

Adapting to a coaching role that includes replacing a legend?

Easier than shucking an ear of corn.

“L.A. is very ‘un-Jerry,’ but he’d have the respect, that’s for sure,” Popovich said. “People would listen.”

They would listen because Sloan is a Hall of Fame coach and because he remains just as competitive as the most intense of players.

Sloan’s approach to basketball, and life, is so foreign to Jackson’s, he could be the perfect replacement.

Here’s something easy to imagine: Kobe Bryant, executing high pick-and-rolls with Pau Gasol or Lamar Odom, as John Stockton once ran them with Karl Malone.

Part of Jackson’s genius was embracing an offensive system, Tex Winter’s triple-post offense, and sticking with it.

Sloan, too, is a system coach who demanded perfect execution of the offense he borrowed from Dick Motta and others.

Now Sloan is on the farm, and Jackson is meditating in Montana.

At 62, Popovich has watched fellow 60-something coaches ease into retirement, forced or otherwise. With Jackson gone, Popovich and Boston’s Doc Rivers are the only active coaches who fully comprehend what it takes to wring an NBA championship from a team.

“I’m just awestruck at what Phil’s accomplished,” Popovich said. “To a degree, I know what you have to go through to do that, but we’ve done it four times. He’s done it 11 times.

“To go through all those playoff games, each one a war and a drain, an unbelievable emotional and psychological test; for him to have done that 11 times makes me awestruck.”

Popovich never ate dinner or shared a bottle of wine with Jackson. Amazingly, he never had a single conversation with him until February. Then, he phoned him before the All-Star Game, a courtesy call to let Jackson know he was starting Tim Duncan, rather than Pau Gasol, as a replacement for injured center Yao Ming.

“I wanted him to know,” Popovich said, “before the press found out.”

The fact they weren’t fast friends doesn’t diminish Popovich’s sincere respect for Jackson’s professional achievements and personal vision.

“He exhibited unbelievably great perspective,” Popovich said. “He knows it’s basketball, period, and nothing more. He’s been great in applying life’s lessons to it. Once it’s done, it’s done. You do the best job you can and try to relate it to people’s lives and take your satisfaction out of the group that you’ve formed and how well they have progressed together. That’s the real joy of it, and I think he gets that as much, or more, than most ever have.

“He seems to relish what the group can accomplish and how to get it to that point. Then, when it’s over, you win or you lose, and it seems he is very able to just move on, because life does move on and is important beyond basketball.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Memphis blog brother respects Spurs’ historic accomplishments

 Memphis blogger Chip Crain ofprovided some blog fodder earlier in the Memphis series when he ranked Marc Gasol over Tim Duncan and Mike Conley over Tony Parker in some of his positional analysis.

After the way the series played out, Crain’s analysis was spot-on. Even with the strong history from the two key players in the Spurs’ foundation, he was correct that their Memphis counterparts now are better. They certainly played that way in the series.

In his post-series analysis, Crain has some about the Spurs.  He praised Manu Ginobili, Gregg Popovich, Duncan and Parker, along with the Spurs’ organization. In the process, he almost proclaimed brisket as the equal of  the Memphis dry-rub version of barbecue.

But his most prescient comments came when he ended his commentary. It might be something for Spurs Nation to pause and reflect on as they get ready for a long off-season.

“The Spurs never gave up. They never acted immature. They held themselves to higher standard,” Crain wrote. “They showed the same class in defeat as they have shown in their victories in the past. I won’t lie and say I feel sad that the Spurs lost but I do feel honored to have seen such an excellent example of how true champions behave.

“This may one day be looked back on as the end of an era for the Spurs but I hope the way they handled themselves in both victory and defeat will be a lesson for the teams that come. Thank you San Antonio. You have shown our young team how to handle themselves in good times and bad. I can only hope that the Grizzlies handle themselves with the same class that the Spurs have done for the past decade.” 

Here are some other takes from my blog brothers after the end of the Spurs’ season.

  • Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell.com explains why he still would vote R.C. Buford as his NBA Executive of the Year, during the next several months. Varner also proclaims that the Spurs lost the Memphis series
  • Paul Garcia of Project Spurs.com provides a about the Spurs and after the Game 6 loss to Memphis.
  • Grego21 of Pounding the Rock.com relates that Zach Randolph’s domination of the Spurs was reminiscent of the kind of to the rest of the NBA.
  • Craig “Junior” Miller, a noted Spurs fan from way back  and a big-time radio host in Dallas, writes that he’s as Memphis did in the recent series.  
  • Tom Ziller of SB Nation.com details the reasons why the in recent seasons.
  • Secretchord53 of Spurs Dynasty.com relates how the last five minutes of Memphis’ Game 6 victory over the Spurs
  • SilverandblackDavis of Pounding the Rock.com gives us a detailed reflection of the Spurs’ past season, saying that surprising presents sometimes come arrived in .
  • J. Michael Falgoust of USA Today.com writes why the Grizzlies’ series victory over the Spurs .  
  • Paul Eide of Hoops Vibe.com doesn’t expect the Spurs to once the NBA resumes play next season.
  • Wayne Vore of Spurs Planet.com writes that the Spurs’ improbable Game 5 victory helpedto the Grizzlies.  
  • Scrappy-doo of Pounding the Rock.com opines that despite back-to-back championships, the Spurs were a .
  • Josh Guyer of Pounding the Rock.com provides the for the Spurs’ Game 6 loss to Memphis.
  • Alleyoop of Spurs Dynasty.com provides a .
  • The Pro Sports Exchange provides its post-season wrapup on the .