Tag: guard

Spurs start preseason with clang

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

HOUSTON — There were no goosebumps Saturday night when Kawhi Leonard pulled on that black No. 2 jersey.

There was no tingle down the spine that often accompanies a dream come true. There were no tears of joy.

To hear the rookie forward tell it, pulling on an NBA uniform for the first time was much like pulling on a tool belt and hard hat.

“I felt like it was finally here,” Leonard said. “It was time to go out and do work.”

As the Spurs and their top draft choice learned in a 101-87 preseason-opening loss to Houston at the Toyota Center, there is still much labor to be done, and — with the shrunken exhibition season now half over — not a lot of time left to do it.

In many ways, Saturday went about as expected for a team playing a game on only seven days of practice, and with a pair of All-Stars (Tim Duncan and Tony Parker) resting comfortably back in San Antonio.

The Spurs missed 32 of their first 40 shots and fell into a 22-point hole in the second half before rallying to make a game of it.

Luis Scola led the Rockets with 20 points, and Jordan Hill posted a 17-point, 13-rebound double-double — not a great sign for a Spurs frontcourt that was physically abused by Memphis’ big men in last season’s playoffs.

“It’s not that easy the first game, especially after only a week,” said guard Manu Ginobili, who recovered for 16 points after a 2-for-10 first half. “We’re all a little rusty, out of shape and trying to connect.”

For Leonard and fellow first-rounder Cory Joseph, simply finding the right place to stand could be considered a minor victory.

With the lockout erasing the standard rookie offseason activities, Leonard has had a week to familiarize himself with the playbook. Compared to Joseph, a Canadian citizen who could not practice until Saturday morning’s shootaround while awaiting a work visa, Leonard is a seasoned vet.

Leonard scored two points, making 1 of 4 shots, and — not insignificantly — grabbed six rebounds in 23 minutes. Joseph scored four points, hit 2 of 7 field goals, and had two assists and no turnovers.

“It’s going to take them a while to get a feel, where to be on the court, when to insert themselves in the game, how to make everything click,” coach Gregg Popovich said.

For the Spurs, the game’s most heartening stretch came midway through the third quarter, when their youth brigade orchestrated a comeback.

In the span of a few minutes, Leonard scooped up a rebound and scrambled for his only basket. James Anderson finished an acrobatic layup for his only field goal (he was 0 for 8 otherwise). Tiago Splitter threw in a hook shot over Hill.

That helped kick-start a run that got the Spurs within 80-78 early in the fourth quarter. Watching the rally from the bench, Ginobili applauded.

“For most of the game, they (the young guys) played better than us,” said Ginobili, who team finished shooting 35.4 percent. “They did a good job hustling, moving the ball, getting layups.”

After a ragged start, Splitter finished with 13 points, including eight in the fourth quarter. Of course, given Splitter’s star-crossed rookie season, the fact he made it to the team plane after the game without pulling something was notable.

“He had such a tough year last year, injured most of the time,” Popovich said. “It was great to see him whole.”

All told, the Spurs left Houston feeling content about the trip and looking forward to a rematch in the preseason finale Wednesday in San Antonio. They know they will be a different team with their All-Star power forward and point guard.

“It wasn’t a great game,” Ginobili said. “But it wasn’t horrible.”

There is work to do, sure. But with eight whole days before Memphis visits the ATT Center to start the regular season, time left to do it.

Canceled season is looming closer

NEW YORK — Faced with a deal it could not accept and a negotiating process that had reached a dead end, the National Basketball Players Association elected to disband Monday afternoon, thrusting the NBA into chaos.

The prospect of reviving the 2011-12 season now rests with the courts.

Billy Hunter, executive director of the now-defunct NBPA, made the announcement just before 1 p.m. CST, after a four-hour meeting of union officials and player representatives from all 30 teams.

A letter informing the NBA of the union’s decision was sent before Hunter took the podium.

“The players just felt that they had given enough, that the NBA was not willing or prepared to continue to negotiate,” Hunter said, with more than 40 players packed behind him in a small hotel conference room. “Things were not going to get better.”

The union’s decision comes four days after commissioner David Stern issued an ultimatum to the union to accept the league’s current proposal or have it replaced with an inferior deal.

Stern reiterated over the weekend that the NBA was done negotiating.

Few teams in the NBA have more to lose from cancellation of the season than the Spurs.

Coming off a 61-win season that was followed by a shocking first-round playoff loss to the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies, they understand that the glory days of an aging roster are dwindling.

Two-time Most Valuable Player Tim Duncan, now 35, is in the final season of his contract. Though he has stated his intent to play as long as he remains a significant contributor, losing the season could affect his thinking.

All-Star guard Manu Ginobili, 34, is under contract for only two more seasons. He has acknowledged that retirement will be an option after 2012-13.

The club hoped a shortened NBA season might convince 36-year-old forward-center Antonio McDyess to put off his announced retirement plans.

There is little chance he would return for a season in which he would turn 38.

On several occasions during the lockout, Stern has expressed regret about the effect it has had on players like Duncan. He reiterated the sentiment Monday, even as he criticized the union’s decision to disclaim interest.

“Players whose last year was this season will have their careers potentially end on this basis,” he said, “and it’s just a negotiating tactic, and it’s all that it is.”

In disbanding, the NBPA will now become a trade association. It will represent the players’ interests, but for the purposes of bargaining, the players are now considered individuals.

The decision to end the union effectively renders moot a separate effort by agents and players to force decertification of the union. An antitrust lawyer representing that group was set to deliver more than 200 player signatures to the National Labor Relations Board to start the clock on that process. Decertifying — effectively overthrowing union leadership from the outside — would have taken at least six weeks and would have required a majority vote by the full membership.

By disclaiming interest, the union ceases operations, opening the door to an immediate antitrust lawsuit.

The NBA is expected to challenge the disclaimer as a sham that was perpetuated only to create leverage at the bargaining table. The league made that accusation in August, when it filed a pre-emptive lawsuit accusing union leaders of threatening to disclaim as a negotiating tactic.

Stern hammered that point again in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

“At a bargaining session in February 2010, Jeffrey Kessler, counsel for the union, threatened that the players would abandon the collective bargaining process and start an antitrust lawsuit against our teams if they did not get a bargaining resolution that was acceptable to them,” Stern said.

In an interview with ESPN, Stern said the NBA was entering a “nuclear winter.”

He also said the league’s latest offer was not an ultimatum but a revised proposal.

“When you negotiate for 21/2 years and finally get to where the parties are … that’s not an ultimatum. That’s a proposal that’s ready to be voted up or down,” Stern said. “They seem hell-bent on self-destruction, and it’s very sad.

“There will ultimately be a new collective bargaining agreement,” Stern said in his statement, “but the 2011-12 season is now in jeopardy.”

Without a union, the players are now free to sue the NBA under antitrust laws and challenge the legality of the lockout. Hunter said a lawsuit would be filed within two days.

Staff Writer Mike Monroe and the New York Times contributed to this report.

Jordan Crawford says he can be better than Michael Jordan – seriously

Maybe it was his while in college school that emboldened Jordan Crawford in a special way.

But on the , the Washington Wizards guard has some pretty lofty career aims. Namely, to be the greatest to ever play the game.

Crawford continued that line of thinking in a recent interview with the Washington Post, where he flatly predicted he will be the greatest player that has ever played the game — including Michael Jordan.

“I don’t tell nobody, but I feel like I can be better than Michael Jordan,” Crawford told the Post, with a straight face. “When I’m done playing, I don’t want people to say, Michael Jordan is the best player. I want that to be me. That’s how I am. That’s how I was built.”

Crawford was the 27th pick in the first round of last year’s draft by Atlanta. He was traded late in the season to the Wizards, where he averaged 16.3 points in 26 games last season. 

His dunk over James created a firestorm when Nike tried to confiscate the tape. Thanks to You Tube and below, the tape has made itself into the public domain.

But pulling on Superman’s cape in the form of saying he will be better than Jordan is another thing.

I applaud him for dreaming big. But he better not hope that Jordan gets the comeback itch at the age of 48.

Because if he does, I bet I know the first place that “His Airness” will be looking to once he restarts his career.

Here’s the video of Crawford dunking over James way back when.