Tag: In the News

Spurs’ stars easing into regular minutes

By Jeff McDonald

MIAMI — With three games left in the preseason, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says it’s time to take the bubble wrap off his regulars.

The Spurs’ veterans, including 36-year-old Tim Duncan, 35-year-old Manu Ginobili and 30-year-old Tony Parker, need to ramp up to something approaching a full night’s work.

That time could come soon, perhaps as early as this afternoon at Miami.

“That process has begun,” Popovich said. “The starters want to have a rhythm at the beginning of the year. That will start to show itself as we move forward.”

That’s music to the ears of Ginobili, who says for conditioning’s sake he wouldn’t mind topping 30 minutes at least once this preseason.

Through four exhibition games, none of the Spurs’ Big Three 30-somethings are averaging more than Duncan’s 17.7 minutes per game. Duncan and Parker each have missed a game. Ginobili skipped two with a sore right heel.

“We’ve been having some good, long, tough practices that can get you there, too,” Ginobili said. “But probably one of these three games, a 30-plus minute game will be important to see where you’re at. I don’t know what Pop is thinking. We haven’t talked about it. But at least in one game, I’d like to have a season-like game.”

Conditioning has been on Ginobili’s mind since he left the London Olympics in August. Instead of propping his feet up during September, he stayed in shape by practicing two or three times a week with an Argentine club team.

“I hate it when I have to sit two or three weeks,” Ginobili said. “It feels like you have to start from scratch. I don’t like that.”

We meet again: The Spurs missed out on meeting LeBron James in the NBA Finals last season.

Several Spurs’ players did square off against James in high-stakes Olympic contests later in the summer, and the results weren’t pretty.

En route to gold, James’ Team USA ran through Ginobili’s Argentine team, Parker’s French team, and Patty Mills’ Australian squad. The Americans also bested Tiago Splitter’s Brazilian team in an exhibition in Washington before leaving for London.

Ginobili said James’ Olympic run — in which he averaged 13.3 points, 5.6 assists and 5.6 rebounds in 25 minutes per game — was as impressive as his Finals run.

“He’s been good since the first year,” Ginobili said. “He’s good. He probably does some things better (now), but he’s one of the best players ever. It’s not like he had to improve much.”

Visiting Vaughn: Popovich said he was looking forward to the second leg of the Spurs’ Florida trip, capped by a Sunday game at Orlando.

Jacque Vaughn, a former Spurs’ point guard and assistant coach, is the Magic’s new coach.

“In the regular season, we’ll be trying to beat each other’s brains in,” Popovich said. “The preseason is a lot more fun. We’ll have a lot of fun with that, try to screw with him. Just for kicks.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Player rep Bonner opens up about pains from lockout
























































































































































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By Mike Monroe

It wasn’t until Matt Bonner stood on the first tee box at the TPC San Antonio golf course on Monday afternoon that the reality of another NBA season struck him.

Hurrying to the annual tournament, which benefits the Kids Sports Network, from the Spurs’ practice facility after a vigorous workout was, well, par for the course.

A year ago, things were dramatically different.

Then, when the sharp-shooting forward hosted his tournament at Canyon Springs Golf Club, it came after a flight from the Northeast the previous afternoon. As a vice president of the players’ association, he knew he would be on his way back to New York the next morning for another negotiating session with NBA owners and executives.

Both sides were in a weeks-long collective-bargaining dispute that had turned ugly while trying to end a lockout that already had extended through the entire month of October, ordinarily the time training camp takes place.

It was a stressful time for all of the players, but especially so for those involved in the talks. There were nights, Bonner said, when it was hard to sleep.

The contrast Monday morning was stark. The only stress Bonner felt: Moderate concern he might hit a spectator with that first tee shot.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich started practice early to accommodate Bonner’s event, then followed him to the course to participate in the fundraiser. Sean Elliott, the former Spurs All-Star who’s now a broadcaster with the team, also played in the tournament.

A year ago, the league wouldn’t even allow team employees and the players to speak to one another.

“Absolutely, it hit me how different this year was,” Bonner said Thursday. “I remember how last year we were trying hard to get clearance to have Coach Popovich and Sean and some of the other retired players who work with NBA teams to come out and participate and we couldn’t get it.

“It was really nice this year to not have to worry about that; not have to worry about something happening in the lockout to where I couldn’t even make it to my own tournament.”

Last year’s lockout didn’t end until Nov. 26, with the start of a shortened 66-game 2011-12 season pushed back to Christmas Day.

Training camp lasted a little more than a week.

The lockout took a toll on Bonner and the other players on the union’s executive committee.

“It was an emotional roller coaster,” Bonner said. “You go from thinking you’re going to get the deal done and get back to your normal life and doing what you love to thinking it’s never going to happen.

“It was up and down and down and up. And then when it did happen it was, ‘What?’ It didn’t even seem real after everything we had been through.”

Bonner has played only 11 minutes in only two of the Spurs’ four preseason games and has yet to score, attempting only three shots. He knows his time will come.

“It’s a long preseason this year, and that’s kind of nice,” he said. “Last year, with the lockout, there was just one week of hard practices and then right into games.

“That was a lot of fun, but right now we’re getting to work on a lot of things we didn’t get to work on last year and focus in on executing the details.”

His game, he said, is taking shape nicely in practice sessions.

“I’ve played a whole lot in practice, I can tell you that,” he said. “I feel like I’m plugged into my role, and that’s what I do and I think I’ve been doing a good job executing it.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net
Twitter: @Monroe_SA

Witherspoon working to salvage an NBA career







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His big night in Houston becoming a blurrier memory by the day, Wesley Witherspoon was back on the practice floor Wednesday, once again spilling sweat at the seemingly impossible task of making the Spurs’ roster.

“Stuff like that lasts until you leave the locker room,” Witherspoon said of Sunday’s breakout preseason performance. “Then it’s back to work.”

The 17 points he scored as the Spurs’ starting small forward against the Rockets aside, Witherspoon remains the longest of long shots still left in camp.

In all likelihood, the undrafted rookie will soon be looking for a new professional home before he ever unpacked at his first one.

This was decidedly not how the script was supposed to go.

At this time two years ago, heading into his junior season at the University of Memphis, Witherspoon was projected as an NBA first-round draft choice, guaranteed money and a guaranteed roster spot there for the taking.

Though not quite in the same talent bracket, Witherspoon was predicted to one day follow in the footsteps of Tyreke Evans, a fellow member of Memphis’ Class of 2008 and a Sacramento lottery pick in 2009.

“I felt like it was the best decision for me to stay,” said Witherspoon, 22. “You can’t listen to all the stuff you hear, about where you’re going to be drafted. I felt like I wasn’t ready to go. So I didn’t leave.”

In retrospect, the decision might have cost the 6-foot-8 forward millions.

His junior season was a disaster almost from the start. Witherspoon played poorly in front of NBA scouts — and a national television audience — in a loss to Kansas in December.

Then came arthroscopic knee surgery.

Six games after he returned, Witherspoon was suspended for mocking an assistant coach on the team bus after a loss to SMU.

By March, Witherspoon was back — but as a reserve. Between injury and suspension, he missed 12 games. His draft stock plunged.

Witherspoon came back as a senior, averaged a respectable 7.2 points and 3.7 rebounds, then was passed over by every team in the NBA draft.

Having never expected to be a four-year college player in the first place, Witherspoon now describes his downfall in Memphis in purely practical terms.

“My time in Memphis was well spent,” Witherspoon said. “It was a great four years. That’s the past. Right now, I’m focused on playing for the San Antonio Spurs.”

Sunday in Houston, Witherspoon was able to flash a bit of that long-ago potential.

Earning the start next to Tim Duncan and Tony Parker in a 117-106 win over the Rockets, Witherspoon knocked down 6 of 9 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers.

He led all players in scoring and showed an impressive burst and explosion in the halfcourt.

“Guys get pretty excited, trying to make a basketball team,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “If you have a bad night, it’s like the end of the world. If you have a good night, you’re feeling pretty good.”

In San Antonio, Witherspoon is tasked with making a roster already more or less set, at a wing position where the Spurs are overstocked.

In a sense, his NBA career is considered day-to-day.

“He probably came back down to Earth a little bit with today’s practice,” Popovich said Wednesday. “We all get back to normal after a while. But he showed he’s got some ability and some potential there.”

For an undrafted rookie trying to make possible the impossible, the highs and lows rarely last long.

His pro career nudged from the fast track and onto a path considerably more treacherous, the longest of long shots aims to make every chance count.

“I came here to get better, and I feel like I’m doing that,” Witherspoon said. “This is a great place to start your career.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN