Category: In the News

Spurs links: Could TP fill the Lakers’ biggest need?

I couldn’t send Spurs Nation off to bed tonight without a bedtime snack of a few Spurs-related newspaper links from around the nation from the last several days.

Enjoy.

Maybe these reminders of  your favorite team will get you through the angst of watching Dallas tonight in the Western Conference finals.

  • Veteran Los Angeles Times NBA reporter Mark Heisler explains why to the Los Angeles Lakers.
  • John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News writes how weird the 2011 playoffs are .
  • Memphis Commercial Appeal editor Chris Peck writes about what the Grizzlies’ victory over the Spurs .
  • Kevin Modesti writes in a front-page story in the Daily News of Los Angeles why Los Angeles fans aren’tas Spurs fans are missing their team in the playoffs.
  • Mike Wise of the Washington Post compared the Spurs’ 2011 playoff performance to for the New York Mets late in his career.
  • Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison opines about the in a Spurs-less conference finals.
  • Old pal Herb Gould of the Chicago Sun-Times writes why a Chicago loss to Miami like the Spurs’ loss to Memphis or the Lakers being ousted by Dallas.
  • Drummer and San Antonio native Dave Vela of the gospel faith band Abandon tells the Houston Chronicle’s Kent Matthews .

Scot Pollard calls Phil Jackson ‘one of most overrated coaches of our time’

Despite a record 11 NBA championships with two different franchises, former Sacramento center Scot Pollard isn’t buying Phil Jackson’s credentials as a legendary NBA coach.

Pollard told KHTK radio in Sacramento that Jacksoncoaching players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen and Shaquille O’Neal during his career with the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago.

“I just think he’s one of the most overrated coaches of our time. He’s only had the greatest players of our era on his teams. Put him in charge of the Sacramento Kings this year, and I don’t mean to offend Sacramento fans, but put him on a team with no Hall-Of-Famers on it at least no one that has established themselves as a Hall-Of-Famer already, put him as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers right now and let’s see how he does next year with no Hall-Of-Famers on the team. That’s all I’m saying.”

Pollard added that he respects Jackson’s championship rings, but he has “never taken a team that wasn’t a playoff team and turned them into a playoff team.”

Jackson has had a well-publicized relationship with Sacramento and its fans since the memorable 2002 Western Division Championship series.

It’s been nine years since that series ended. And it seems like the Kings and their fans still haven’t forgiven or forgotten that Jackson called them a “cowtown.”

I’m curious if Spurs Nation shares Pollard’s thoughts on this question.

Kidd’s ex making the tabloids with Arizona Cardinals’ top draft choice

Even as her former husband is poised to make a deep run in the playoffs, Joumana Kidd is upstaging Jason Kidd.

The well-connected website Urban Takeout.com is reporting that Joumana Kidd, 38, has pounced on top Arizona draft pick Patrick Peterson of LSU.

Urban Takeout reports that the former Mrs. Kidd and Peterson were “at the NFL Player’s Association rookie party” before leaving together. Peterson was the fifth pick in the first round of the NFL Draft last week. 

Joumana and her son, T.J., became a frequent cutaway shot during the 2003 NBA Finals against the Spurs back when her former husband was playing for  the New Jersey Nets. They had a messy divorce in 2007 when Kidd of physically and mentally abusing him, threatening to make false domestic violence complaints against him to police and of interfering with his relationship with his three children.

 ”The defendant’s extreme and unwarranted jealousy and rage has left the plaintiff concerned about her emotional stability,” Kidd’s divorce papers said at the time.

He’s moved on and now has the Dallas Mavericks aiming for their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2006.

And it seems that Peterson has been drafted by the Cardinals and taken up with a cougar.