Tag: Manu Ginobili

Spurs slowly getting business in order

The Spurs unlocked the doors to their practice complex Thursday morning, but players didn’t exactly barge through.

Maybe they knew members of the team’s medical staff were waiting inside, ready to give each player the requisite preseason physical exam.

Who likes an ice-cold stethoscope pressed against bare skin anyway?

Only three Spurs showed up for physicals Thursday: team captain Tim Duncan, second-year guard James Anderson and first-round draft pick Cory Joseph.

Most other members of the team aren’t expected to arrive until the weekend, and authorized offseason workouts won’t begin for another day or two.

According to one eyewitness, Duncan looked fit and trim.

All-Star point guard Tony Parker is scheduled to take a flight from Paris today and is expected at the practice facility Saturday or Sunday.

All-Star guard Manu Ginobili — who had been in San Antonio for a few weeks before the Nov. 10 breakdown in labor negotiations — will be in town Wednesday, according to his agent, Herb Rudoy.

Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and his staff continued talking to representatives of free agents so the club can be prepared for the opening of free agency, scheduled for Dec. 9.

A report in the Argentine sports publication Ole! on Thursday quoted former Spurs center Fabricio Oberto expressing hope that he might return to the Spurs for one more season.

According to that report, the Spurs had talked with Oberto’s Argentina-based agent before the lockout and showed interest in bringing the 36-year-old center back to the team.

Buford would neither confirm nor deny the team’s interest in the big man.

Traded by the Spurs in the 2008 deal that acquired forward Richard Jefferson, Oberto retired from the Portland Trail Blazers last season after suffering a recurrence of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that twice sidelined him during his four seasons with the Spurs.

Cleared in July to play for Argentina in the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Oberto was a solid contributor to his national team winning the gold medal in that grueling tournament. He is expected to play for Argentina during the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Meanwhile, a significant hurdle on the path to a new collective bargaining agreement has been cleared. The players union will be reconstituted after receiving recertification cards from more than 260 player members. This will allow bargaining to continue with the NBA in an effort to complete a collective bargaining agreement in time for the planned Christmas Day opening of the 2011-12 season.

Checking out the Spurs: Physicals first, workouts later

According to someone in the know, Spurs players who showed up Thursday at the team’s practice facility were there to get the physical exams always required before the start of training camp. They won’t begin working out at the site until Saturday or Sunday.

The NBA this week allowed team facilities to be opened to players who literally had been locked out since July 1.

Among the players reportedly receiving a physical Thursday morning: Team captain and two-time NBA MVP  Tim Duncan, looking fit and ready to begin his 15th season in silver and black. Duncan has been diligent in his conditioning regimen through the summer and fall. He organized workouts at a private gym that until recently included teammates Manu Ginobili, Tiago Splitter, James Anderson and Da’Sean Butler, as well as players from some other NBA teams.

Matt Bonner, the Spurs union player representative, said most players were expected to have completed physicals by the end of the weekend and would be at the site every day next week working out in preparation for the planned start of training camp on Dec. 9.

SI predicts strong season but no title for Spurs

Back in the day, it was one of the two most eagerly anticipated sports journalism moments at my house each week.

In that halycon area before 24-hour sports networks and message boards, a young reader was happy to get any kind of information apart from the daily sports page. In those days, we got one college football game on television each Saturday, two NFL games on Sunday and no televised NBA games at all until Christmas Day.

So it was always a big event each Friday when the Sports Illustrated arrived with the glossy pictures and flowery writing. On Saturday, the notes and boxscores that arrived each week with the Sporting News were just as keenly awaited.

But both publications still have a special meaning for me and I typically drop what I am doing to at least glance through each publication upon arrival these days. Old habits die hard for  me, even after more than 40 years.

So it was understandable Wednesday that when the Sports Illustrated arrived with its NBA previews, it would be appointment reading.

I was amazed they were able to , which leads me to believe they were ready for a long time and just awaiting the end of the lockout for release.

But whatever. It was still interesting to read what old buddy Sam Amick had to say about the Spurs heading into the season.

Here is the Sports Illustrated preview:

SAN ANTONIO SPURS:

What they’ve got: San Antonio is hoping to get one more ring out of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. While they looked like eventual world champs during a 57-13 start last season, their six-game upset at the hands of the Grizzlies in the first round might have marked the end of an era.

What they need: The Spurs need to figure out the fate of small forward Richard Jefferson and power forward Antonio McDyess. Even if they don’t use the amnesty provision on Jefferson (three years and $30.5 million remaining), the clause makes it easier to move him; his contract would be seen as an expiring one. McDyess hinted at retirement at the end of last season, but has not said definitely what he will do. Rookie forward Kawhi Leonard, out of San Diego State, will help but not enough to offset the loss of guard George Hill, who was traded to the Pacers in June.

Bottom line: The Spurs will win on most nights, but they won’t win it all.

Amick’s observations are cogent and his bottom line is kind of a barometer about what the national media is thinking about the Spurs.

Namely, expect a strong winning season, but don’t be surprised if we see the same kind of ending for the Spurs in the playoffs that has resulted in first-round ousters in two of the last three seasons.