Tag: San Antonio Spurs

Ginobili’s heart in FIBAs, mind on lockout

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina — As Spurs guard Manu Ginobili has helped his Argentine national team qualify for the semifinals of the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament, he has kept track of two situations thousands of miles from here: the NBA lockout and teammate Tony Parker’s pursuit of an Olympic berth for his French team.

Thus far, it has been much more enjoyable for Ginobili to read about Parker’s exploits for France in the Eurobasket tournament in Lithuania than to follow the progress, or lack of, in the labor talks..

The unquestioned leader of one of the best international teams of the past dozen years, Ginobili and four of his NBA colleagues have remained focused on the competition at Malvinas Argentinas Arena while receiving details on the state of negotiations for the lockout imposed by the league on July 1.

As important as the tournament is to Ginobili, Luis Scola (Houston Rockets), Andres Nocioni (Philadelphia 76ers), Carlos Delfino (Milwaukee Bucks) and Fabricio Oberto, the lockout never is far from their thoughts in this resort town on the Atlantic coast, some 300 miles northeast of Ginobili’s hometown of Bahia Blanca.

“Of course we all pay attention to what is happening with the lockout,” Ginobili said. “We get updates. We talk about it. We are all worried. We don’t want this to happen, but we know every decade there is a chance this can happen.

“We understand it is a huge business and everyone wants to take care of their part. So we are just here now thinking about this (tournament), and once it is over, we will start to be more concerned about what is going on in the NBA.”

Ginobili expressed regret that the lockout has the potential to interrupt the love affair between San Antonians and the Spurs.

“I think it is a pity,” he said. “I am with such a wonderful organization with an amazing fan base. I’d really love to go back and start training camp and be with all the guys. Hopefully, it is a one-time thing and is not going to happen again in a few years.

“Hopefully it is just once in a blue moon. I’m just hoping for a fair solution.”

Ginobili spends some of his time between games keeping tabs on what is happening at Eurobasket, where Parker has been one of the leading scorers and has yet to suffer a loss with the French national team.

“I haven’t been able to watch the games, but I follow the stats, and I know (France) is undefeated,” Ginobili said before Argentina fell to Spurs teammate Tiago Splitter and Brazil 73-71 on Wednesday. “I know they beat Serbia in the last second. Tony is rolling.

“Good to see that France is doing what they are capable of doing. In the past, they were always a threat, but they were never able to finish it. Hopefully, this year they do.”

Ginobili for several years has touted the Olympic experience to his Spurs teammate.

“I’d really love for Tony to get to play the Olympic Games,” Ginobili said. “He’s a good friend, and any athlete of a high level should learn what it is to be in the Olympics. I told T.P. this a million times, and I think he’s really focused and wants to be there.”

Spurs’ Blair mulls deal with Russia

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

DeJuan Blair could become the next and most prominent Spurs player to take his talents overseas during the NBA lockout.

Blair, who started 65 games at center for the Spurs last season, has an offer on the table from the Russian team Krasnye Krylya, his agent, Happy Walters, said Wednesday. All it is awaiting is Blair’s signature.

“If he signs it, then he’ll go,” Walters said. “The ball’s in our court.”

Should Blair opt to head to Russia, he would have some company abroad.

So far, 32 players who ended the 2010-11 season on an NBA roster have signed deals overseas. Among them are Spurs swingman Danny Green (Slovenia) and third-string point guard Chris Quinn (Russia).

According to the French publication Le Progres, All-Star point guard Tony Parker will join ASVEL, the French League team he co-owns, by mid-October if the lockout is still in progress.

Like all players with existing NBA contracts who aim to spend the lockout abroad, Blair’s deal in Russia would contain an out clause allowing him to return to the Spurs once the labor impasse is resolved.

Blair, 22, is under contract with the Spurs for the next two seasons at a total of $2.04 million, though only $500,000 of that figure is guaranteed. Blair would obtain insurance protecting his NBA contract against injury should he decide to play overseas, his agent said.

Walters said he expects Blair’s decision to come before the end of the week. If he accepts, Blair would leave for Samara — the sixth-largest city in Russia and Krasnye Krylya’s home base — next week.

With the lockout lumbering into its third month, any bit of on-court work would be welcome for Blair. Admitting a weakness for Whataburger, the 6-foot-7 Blair struggled with his weight last season, his second in the NBA, approaching 300 pounds at one point.

Blair averaged a career-best 8.3 points and seven rebounds but late in the season relinquished his starting job to Antonio McDyess, as coach Gregg Popovich chose to favor experience heading into the playoffs.

With the NBA locked out, and few other good options to play professional-level games, Walters views Russia as a good career-building move for Blair.

“He’s a young guy who wants to play,” Walters said. “It’s a way for him to stay in great shape, and at the same time get better. You’re not going to play 30 minutes a night and not get better.”

Playing for Argentina rejuvenates Oberto

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina — The Spurs were in a 3-1 hole in their first-round playoff series against the Grizzlies, but the veterans were happy to see an old friend in the hallway outside their locker room before Game 5.

Fabricio Oberto, starting center on the 2007 title team, was there to lend support to his Argentine friend, Manu Ginobili, and to Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Matt Bonner.

Oberto had other reasons to be in San Antonio. Just five games into the 2010-11 season, a recurrence of heart palpitations, which had beset him on several occasions during his four seasons in silver and black, had forced his retirement from the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland was Oberto’s second NBA team since the 2009 trade that sent him to Detroit as part of the deal that brought Richard Jefferson to San Antonio.

“I am here to visit with the doctors and see what they say about playing again,” Oberto said then. “I must try to play again for my country.”

Oberto was done with the rigors of the NBA, but he had not given up on basketball. Not with an important FIBA tournament scheduled for late summer in his native land; not with one more opportunity to play with the five Argentine national team members with whom he had shared so many memories and medals for more than a decade.

Oberto, Ginobili, Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino, Andres Nocioni and Pepe Sanchez played on the Argentine team that was the first to defeat a U.S. team that included NBA players. Their victory over Team USA at the 2002 FIBA World Championships in Indianapolis shocked the basketball world. Argentina went on to earn the silver medal at that tournament.

All six then were on the 2004 Argentine team that again defeated Team USA, this time in the semifinals of the Olympics in Athens. They won the gold medal, forever earning the nickname with which their basketball loving countrymen refer to them today: the golden generation.

So, if there were a way, Oberto vowed that April day that he would not let down his friends, teammates and countrymen.

That attitude is what Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich once famously characterized as “the heart of a champion.”

This is why in Argentina, where nearly every player has a nickname, Oberto’s alter ego is “El Guerrero” — the warrior.

The tests Oberto underwent in San Antonio produced good results. He headed home to Cordoba, Argentina, determined to get himself in condition for the tournament and wait for additional heart tests before the national team’s training camp was to begin in mid-July.

Argentina’s Fabricio Oberto shoots over Canada’s Kelly Olynyk during Monday’s game in Mar del Plata, Argentina. (Martin Mejia/Associated Press)

Doctors in Argentina gave the go-ahead in late June, and Oberto celebrated the good news with his longtime teammates.

“Nobody will work harder than Fabri to get into the best physical condition,” Ginobili said then. “We all know how hard he will work, and I am thrilled to play with him again and pumped to again play together — a month-and-a-half to be with him and all my other friends on the team.”

Training camp and exhibition games went well for Team Argentina and for Oberto, who was used sparingly as he worked his way back into condition.

Then, just a week ahead of the tournament, Oberto suffered another medical setback. A ruptured muscle in his left hand threatened his participation in the tournament.

Argentine coach Julio Lamas assured Oberto the injury would not cost him his spot on the team. If he had to miss the first round of the competition, the team would wait for him, Lamas said.

Oberto’s response was thrice-daily sessions with the team’s physiotherapist to speed his return to playing status.

One of the most popular players in Argentine basketball history, Oberto suited up for the first game of the tournament. During pregame introductions, the ovation he received equaled those for both Ginobili and Scola, the team’s biggest stars.

“It was amazing,” he said. “My legs were shaking when they cheered my name. I’m really thankful for how they treated me, and I will try to give all that love back inside the court.”

Finally, before Game 2 of the tournament, against Uruguay, Oberto got the news he had hoped to hear: Team doctors and athletic trainers again had cleared him for action.

“I think I will play only five minutes,” he said before that game, “but I will be happy just to be on the court.”

Instead, Oberto played 16 minutes against Uruguay, and in typical fashion: making slick interior passes to his teammates; playing smart, tough defense; and going hard after every rebound and loose ball.

“I returned to life,” he told Argentine reporters after that game.

“I passed through tough days, but I had the perseverance to go on working with the team doctor and kinesiologist, and I made it.”