Tag: San Antonio Spurs

Takes from my blog brothers: How Dell Demps first met Pop

Gregg Popovich and Dell Demps go back a long way.

The guys at the New Orleans Hornets’ blog Hornets Blog 247.c0m had an interesting story that Demps recently told Hornets season-ticket holders .

During his career as a college player at the University of the Pacific, Demps told of a chance encounter with Popovich that shaped his professional career.

Demps told the fans that “luck equals opportunity plus preparation.” His story about meeting Popovich bears that out.

Between his sophomore and junior seasons at Pacific, Demps often took his father’s car to a nearby military installation to run and then play basketball before finally returning the car home so his dad could go to work.

One day, Demps was approached by what he termed a “near-frantic man” asking him if he played basketball and had his gear. When told he had both, Popovich quickly ushered Demps into the gymansium.

Inside were seven Golden State players, including Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullin. Popovich was looking for an eighth player so his players could practice. Popovich was desperate and Demps was willing.

Even with his lack of experience, Demps eventually merited guarding after he found his shooting touch.

He was back again for the rest of the summer, eventually becoming a “test dummy” of sorts who would play 1-on-1 against potential draft selections or free-agent candidates. Demps got a tryout with the team, was cut, and then was invited back to the team after a year overseas.

Demps made the Warriors in 1993 and later played with the Spurs and Orlando in a three-season NBA career.

After his playing career ended, Demps eventually worked two years under Popovich as an unpaid intern and then spent two years coaching before returning to the Spurs. Eventually he worked as the Spurs’ executive vice president of basketball relations before accepting the Hornets’ job as general manager.

He maintains a close relationship with Popovich. It’s understandable why, considering how he got his start in basketball with him.

Here are some other Spurs-related stories from across the blogosphere to start the weekend.

  • Chris Tomasson of Hoops Hype.com from his list of 26 potential Hall of Famers who currently are active in the NBA.
  • Express-News Spurs beat writer Jeff McDonald had an interesting tweet about Tim Duncan, James Anderson and Danny Greenin this relentless Texas summer heat.
  • Trevor Zickgraf of Project Spurs.com pretends that he’s the Spurs’ general manager with a .
  • USA Today’s Fredreka Schouten and Christopher Schnaars relate how megabuck contributors like Spurs owner Peter Holt .
  • Robby Lim of Spurs World.com looks back at and ranks the Spurs’ top five draft-day steals since 1997. His first choice .
  • CBS Sports.com’s Eye on Basketball blog lists DeJuan Blair and Richard Jefferson as .
  • Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star lists Steve Kerr among his in Arizona’s 100 years as a state.  
  • Jesse Blanchard of 48 Minutes of Hell.com has the story about how And Blanchard and Andrew McNeill have a podcast where Jackson about his time with the Spurs.
  • Brandy Simms of Severn Patch.com writes that 7-foot former Bowie State center Travis Hyman thanks to his strong performance at Nike Pro City League in Baltimore. (Hat tip to Michael DeLeon of Project Spurs.com)  
  • Kawhi Leonard is ranked No. 14 among Andy Leonard of the Bleacher Report.com’s for the upcoming season.
  • The Toronto Star ranks Jefferson as having one of its .
  • Steve Weishampel of the Denver-based blog Westword.com looks at what Duncan would demand if he was.

Mike Monroe: NBA owners should know ‘psychic benefits’

Many of my friends enjoy reminding me that I often make short stories very long. But they acknowledge that I occasionally make a valid point, even if they simply nod their heads to patronize me while I’m in the middle of a rant.

But sometimes I’m right, and the world comes around to my way of thinking. For instance, I have written (and ranted) over the last few months about the NBA owners’ insistence during the lockout that they need to have guaranteed profits. I have maintained, all along, that sports is not like a typical business, not like the businesses that made all NBA owners wealthy and able to purchase teams.

Although my friends will make fun of me for quoting myself, two months ago I did in fact write this:

“NBA commissioner David Stern and his deputy, Adam Silver, will have us believe … the league’s business model is broken and requires a whole new system. The trouble with this argument is that owning a pro team is more hobby than business for many of those with the financial wherewithal to do so.

Do you think Mark Cuban loses sleep over the money he likely will lose on last season’s Mavericks, with a player payroll in excess of $90 million?

Not when he gets to sleep with the Larry O’Brien Trophy, as he admits he did after Game 6 of the NBA Finals.”

As it turns out, this assessment of what is keeping the NBA and the players union from making any progress towards a new collective bargaining agreement is gaining momentum, and I’m happy to now have the company of renowned author Malcolm Gladwell.

A staff reporter for The New Yorker, Gladwell is a serious writer, a favorite even of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. The author of four books, three of them No. 1 New York Times bestsellers, he has a reputation for seeing things with unique perspective. So when he weighed in Monday on the NBA lockout in an , eyebrows arched all across the NBA.

In Gladwell’s view, the owners’ assertion that the NBA’s business model is broken is absurd because basketball isn’t a business at all. Rather, he asserts that most owners are in it for what he terms the “psychic benefits” they derive from owning a team, much as a super-rich art collector derives significant psychic benefit from a piece that may have cost tens of millions.

Gladwell concludes that an NBA owner is losing money “only if he values the psychic benefits of owning an NBA franchise at zero — and if you value psychic benefits at zero, then you shouldn’t own an NBA franchise in the first place. You should sell your ‘business’— at what is sure to be a healthy premium — to someone who actually likes basketball.”

But Gladwell makes no allowance for the economic upheaval of 2008 disrupting the dynamics of psychic benefit theory. Some NBA owners who love basketball just as much as Cuban have been badly buffeted by the recession. The owners of some of the 22 teams reported to have lost money last season no longer can easily afford the psychic benefits they once were willing to absorb.

Trouble is, there’s no reason to expect those owners will soon sell their teams to basketball-loving billionaires willing to treat teams like Van Goghs or Picassos just so NBA training camps will open on time. They would rather crush the players union to get new terms that guarantee profit.

It is left to Spurs owner Peter Holt, chairman of the owners’ negotiating committee and someone who has enjoyed that ultimate psychic benefit on four different occasions, to herd the cats who own the other 29 NBA teams and hope the hardliners who prefer to think only in business terms don’t hiss too loudly at the next negotiating session.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Greivis Vasquez thinks Marc Gasol can become NBA’s best center

After watching Marc Gasol improve last season, Memphis guard Greivis Vasquez believes his teammate can become the NBA’s best center.

And after the first-round series against San Antonio last season, Gregg Popovich and the Spurs probably would agree.

Gasol ripped the Spurs for averages of 14.1 points and 12.3 rebounds in the Grizzlies’ stunning six-game series upset in the first round last season. The 7-foot-1 Spaniard shot 53.3 percent in the series from the field against San Antonio, including 67.6 percent in the four games that the Grizzlies won in the series.

Once the lockout is over, the Grizzlies biggest immediate priority will be to sign Gasol. Greivis calls him “a very key player on our team.”

“He’s one of the best centers in the league and will end up being the best center in the NBA in 2-3 years,” Vasquez told . “He has very good chemistry with Zach Randolph. Besides, Marc is a leader. He didn’t miss a single practice all year long. And that’s commendable. He’s a model to follow. I hope he stays with us for a long time.”

The Grizzlies won their first series in team history last season when they beat the Spurs. And if they can add Gasol to their developing core of players, the Spurs and the rest of the Southwest Division will face an emerging challenge from Coach Lionel Hollins’ team in future seasons.

“Having a center like that on our team is going to give us a lot of hope,” Vasquez said. “You can shoot for the Finals and be the champion. Why not? ”

Their playoff upset over the Spurs may be only the start of the fun in “Grind City.”