Tag: San Antonio

Ford excited for his Texas return

Houston-area native and former Texas player T.J. Ford couldn’t be happier about his return to the area of his college success.

Ford said he had other opportunities, but was more excited about the opportunity to have a homecoming of sorts by joining the Spurs.

“In the eight years of my career I’ve been in the midwest, the east coast … far from home,” said Ford, who attended Sugarland Willowridge before spending two seasons with the Longhorns. “I have a lot of family and friends between Houston and Austin, so there’s a lot of opportunity for them to come see me play. Just to feel the love and the atmosphere, it feels good.”

Those good feelings and the opportunity for playing time with the Spurs were the biggest reasons he chose San Antonio.

“I think they wanted me. That was the big thing for me,” Ford said. “ I just felt it was the right fit from the time I got that first phone call. I didn’t think about any other team.

“I had other offers, but I don’t think I could have gotten a better situation than being in San Antonio.”

And the opportunity for playing time in place of the traded George Hill also had to factor into the decision.

The Spurs have had only one former Longhorn on their roster in their previous history. Johnny Moore played all but one game in his 520-game NBA career with the Spurs from 1980-90.

The team will have two former UT players this year in Ford and rookie guard Cory Joseph, the team’s first-round draft pick this season.

Spurs can be begin contact with free agents this morning

It will be humming as usual on Spurs Lane in northwest San Antonio for a change Wednesday morning.

For the first time since July 1, NBA players will be welcomed back to team training facilities. Voluntary workouts and physicals will begin Thursday.

And team officials can begin talking to potential free agents at 8 a.m. CT today, although deals cannot be offered and no contracts can be signed until Dec. 9.

It’s a start to the 2011-12 season.

Spurs Nation can hardly wait.

Spurs know where they will start, finish season

The NBA will release its regular-season schedules in a made-for-television extravaganza at 5 p.m. Tuesday on NBA-TV.

But we already know where the Spurs will start and finish the season.

The Memphis Commerical Appeal reported that an advance draft of the schedule indicated that the for the first game for both teams. It will be a rematch of last season’s stunning  upset by Memphis in the first round of the playoffs.

And the Arizona Republic reported Tuesday that the Spurs will visit the Suns on April 25 . It will be the same place the Spurs finished last season in the game where Manu Ginobili sustained his broken arm heading into the playoffs.

It means that San Antonio will be facing an unprecedented grind with 62 games during a period of only 122 days.

That grueling schedule will be an arduous test of the mettle of NBA teams. Spurs forward Matt Bonner joked Tuesday that he hasn’t faced as rigorous a schedule since his AAU basketball days.

“I think teams with depth are going to have an advtange during those types of stretches,” Bonner said. “Coaches are going to have to manage  minutes. You can’t play a guy 44 minutes five out of six nights in a row.”

But Bonner said the Spurs depth and continuity should help them play through the schedule more than teams that are facing change coming into the season.

“It will be exciting for a team like us,” Bonner said. “This is a team I think that has great depth, to go out and utilize everybody to try and be successful during those kind of stretches.”