Mike Monroe: Bowen’s No. 12 jersey should be recognized

Just about this time a dozen years ago the reigning champion Los Angeles Lakers were in Denver to play the Nuggets in a regular-season game, but reigning MVP Shaquille O’Neal was avoiding the media after his team’s morning shootaround at the Pepsi Center.

He was changing his size-22s in a courtside seat when a couple of reporters sneaked past his bodyguard and asked if he would answer a few questions.

“I’ll answer all your questions,” he said, “if you’ll answer one for me.”

O’Neal pointed to a banner hanging high in the rafters.

“Who is Beck?” he asked.

There, next to similar banners with names O’Neal recognized — Issel, English and Thompson — was the stumper, the name emblazoned beneath the No. “40.”

Byron Beck was an original Denver Rocket, a hook-shot specialist center who was the first player drafted by the franchise that became the Nuggets. He was the only Denver player to go all the way from the franchise’s first season in the ABA through its first season in the NBA, which would be the final one of his career.

Beck retired with pedestrian career averages of 11.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, but for the Nuggets franchise his presence from its inception had been enough. Retiring his number made perfect sense to Nuggets management, so when Beck left the game in 1977, his number went straight to the rafters.

Had the Internet been around in those days, there likely would have been the same sort of catty online comments that accompanied the announcement Monday that Bruce Bowen’s No. 12 will be retired by the Spurs in ceremonies at the ATT Center on March 21.

One reporter who has covered the Heat since Miami joined the NBA as an expansion franchise took to Twitter to suggest, facetiously, that Miami consider a similar honor for Keith Askins, a defensive specialist guard-forward for the Heat for nine seasons. During that period, Askins averaged 3.8 points and 2.9 rebounds.

Bruce Bowen (right) made a career of pestering offensive standouts such as Suns guard Steve Nash. (Edward A. Ornelas / eaornelas@express-news.net)

Retiring a number is the ultimate honor a team can bestow on one of its own and each franchise establishes its own criteria. This is evident when you run through the list of numbers retired by NBA teams and understand the various sentiments that produce such veneration.

The Nets retired Drazen Petrovic’s number and the Timberwolves retired Malik Sealy’s after tragic accidents took them in the prime of their careers. Similarly, the Celtics retired Reggie Lewis’ number after he died at age 27. The Royals (now the Kings) retired Maurice Stokes’ number after the 25-year-old All-Star forward’s career was cut short by paralysis from a brain injury precipitated by a fall during a game in 1958.

Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond played only two seasons for the Cavaliers. But he was from Akron, a basketball hero in Northeast Ohio long before his pro career, and he helped lead the expansion Cavs to their first playoff appearance.

The first number retired by the Blazers was that of Lloyd Neal, a rugged power forward with career averages of 11.1 points and 7.7 rebounds. Like Bowen, Neal was a versatile defensive specialist. His ability to guard the game’s top centers, even though he was 6-foot-7, made him beloved by the team’s players, coaches and fans, who thoroughly endorsed his recognition.

Defense was the hallmark of all four Spurs championship teams and Bowen was the best perimeter defender on three title teams.

Hanging Bowen’s number alongside those of David Robinson, George Gervin, James Silas, Johnny Moore, Sean Elliott and Avery Johnson doesn’t diminish those Spurs standouts. His offensive numbers may not be gaudy, but there is one number that screams for recognition: Eight.

That’s the number of times Bowen was recognized on the NBA’s All-Defensive team, a unit selected annually by the league’s head coaches.

Every coach who ever sent a high-scoring shooting guard or small forward on the court to be tortured by Bowen would endorse the honor the Spurs have chosen to give him.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Opening night extra special for Spurs’ Bonner

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

When the Spurs take the ATT Center floor tonight for their first game that counts since April 27, the loudest cheers are sure to be reserved for the team’s All-Star trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

The savvy fan, meanwhile, might reserve a cheer or two for Matt Bonner.

A vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, Bonner was a member of the negotiating committee that — after a five-month slog — was finally able to broker a new collective bargaining agreement with NBA owners that salvaged at least a 66-game season.

“Pretty much up until the deal happened, it was looking like we might not even have a season,” Bonner said. “I’m really happy everything worked out.”

For Bonner, tonight makes the long hours spent in a sport coat and a boardroom worth it.

An optimist by nature, Bonner never stopped believing a deal was possible. Even while being let down almost daily from July 1 until Nov. 26, when lawyers negotiating on behalf of the league and the players announced a deal had been reached.

Bonner admits there were dark days when even he thought opening night might never happen.

“Every time we met with the owners, I went in thinking we were going to get a deal,” Bonner said. “Every time up until it happened, that was the mindset, just to be let down and frustrated.”

In the end, the two sides forged an agreement that satisfied neither completely, but was enough to make NBA basketball possible.

“Everybody thinks they got the wrong end of the deal,” Tim Duncan said. “I think we gave up a lot, but we’re back on the floor, so we’re happy.”

STILL A SPUR: Calling the team’s attempts to replace him “a dead issue,” Richard Jefferson says he is eager to move past a tumultuous offseason.

Earlier this month, the Spurs seriously considered waiving the 31-year-old small forward under the league’s one-time amnesty provision, a move that would have gotten them below the luxury tax line.

In the end, the team opted to keep Jefferson for at least one more season. He is expected to make his third opening-night start tonight.

“I’ve said my piece, so there’s really nothing to revisit about it,” Jefferson said. “If something happens in the future, something happens in the future.”

JOSEPH IN UNIFORM: When rookie point guard Cory Joseph missed the first nine days of training camp tending to immigration issues in his native Canada, it seemed certain he would begin his pro career with the Spurs’ Development League affiliate in Austin.

Yet when the Spurs open the regular-season tonight, Joseph will not only be present in San Antonio — he will be in uniform.

With only 13 players on the roster, and one of them (Gary Neal) unavailable after an appendectomy, Joseph will stick around to be a warm body on Gregg Popovich’s bench.

Has he been in camp long enough to contribute?

“We’re going to have to make it enough time,” said Joseph, who will back up Tony Parker and T.J. Ford.

Spurs waive Da’Sean Butler

The Spurs trimmed their roster to 19 players by waiving former West Virginia standout forward  Da’Sean Butler.

After leading West Virginia to the Final Four in 2010, Butler sustained a horrific knee injury in the national semifinals against Duke. After that injury, Butler’s draft status plummeted and eventually was picked up in the second round by Miami.

Butler was waived by the Heat during training camp and spent several months in basketball limbo until he was picked up the Spurs last March. He was immediately placed on the inactive list and worked hard to return to the form he had shown with the Mountaineers.

The Spurs’ roster move indicates they like their depth at small forward. Among the players  battling for playing time at the position include Richard Jefferson, rookie Kawhi Leonard and James Anderson among others.

Butler would have had difficulty cracking that rotation. But he will return to West Virginia as one of  the most popular players in that school’s basketball history.