Tag: the NBA

Manu to Argentine media: ‘I’d like to go back to Bologna’

Don’t panic, Spurs fans. Fan fave Manu Ginobili isn’t headed to Italy just yet, especially after tweaking his right ankle in a pickup game in Bahia Blanca, Argentina on Tuesday. But if the NBA lockout drags on long enough, the competitive urges that make Ginobili one of the world’s best players and his fondness for an Italian city where he became a star of the Italian League are apt to get the better of him.

Speaking to reporters at Bahiense del Norte, the club where he began his basketball career more  some 20 years ago, Ginobili acknowledged that he has fond memories of his days playing in the Italian League for a team in Bologna and that he would like to return there if circumstances dictate.

Here’s the key quote from the interview, with a big assist from Fabian Garcia, of BasquetPlus, one of the Argentine journalists who were so kind to a visiting writer from San Antonio during the FIBA Americans pre-Olympic tournament in Mar Del Plata in September: “When the Pre Olympic was over I was excited [about playing in Italy]. I wanted to. But soon after I thought about it more: I have a family, and to do such a thing and then have to come back [to the NBA] when the lockout is over… It’s not what I like to do. I don’t rule it out. We don;t know when it’s going to end. As I’ve always said, Bologna is a place where I have great memories and I would like to go back there.”

What likely would move Ginobili to change his mind would be an announcement that a larger chunk of Spurfs games  has been canceled. The first two weeks of cancellations cost the Spurs only their first  six regular season games.

Negotiators for the owners and the players’ union will re-convene next Tuesday under the auspices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Bowen on lockout: ‘It’s time to come together’

When last the NBA commissioner characterized the status of the league’s talks with the players union, David Stern called the gap separating the two sides “a gulf.”

From his cozy spot in retirement, former Spurs forward Bruce Bowen has a foot on each side of that gulf.

“I understand what it’s like to lose money; I’ve had a business that lost money,” Bowen said Friday, referring to his Yardley’s Spa and Salon, which shuttered earlier this year. “But I also understand, as a player, you only have a certain window to make money in the NBA. So I’ve been on both sides of it.”

However, when it comes to discussing the NBA lockout, which already has erased the preseason and two weeks of the regular season and, as of Monday, began involving a federal mediator, Bowen sounds less like a business owner or a player.

And more like a fan.

“It’s time,” Bowen said. “It’s time for both sides to come together. Both sides have to give. If they don’t give, nobody wins.”

Speaking after a news conference at The Dominion announcing him as a member of the latest five-person class of the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame, Bowen — a three-time NBA champion during his eight-season stint with the Spurs — lamented the loss of regular-season games for the second time in NBA history.

When it comes to articulating his biggest fear in the midst of the league’s latest impasse, Bowen begins sounding a little like a business owner again.

“My biggest fear is those season-ticket holders will find something better to do with their money,” Bowen said.

That’s not to say Bowen, an eight-time NBA All-Defensive team honoree who retired after the 2008-09 season, doesn’t still occasionally think like a player.

As a survivor of the last NBA work stoppage, which lopped 32 games from the start of the 1998-99 campaign, Bowen had a message for today’s players on hiatus.

Stay in shape.

“Once they start playing, there’s going to be a lot of injuries,” said Bowen, 40, now an NBA analyst for ESPN. “I saw it last time. Some guys, especially young guys, just don’t stay in shape. They don’t know what’s about to hit them.”

Bowen had little trouble staying in fighting shape during the 1998-99 stoppage. On the cusp of just the third season of what would become a 13-year career, Bowen was still fighting for a place in the NBA.

“I worked out every day,” Bowen said. “I had to show I belonged.”

These days, Bowen finds himself on the sidelines of the NBA’s newest labor dispute, rooting for both sides.

Manu in holding pattern about Virtas Bologna offer

Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said Wednesday he’s unwilling to commit to playing for Italian team Virtus Bologna during an extended NBA lockout – yet.

Ginobili practiced with the Argentinian college team Weber Estudiantes earlier on Wednesday. While there, he to Buenos Aires journalist German Beder in remarks that were .

Ginobili said he is intrigued by the offer, but still unwilling to commit with the team — whether or not Kobe Bryant joins them.

It would mark his return to Italy after playing in Bologna before joining the Spurs.

“I did not go to Italy in the last six years and it could be a nice thing to return there,” Ginobili said.  “But right now I need to rest. I cannot give them an answer today.”

Because of that lag, Ginobili said the Italian team should consider adding other players instead of him.

“If they want another player, they are free to look for a new one,” Ginobili said. “I am not ready to play.”

To prepare for an eventual season — either overseas or with the Spurs after the lockout — Ginobili is intently working with the Argentinian college team. 

“I am going to practice with Weber, I help them,” Ginobili said. “Nothing more so far.”

Those comments reiterated what Herb Rudoy, Ginobili’s agent, said on Tuesday when he “” reports that Ginobili would agree to a deal with Virtus Bologna if  Bryant did not sign with them.

It looks like Ginobili and Bryant are unwilling to commit to playing in Italy before Monday’s deadline imposed by the NBA owners’ bargaining committee. At that time, it is expected  to be known if the start of the 2011-12 NBA season will be postponed after the remainder of the league’s preseason games were shelved on Tuesday.