Tag: the NBA

Fox Tech grad takes anger out on innocent backboard

Tales of Fox Tech grad Ivan Johnson’s inner rage have already become legendary after just one NBA season with the Atlanta Hawks. They include:

* , when the 2002 Express-News All-Area selection was known as Ivan Johnson.

* A string of anger-related incidents culminating in a .

* last season for refusing to give up his seat on the bench to a veteran teammate.

* A $25,000 fine for during last year’s playoffs.

Those are just the highlights. Johnson added another one on Monday, shattering a backboard during Atlanta’s practice at Butler University. Teammates were awed by Johnson’s feat — not just because it reportedly takes to shatter a modern backboard, but because practice was subsequently cancelled.

After fighting so hard to reach the NBA last season as a 27-year-old rookie, Johnson was understandably nonplussed by his show of strength:

NBA ties map out Spurs’ success

  • Buford has had to restock the Spurs’ staff, an annual summer activity as rivals raid the team’s non-player talent.A month ago, the Utah Jazz hired assistant GM Dennis Lindsey to run their team. Danny Ferry departed for the Atlanta Hawks in July.Two Spurs’ assistant coaches also left, with Jacque Vaughn becoming Orlando’s coach and Don Newman hired as the Wizards’ top assistant.Recognition by a magazine that concocted its own arcane measure of franchise success — the “ultimate franchise” — was little more than an afterthought in Buford’s crowded day.

    “I’m not sure what it means,” he said. “The most important takeaway is that we have a great relationship in our organization with our players and fans and community. The support that brings to us makes this a unique environment to play in, to work in and to go to games in.”

    It also has made the organization built by Buford, coach and team president Gregg Popovich and owner Peter Holt a desired training ground for those who hope to one day run their own bench or front office.

    Eleven NBA teams have either a head coach or general manager, or both, with strong Spurs ties.

    “It speaks to the quality of people we’ve been fortunate to have in our program and it starts with our players,” Buford said, “Nothing happens without the commitment from our ownership and our players.

    “Through that we’ve been able to attract outstanding people and it’s gratifying to see them recognized for their abilities and have opportunities to reach goals they’ve set for themselves.”

    Sam Presti worked for the Spurs for seven seasons before becoming the NBA’s youngest general manager in 2007. No team has emulated the “Spurs’ way” more than Presti’s Thunder — and that includes getting lucky in the draft.

    Oklahoma City was No. 1 in ESPN’s rankings for 2012, and Presti knows what he learned in San Antonio helped him get the Thunder there.

    “Many people strive to sustain success in our business, but what the Spurs have done is sustain excellence,” he said. “Pop and RC, with the support of Mr. Holt, have created an infrastructure that has afforded many of us tremendous learning and development opportunities.

    “It is important to acknowledge that they generally have an even more profound impact on their people on a personal level than simply professionally. I suppose that somewhere within that concept is where the line between sustaining success and sustaining excellence resides.”

    That profound impact the Spurs have on those who come through the organization is what allowed Buford to position the Spurs for the future late last season while also putting them in position for a fifth title run.

    Could any other elite team in the league have traded for Stephen Jackson last March without fear had it not already had a previous — and positive — experience with the mercurial swingman?

    These are the kinds of organizational advantages throughout the years that led to the Spurs being named “Team of the Decade.”

    But what is that worth? The NFL’s Dallas Cowboys were 89th in last week’s rankings, but they are second in Forbes Magazine’s valuation of sports franchises, with a net worth of $2.1 billion.

    Forbes estimates the Spurs are worth $418 million.

    Would Holt give up his four Larry O’Brien Trophies for Jones’ bank account?

    Maybe not.

    But would Jones give up his account for being designated as the ultimate franchise around?

    Certainly not.

    To be recognized as a great franchise is always nice, no matter how contrived. But so is being a rich one.

    As Jerry might say of the Forbes’ valuation: You can take that to the bank.

    mikemonroe@express-news.net
    Twitter: @Monroe_SA

    Slideshow: Popovich vs. The Refs














































































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    • Spurs look to experience and the deepest bench in the NBA for the Western Conference Semi’s

    The San Antonio Spurs can finally work off of one game plan and as of the final buzzer on the LA Clippers/Memphis Grizzlies set out to work at their practice facility on Sunday night.

    Head Coach Vinny Del Negro knows exactly what his team is facing come Tuesday night at the A T&T Center.

    “Different type of team, different type of series,”  Del Negro said during the  Clippers’ postgame interviews. “San Antonio has played as well, if not the most consistently, of anybody throughout the year. They’ve won championships for a reason. They’re not going to beat themselves.”

    And they won’t.  Sure there will be those folks out there that say so much time off will only hurt their game and there is something to that but this is a team that strongly remembers their exit from last year’s playoffs and rest assured they will not let it happen again. Plus, the Clippers struggled against a Memphis squad with no stars.  To the Clippers, the Spurs must look like a stellar constellation.

    The Clippers, meanwhile, are ever mindful of the four-time NBA Champions and feel they have a shot and one veteran of many playoff battles, Kenyon Martin, (whom the Spurs actively pursued in the offseason) has appreciated his young team’s growth.

    “The thing about Game 7 of a series, if you didn’t learn anything from Game 1, then you don’t deserve to be here in the first place,” Martin said. “I think guys really, really embrace the moment.”

    Be sure to get your tickets for a potentially explosive playoff series. a