Tag: vice president

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.

Mike Monroe: Big Shot Rob finds more thrills

When Robert Horry’s 3-point basket with 5.8 seconds left in overtime gave the Spurs a 96-95 victory in Game 5 of the 2005 NBA Finals, the game’s announcers called it another dagger from “Big Shot Bob.”

It was a name Horry accepted but didn’t really like, so after the game teammate Tim Duncan delighted in his teammate’s minor discomfort.

On Tuesday afternoon, someone at the White House called Horry “Big Shot Bob,” and it was perfectly fine with a player who ranks among the greatest clutch shooters in NBA history.

“President Obama walked up and said, ‘Big Shot Bob, it’s nice to meet you,’” Horry said after returning to his home in Houston from a week-long USO tour that took him to Kuwait, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Germany.

“It was very cool meeting him. It’s OK that he called me Bob. It really doesn’t matter that much to me, ‘Big Shot Rob’ or ‘Big Shot Bob.’ Either one is OK.”

The occasion was the return of the United States Forces-Iraq colors, the battle flag under which U.S. troops had served during the Iraq war. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the colors in ceremonies at Andrews AFB.

Horry had been aboard Air Force Two, the aircraft used by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, along with the other participants in the USO tour — comedian Thomas Miles, actress Minka Kelly and RB singer Jordin Sparks — when it landed at Andrews with the colors.

“That was the part that really hit you,” Horry said. “Bringing that flag home, well, it just hit you what that meant.”

The NBA reached out to Horry several weeks ago when the USO coordinators asked for a retired player the troops would enjoy meeting. A member of seven NBA championship teams in Houston, Los Angeles and San Antonio, Horry was a natural.

“It was an amazing experience,” said Horry, now 41. “Visiting with the troops was what it was mostly about, just hanging out with them, taking pictures with them and talking. Just trying to break up the monotony of the war.

“I don’t know if we were in any dangerous areas in Afghanistan or not, but we kind of figured out that if they were asking us to wear IBA (individual body armor), it was probably a little dangerous.”

Amazingly, Horry ran into two old friends.

“Willie Locke was my company commander in ROTC (at Alabama),” he said. “My other friend from my hometown was Claude Burnett. His mom always baked my birthday cakes.”

Back on his home turf in Houston, Horry will try to reconnect soon with another old friend. He hasn’t spoken to Antonio McDyess for more than a month because McDyess hasn’t been answering his phone.

Horry knew McDyess’ decision to retire was final, despite the Spurs’ attempts to get him to change his mind.

“When you’ve had knee injuries like he had, you know when it’s time,” Horry said. “That last year I was with the Spurs, I knew it was time after I banged knees in a game in Sacramento. It just wouldn’t heal. Every morning I’d get up, and it would kill me just walking to the bathroom.”

Horry believes the Spurs will be well served in a short season by a core that has been together for years, instead of weeks or months. Lack of time to school new players offsets some of that edge.

“They can sneak out some wins because they’ve got their core back,” he said. “It’s hard to get in a rhythm with new teammates. I know its going to be difficult to beat those young teams, especially Oklahoma City, the Clippers and, well, yeah, the Lakers, too.

“To be honest, I’m thinking 5 or 6 seed, just because of the age of the team and not being able to incorporate new guys into the system in a short season.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

NBA talks turn tense, to be continued

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

NEW YORK — It’s crunch time in the talks aimed at ending the NBA lockout, and some of basketball’s most prominent closers showed up to take their shots at bringing the two sides closer to a deal.

On Friday, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Chris Paul, Elton Brand, Ben Gordon, Andre Iguodala and Baron Davis, along with union president Derek Fisher and the players’ association executive board conferred with all but two members of the NBA’s labor relations committee, which is headed by Spurs owner Peter Holt.

After five hours of talks that included moments of tension and rancor, the superstars had made no tangible difference in a labor dispute that has entered its third month.

They had, however, shown the owners they would stand up for themselves and their union leadership.

According to a sourced report by NBA.com’s David Aldridge, Wade stood up to NBA commissioner David Stern during a side meeting that did not involve all members of both groups. Angered that Stern had been pointing at him, Wade ordered Stern to stop, saying, “I’m not your child.”

Stern and union executive director Billy Hunter conferred, and after an apology was issued to Wade, the talks resumed.

Fisher clearly appreciated such support.

“Some of our guys standing here right now have been questioned in terms of their commitment to this process, to the players’ association and to the game,” he said, the stars and executive board members standing behind him at a news conference. “Their presence here today .?.?. says a lot. These guys have always been here with us in spirit. They’ve always been here with us in terms of the cause. They’ve been with us in concerns and recommendations.”

Ultimately, when Friday’s meeting ended, the two sides were no closer to a deal than when the day began. But after the day’s tension, an agreement to continue the process today, with hints the talks could continue all weekend, was deemed a good sign.

“At least we’re meeting tomorrow,” said Spurs forward Matt Bonner, a union vice president and member of the negotiating committee. “That’s a silver lining. Just as Derek said, we want to get a deal done and we’re going to keep working at it and try to get there. No progress, per se, was made today, but nobody stormed out and refused to talk.”

Nevertheless, against a backdrop that this weekend’s meetings carried what Stern called “enormous consequences,” Friday’s session seemed anti-climactic.

Fisher, the Lakers point guard, said the talks had been “engaging” and called the participation of the prominent players very meaningful, but admitted no progress had been made toward an agreement that might end the lockout imposed by the owners the moment the old collective bargaining agreement expired on July 1.

“We discussed a lot of different ideas — concepts, system issues, economics, a little bit of everything,” he said. “We did not come out of here with a deal today. We will be back tomorrow at 10 a.m. to continue to discuss.

“Overall, we felt like this … was not a waste of time.”

Deputy commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged there was little likelihood a deal could be reached by the end of the weekend — “I think just the number of hours in the day, I’m not sure if we can complete a deal this weekend,” he said — but Stern insisted failure to do so this weekend would not mean the entire 2011-12 season might be canceled.

“Whatever the eventuality is, the idea that we would at an early stage cancel the season is … ludicrous,” he said.