Lets Talk Basketball (NBA)

[Pro-Life]

A world w/o Kobe Bryant??? I'm in shock.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/kobe-bryant-dies-calabasas-helicopter-crash

[fuagf]

Road to the Olympic Games: FIBA international basketball series - Canada vs. Australia
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/rttog-fiba-australia-canada-1.5246065

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USA Basketball & Canada Basketball

Sydney 2019

Some of the biggest names in basketball will play in Sydney this August when North American rivals, USA Basketball and Canada Basketball will face off at Qudos Bank Arena on Monday 26 August 2019 (7.30pm), while the New Zealand Tall Blacks take on Canada Basketball at the Quaycentre on Tuesday 20 August 2019 and Wednesday 21 August 2019 (7.30pm).

These games will serve as important preparation for all teams ahead of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup to be contested in China August 31 – September 15.

http://www.teglive.com.au/events/international-basketball-series/

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2019 FIBA International Basketball Series on CBC: Australia vs Canada

Posted: Aug 16, 2019 5:25 AM ET | Last Updated: August 15

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/2019-fiba-international-basketball-series-on-cbc-australia-vs-canada-1.5244476

Game just started and thought, in case anyone is interested in the series.

[nowwhat2]

Raptors by 10 (2:15 left in 1st quarter).....

[EZ2]

Good friend of the family --- we wish him well. Very deserving!

[fuagf]

Caleb Swanigan's life has not been easy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caleb_Swanigan#Early_life

Agree, he deserves to do well.

[EZ2]

Good Luck --- Caleb !!
http://www.news-sentinel.com/sports/could_caleb_swanigan_be_nba_drafts_biggest_sleeper_20170621

[BullNBear52]

Duncan calls time on career after 19 years at Spurs

Reuters) - Five-times NBA champion Tim Duncan announced his retirement from basketball on Monday, bringing an end to the forward's glittering 19-year spell at San Antonio Spurs.

The 40-year-old, who was the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft, reached the playoffs in each of his 19 seasons and became the only player to have reached 1,000 wins with one team.

Duncan, a two-times MVP, is just one of three NBA players along with John Stockton and Kobe Bryant to spend 19 seasons with one franchise.

He retires as the Spurs' all-time leader in scoring, rebounds and blocks.

The Spurs, who had the second-best record (67-15) in the regular season, were upset in the Western Conference semi-final by the Oklahoma City Thunder in May and Duncan admitted shortly after the loss that he was contemplating his future.

Duncan, who averaged 19 points, 10.8 rebounds, three assists and 2.17 blocks per game over his career, leaves as a 15-time NBA All-Star and lock for the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru, editing by Alan Baldwin)


https://www.yahoo.com/news/duncan-calls-time-career-19-years-spurs-151110617--nba.html?ref=gs

[alchemytrader]

Maybe like 160 avg...lol

[BullNBear52]

An NBA player posted how many points do they want to score in a game? 200?

[EZ2]

Spelled: teIIIIIam !

[alchemytrader]

Splash brothers just adopted a new family member. Prepare to be dominated by the 2017 NBA Champions. Calling it now.

[alchemytrader]

As a Warriors fan, even i will admit, this almost isnt fair.

[EZ2]

Holy Crap Batman ~~~~ KD signs with Golden State!!!

That should be illegal!

Could that turn CAV to CAVE ?????

[BullNBear52]

Amazing. This will haunt Curry all summer. He who lives by the 3 pointer dies by it as well.

Curry 4-14 from 3 point land.
Thompson 2=10

Mission accomplished: LeBron transforms Cleveland into a winner
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mission-accomplished--lebron-transforms-cleveland-into-a-winner-045730341.html

[BullNBear52]

I would like to see him win. If he doesn't his and the Warriors' season will all be for nothing.

The question is can he rise to the occasion.

[alchemytrader]

MY FINALS GAME PREDICTION...

[EZ2]

Warriors star Stephen Curry out at least two weeks with knee sprain

MARKETWATCH 3:33 PM ET 4/25/2016

Basketball star Stephen Curry will miss at least the next two weeks for the Golden State Warriors as the most successful regular-season team in N.B.A. history looks to defend its league title. The reigning MVP of the league hurt his right knee in Game 4 of the Warriors' first-round playoff match-up against the Houston Rockets on Sunday, and an MRI showed a grade 1 sprain of his MCL, the Warriors announced Monday. Curry, who set a record for three-pointers made and led the league in scoring while propelling the Warriors to a historic 73-9 regular season record, will be re-evaluated in two weeks. That timetable suggests Curry will miss at least part of the Warriors' second-round match-up with either the Los Angeles Clippers or Portland Trail Blazers, if the Warriors can complete a series win over the Rockets. The Warriors lead the Rockets 3-1 in their best-of-seven series.

-Jeremy C. Owens; 415-439-6400; [e-mail]


(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-25-161533ET
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[BullNBear52]

Stephen Curry’s 3-Point Record in Context: Off the Charts
By GREGOR AISCH and KEVIN QUEALY APRIL 16, 2016

This chart contains 752 lines — one for each N.B.A. player who finished in the top 20 in 3-point attempts made in each season since 1980. Sitting atop it is the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, who finished the regular season with a record 402 3-pointers.

The record is an outlier that defies most comparisons, but here is one: It is the equivalent of hitting 103 home runs in a Major League Baseball season.

The colors show a clear progression toward more 3-pointers. In the 1979-80 N.B.A. season, the first to feature the 3-pointer, making just 21 was good enough to put a player among the league’s top 20. On Feb. 27, Curry made 12 3-pointers in a single game.

How can we best put the gap between Curry and the best three-point shooters in history in context? Over the past 30 years, the number of 3-point field goals has trended steadily upward. If we project that trend into the future, 402 becomes a perfectly natural number of 3-point field goals for an N.B.A. player to make.

In the mid-2030s.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/16/upshot/stephen-curry-golden-state-warriors-3-pointers.html?ref=sports

[BullNBear52]

Knicks Finish 32-50: ‘Little Bit Better’

By ANDREW KEH

The Knicks fell, 102-90, to the Indiana Pacers and are 49-115 after two years under Phil Jackson, the team president.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/sports/basketball/knicks-finish-32-50-little-bit-better.html?ref=basketball

[BullNBear52]

Tim Duncan zero points.

Tim Duncan goes scoreless for 1st time in 19-season career

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/tim-duncan-goes-scoreless-for-1st-time-in-19-season-career-045330457.html

[BullNBear52]

New year same old Knicks.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/new-york-knicks-chicago-bulls-2016010104/#

8 points in the final quarter.

[fuagf]

i make the game just under one hour away

http://www.si.com/nba/game/2015/12/12/warriors-bucks-saturday-december-12th-2015

a win would make it a 29 regular season stretch with 25 this year, and a Warriors win would
make them the first NBA team in history to sweep an away games stretch of at least 7 games.

[fuagf]

It’s Time To Take The Warriors’ Chances Of Going 73-9 Seriously

By Kyle Wagner 12:17 PM Dec 8, 2015

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-warriors-might-be-as-good-as-the-michael-jordan-era-bulls/

chuckle .. he's a bit slow .. kidding, just a bit more cautious, eh .. grin

[fuagf]

GO Golden State .. enjoy number 16 ..

As of today, they are the only team averaging at least 12 threes per game on offense; they are also the only team giving up fewer than six threes per game on defense. Remember when a team won games by controlling the paint? These Warriors win by controlling the edges of the scoring area. By scoring 37.5 points per game beyond the arc while allowing opponents just 17.7 from out there, Golden State isn’t just tweaking how we value court real estate, its best players are forcing us to rethink how we value personnel as well.

It used to be that the most valuable guys in the NBA were interior giants who dominated the paint. Now the most valuable player in the NBA is a point guard with the sweetest stroke in the league.

[...]



http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-golden-state-warriors-are-breaking-the-nba/

[PENNIEStoSTACKS]

WORLD-CLASS ATHLETES PARTNER WITH HIGH PERFORMANCE BEVERAGE
http://bev.highperformancebeverage.com/?page_id=13168

Latest TBEV Social Media Activity
http://bev.highperformancebeverage.com/?page_id=10870

Executive Team involved with the likes of BUD, KR, 7-11, COST, etc.
http://bev.highperformancebeverage.com/?page_id=10883

High Performance Beverage Co. Announces the Completion of FDA Guideline Testing for Their High Performance Sports Beverage
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/high-performance-beverage-co-announces-the-completion-of-fda-guideline-testing-for-their-high-performance-sports-beverage-2015-08-06?mod=mw_share_twitter

High Performance Beverage Co. Signs New Exclusive Co-Packing and Bottling Agreement With Southeast Bottling & Beverage
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/high-performance-beverage-co-signs-123000590.html

Lets see a cup then handle for all invested and about to invest

[BullNBear52]

Knicks can't do anything right. They win the last game of the year and lose the #1 tick to MN.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25151181/final-2015-nba-lottery-order-and-pick-scenarios?FTAG=YHF7e3228e

[BullNBear52]

Knicks Superfan Is Set to Be There to the Bitter End
By SCOTT CACCIOLAAPRIL 14, 2015

ATLANTA — About 45 minutes before the Knicks faced the Hawks at Philips Arena on Monday night, Dennis Doyle was among the first patrons seated in Section 112.

His ticket, which he had purchased before the season, was a remnant of a bygone era, back when the Knicks employed Iman Shumpert and J. R. Smith, back when Carmelo Anthony had two functional knees, and back when Doyle believed the team was capable of making the N.B.A. playoffs.

The season, the worst in franchise history, has been more difficult than any of them could have imagined.

“I’m so shot,” Doyle said. “My senses are just done. My memory all runs together.”

With the Knicks riding a surprising two-game winning streak, Doyle’s quest to attend all 82 of the team’s games is expected to come to a merciful conclusion Wednesday night when the Detroit Pistons visit Madison Square Garden. Barring something unforeseen, Doyle will observe the proceedings from his familiar perch: Section 220, Row 3, Seat 23.

Game No. 81 took him to Atlanta, and after spending $26,000 of his savings over more than five months to take in 64 losses (and 17 wins), Doyle wore khaki shorts, a blue T-shirt and the ashen expression of someone who had been a stowaway on a ship adrift at sea.


“It would have been a totally different experience,” he said, “if they’d been good.”

Doyle, 32, whose existential crisis was first reported in November, decided to follow the Knicks around for the season after being let go from his job as a lawyer. A lifelong fan of the team, he has chronicled his travels in a blog — The Oakman Cometh: A Season With the New York Knicks — and recently signed with a literary agent, Josh Getzler, to shop a book proposal.

“I think he has appropriately suffered,” Kelley Doyle Snyder, one of his older sisters, said in a telephone interview. “He knew this was going to be a personal transformation, and you never know what the transformation is going to bring. But you know that there’s going to be some pain involved.”



The unusual nature of Doyle’s feat has brought its own measure of acclaim. He has been written up by The New York Post, which described him as a “basket case,” and by Sports Illustrated, which questioned his sanity in more muted terms. A handful of people have come by his seat at the Garden to offer their condolences, he said. A Japanese television station also interviewed him, although Doyle said he was uncertain whether the story ever aired.

“I might be big in Japan right now,” he said. “I’m not sure.”

To be clear, he has no illusions about his celebrity. He is not often recognized, although he was by a fan who happened to be sitting next to him in Miami for a game against the Heat.

“He just looked at me and was like, ‘Are you the guy?’ ” Doyle recalled. “And I knew exactly what he meant, but for some reason I was like, ‘Am I what guy?’ There’s a little bit of shame in admitting what I’m doing.”

Doyle still considers the team’s surprising victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 30 to be the Knicks’ “high-water mark.” It was impossible to know at the time, he said, that the Knicks would lose seven of their next eight contests. Or that his friends would kindly decline his invitations to join him at the Garden. Or that he would miss certain perks of being gainfully employed.


“If I had better health care coverage,” he said, “I’d seriously consider therapy.”

Aside from what he described as his regimented feedings of dreadful basketball, Doyle has enjoyed portions of his adventure. At the Garden, he befriended two fellow season-ticket holders who sit directly behind him and provide a cynical soundtrack for each home game.

The travel, too, has been fun for the most part. In January, Doyle went to London so he could watch the Knicks lose on a different continent. In March, the day after a more prosaic loss to the Suns in Phoenix, he rented a car and visited the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful, he said. But even then, it was nearly impossible to divorce himself from the reality of his situation.

“Staring into the abyss,” he said, “it was hard not to think of the Knicks.”

Fatigue has come at a cost, both psychological and financial. Ahead of the team’s final trip of the season, to Orlando and Atlanta, Doyle had been booked to fly out of Newark, a trek from his apartment in Astoria, Queens. But he found an extra $150 so he could leave from La Guardia Airport instead.

“When you get close to the finish line, there are two schools of thought,” he said. “It can re-energize you and push you harder. But I think I’m more the type that just wants to collapse.”

He missed only three flights all season, he said, which he regards as an accomplishment. One was returning home from Boston, after he somehow managed to overlook about three emails from the airline about a change in the departure time. He missed another in Miami after he realized he left his cellphone in his rental car. He wound up sprinting through the airport in flip-flops with a bag of golf clubs slung over his shoulder. (He recovered his phone.)

The Knicks’ struggles have forced him to do something he swore he would never do in his long history as a committed fan: root for them to accumulate as many losses as possible, in hopes that they can improve their odds of securing the top pick in the draft. Doyle made that psychological shift after the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs on March 17.

“When they beat San Antonio, I sort of felt like, O.K., I can live with one more feel-good win this season,” Doyle said. “But enough’s enough.”

So when the Knicks visited Orlando on Saturday, Doyle was annoyed when the Magic’s Nikola Vucevic labored to establish position on the block and when Tim Hardaway Jr. made a late 3-pointer to seal the Knicks’ 80-79 victory. As for the teams combining for the lowest-scoring quarter in the shot clock era, Doyle was less opinionated. (After all that he has witnessed this season, it felt like more of the same.) In any case, he left the arena in a torrential downpour and drove two hours to Vero Beach, Fla.

“That’s where my pullout couch was for the night,” he said. “Most depressing win of my life.”

It turned out to be more of the same in Atlanta, where unsung players like Langston Galloway and Lance Thomas helped the Knicks shock the Hawks with a 112-108 victory. Given his focus on the draft lottery, Doyle assessed the result less glowingly.

“Nightmare,” he wrote via text.

At least he could take solace in knowing that he had only one game left to attend. After that, he said, he plans to head back to the airport for one final trip — to St. Croix.

[BullNBear52]

Knicks Will Set New Low; Only Question Is How Low
MARCH 31, 2015

Some milestones await the Knicks in coming days, and none of them are good. As their awful season staggers to a merciful conclusion over the next two weeks, they are certain to set franchise records for the fewest victories in a season and for the worst winning percentage.

One of those two records could be established as early as Wednesday night, when the Knicks will host the Nets at Madison Square Garden. Based on their win records, the Nets are more than twice as good as the Knicks — 33-40 vs. 14-60 — and while that doesn’t say much, it does give the Nets enough traction to compete for the eighth, and final, spot in the thin Eastern Conference.

And if the Nets do win, it will mean the best the Knicks can finish this season is 21-61. They won’t do that well, of course, but even if they did, it would translate to a .256 winning percentage, the worst ever for the team, which began playing in 1946.

Until now, the worst percentage was held by the 1962-63 Knicks team, which went 21-59 for a .263 mark. A lot of bad basketball has been played by the Knicks since then, but no one team — not the dysfunctional, Larry Brown-coached Knicks of 2005-6 (23-59, .280) or the equally ludicrous Knicks of 2007-8, which finished with the same 23-59 record under Isiah Thomas — was able to edge out that early-1960s club for the worst-ever percentage.

But this Knicks team won’t be deterred. And once it claims the worst winning percentage with one more defeat, it can also become the first Knicks team to win fewer than 21 games. That would come with a second loss in the final leg of the schedule. And a third loss would guarantee that the 2014-15 Knicks would add their name to the list of N.B.A. clubs that finished an 82-game season with fewer than 20 victories. That has happened 53 times, and while a number of clubs are on the list more than once, the Knicks have always avoided it.

So, in effect, this is what Knicks fans have to look forward to until the final buzzer on April 15. As it is, the remaining Knicks schedule doesn’t even have any particularly noteworthy opponents — except for the Hawks, whom the Knicks will face in Atlanta on April 13.

Just a year ago, the Hawks barely beat out the Knicks for the eighth playoff spot in the East, finishing 38-44 to the Knicks’ 37-45, a one-game margin. Now the gap is a mere 41 ½ games. Atlanta has the second-best record in the N.B.A. at 56-19, and the Knicks have the worst. Hmmm.

Back to the 1962-63 Knicks team, which was coached by Eddie Donovan. He had the courage to man the sidelines for two more seasons after that but never managed to win more than 31 games. But as coach, and then as the team’s general manager, he was responsible for the draft picks — Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Cazzie Russell, Dave Stallworth and, yes, Phil Jackson — who formed much of the club that Red Holzman then coached to the franchise’s only two championships, in 1970 and 1973.

Jackson is presiding over the current mess as the team’s president. Whether he can draft astutely this June and sign a couple of effective free agents is anyone’s guess. He came to New York for a lot of money and a chance to complete the circle, to give the team with which he started its first championship banner in more than four decades. But for now, he will have to deal with the embarrassment of creating the worst Knicks team ever.

[fuagf]

Australians Ben Simmons and Tyson Beck find success in skill based USA.

Australian Ben Simmons named top US high-school basketball player

Updated Fri at 8:25am


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-11/australian-named-us27s-top-high-school-basketball-player/6299936

---

Adelaide graphic designer Tyson Beck scores contract with NBA designing digital art

By Rebecca Opie Updated about 4 hours ago


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-16/adelaide-graphic-designer-tyson-beck-contract-nba-digital-design/6320952?section=sport

Good to see.

[BullNBear52]

Well the Knicks ain't complaining.

Steve Kerr emails frustrated fans

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Steve Kerr took time to email back three disappointed fans who were upset the Golden State coach rested his regulars Friday night at Denver before battering the Knicks 125-94 on Saturday night.

"There's two really good sides to the story," Kerr said. "Nobody's wrong here. ... I can't argue with them."

One of the emails Kerr received was from a family that drove from South Dakota to the Mile High City with high hopes of seeing All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson lead the Western Conference's top team. Instead, those two rested along with center Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala.

Kerr also received a "couple of catcalls, a couple boos during the introductions" from the stands. He hadn't heard anything from the league about his decision Saturday, when Golden State played its fifth game in seven days, with two of those having been away.

"I heard from some fans. I received a few emails, stories about driving in from a long distance off and spending a lot of money on tickets," Kerr said. "I have great sympathy for those people. I really do. It's a tricky one. It's something that I think Adam Silver is trying to address through the scheduling shuffling that he's talking about.

"It's real important, because our fans deserve to see the best product out there. If somebody spends a lot of money, they deserve to see the best players, the guy that they came to see. On the other hand, as coaches we have to do what's best to prepare our teams for a really long year."

Kerr still would prefer to start the season 10-12 days early around Oct. 20, cutting down on the eight preseason games and month of training camp. He also noted that in every other sport, players get days off.

Golden State had its five-game winning streak snapped in the 114-103 loss to the Nuggets, then returned home to begin a six-game stretch at Oracle Arena. Even Denver heard from angry fans on Twitter, such as one father who rented a suite for his son's birthday because the boy loved Curry & Co. By the second half, he had turned his attention to cheering for the Nuggets.

Kerr -- who noted the rest was as much mental as physical -- made a point to respond to the fans via email, and one who received a nice note got back in touch with the Warriors to let them know how surprised and appreciative he was to hear from the first-year coach.

"He's great. He's very engaging. He's a normal guy," Bogut said of Kerr's gesture. "We're definitely not used to that in a head coach."

Bogut understands that kids might have one chance -- one ticket all season -- to see an NBA game live, and that they'd want to see the best matchups.

But Kerr is preparing his team to be fresh come playoff time for what the franchise hopes is a deep run.

"It's tough, if I was a kid and had one ticket to go to and guys rested," Bogut said. "It's just a part of the grueling NBA season. It's unfortunate for the fans who were a little [ticked] off by it, but we have aspirations to go deep in the playoffs and to get to the end, we have to do what's best for our side."

[BullNBear52]

Ugly Gets Uglier as Kings Hand Knicks Their Worst Setback of the Season
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMARCH 3, 2015

Rudy Gay scored 25 points, DeMarcus Cousins had 22 and Ben McLemore finished with 20 on Tuesday as the Sacramento Kings handed the Knicks their worst loss of the season, 124-86, at Madison Square Garden.

The Kings scored the first 4 points and never trailed. They built the lead to 16 after the first quarter and to as many as 44 in in the second half before winning by 38.

Alexey Shved led the Knicks with 15 points. Jason Smith and Shane Larkin had 13 each.

After shooting only 35 percent (7 for 20) from the field in the first quarter, the Knicks were even worse in the second, going 6 for 24 (25 percent). Their previous worst loss was by 28 points to Charlotte at the Garden, 110-82, on Jan. 10.

Sacramento started the second half on a 27-9 run and opened up a game-high 44-point lead, 92-48, on Gay’s 3-pointer with 6 minutes 1 second left in the third.

The Knicks responded by scoring the next 12 points and eventually got as close as 28, 100-72, on Smith’s jumper early in fourth quarter. That was as close as they came.

Gay, Cousins and McLemore all sat out the fourth quarter.

Cousins finished with a game-high 10 rebounds, while also going 11 for 11 from the free-throw line.

Derrick Williams scored 17 points for the Kings. Nik Stauskas added 15 and Omar Casspi had 14.

Shved and Cole Aldrich each had 7 rebounds for the Knicks.

[BullNBear52]

Anthony Mason, Bruising Knicks Forward, Dies at 48
By BRUCE WEBERFEB. 28, 2015

Anthony Mason, a muscular, bellicose forward whose bruising play helped the Knicks reach the National Basketball Association finals in 1994, has died in Manhattan, the Knicks said Saturday. He was 48.

Mason’s death was reported on the Knicks website. He had been treated for heart disease, but the cause of death was not reported.

Mason, who played for six teams in 13 N.B.A. seasons, was an unlikely success story. His college team, Tennessee State, was never a power, and he spent three years on the fringes of the professional game, playing mostly abroad and in American leagues of lesser quality before he became a regular player with the Knicks in 1991 under their new coach, Pat Riley.

Athletic and chiseled at 6 feet 7 inches (he was sometimes listed as 6-8) and 250 pounds or more, he had bowling-ball shoulders, surprising quickness, especially around the basket, and a deft touch with a pass or a dribble in the open court. He also had a fearsome court persona; he gave hard fouls, glared at opponents, badgered referees and never shied away from a scuffle, in or away from the arena.

His aggressiveness sometimes spilled over into a forearm to the throat or an elbow to the ribs. Riley suspended him more than once for “conduct detrimental to the team.”

Even so, Mason’s unbridled style of play made him a fan favorite in New York, his hometown, and his personal style did, too; he was known for having a barber shave words (his nickname, Mase, for instance) into his close-cropped coiffure.

A brawny rebounder who used his strength and leaping ability to box out and outjump taller players, Mason was also a hounding defender who sometimes matched up with the opposing center. He made life notably difficult for Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets in the 1994 finals, which the Rockets won in seven games.

With teammates like center Patrick Ewing, the tanklike forward Charles Oakley and the occasionally reckless guard John Starks, Mason helped create the rugged, bullying style that characterized Riley’s Knicks.

Mason was not the team’s most cooperative citizen. Under Riley, he played mostly off the bench, and although he was recognized for his contributions when he won the N.B.A.’s Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1995, he thought that Riley did not value him enough as an offensive player. An effective force within a few feet of the basket, Mason averaged 9.9 points per game on 56.6 percent shooting from the field during the 1994-95 season, playing 32.4 minutes per game.

Mason was dissatisfied with the number of minutes he played and complained that the overall game plan too often channeled the ball into Ewing’s hands. When Riley left the Knicks to coach the Miami Heat before the 1995-96 season, he was replaced by Don Nelson, who was more enamored of Mason’s skills in the open court. He made Mason a starter, and Mason responded, leading the league in minutes played and averaging 14.6 points per game.

By the end of the season, Nelson was gone, replaced by Jeff Van Gundy, and in the off-season Mason was traded — perhaps because the Knicks’ front office had grown impatient with repeated incidents involving Mason and the police — along with another forward, Brad Lohaus, to the Charlotte Hornets for Larry Johnson, a more proven scorer than Mason but a weaker rebounder and defensive player.

Anthony George Douglas Mason was born in Miami on Dec. 14, 1966, and grew up mostly in Queens, where he was raised largely by his mother, Mary, and played basketball as a junior and a senior at Springfield Gardens High School. Mason often referred to the head coach there, Ken Fiedler, as a surrogate father.

At Tennessee State, Mason averaged 28 points and 10.4 rebounds per game in his senior year, and he was drafted in the third round by the Portland Trail Blazers. He never played for them, however; he competed professionally in Turkey and, in the United States, in the Continental Basketball Association and the United States Basketball League, both now defunct. Before joining the Knicks, he played in 21 games for the Nets, based in New Jersey at the time, and three games for the Denver Nuggets.

Statistically, Mason’s best years were the first of his three seasons with Charlotte, when he averaged career highs in points (16.2) and rebounds (11.4), and 2000-1, when he was reunited for a season with Riley on the Heat and averaged 16.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, earning his only appearance in the All-Star Game. Mason, who missed the 1998-99 season with a biceps injury, finished his career in 2003 with the Milwaukee Bucks. Over all, he played in 882 N.B.A. games, averaging 10.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game and shooting over 50 percent from the field.
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Problems with the law dotted Mason’s career, including a charge of statutory rape in 1998. According to news reports, a DNA test failed to prove the allegations of two girls, 14 and 15, that Mason had engaged in consensual sex with them, and Mason pleaded guilty instead to two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Mason’s survivors include two sons, Anthony Jr., who was a star forward for St. John’s and is playing professionally in Cyprus; and Antoine, a guard who was second in scoring in N.C.A.A. Division I last season at Niagara University and now plays for Auburn.

In recent years, Mason worked in the insurance business.

[BullNBear52]

It's been a long time. I grew up in NYC with the Knicks when they actually won Championships.

Frazier, Reed, Dollar Bill etc.

[Wrinkles]

Normally I'd agree, but no players left, no talent at all....

[BullNBear52]

Beats the heck out of me why they signed him. Just watch they'll start winning now and lose out on drafting Okafor!

[Wrinkles]

I'm the biggest Carmelo hater, so won't hear anything positive from me about him, never ever wanted that trade completed for him.......Imagine skipping games you get paid for to play in an exhibition game? Delay getting a supposed surgery he needed and risk worse injury, can't make it up, one of the most selfish NBA players ever........jmo........Shaking my head the great Phil Jackson resigned him at his age to largest contract in NBA history....

WHY????

[BullNBear52]

Carmelo Anthony Has Knee Surgery; Recovery May Take 4 to 6 Months
By ZACH SCHONBRUNFEB. 19, 2015

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Carmelo Anthony underwent successful surgery on his left knee Thursday, a procedure that might require four to six months for recovery.

“Let the rehab process begin,” Knicks Coach Derek Fisher said.

The Knicks declined to say where the operation had taken place and what exactly had been done. On Wednesday, the team said that Anthony’s surgery would include “left knee patella tendon debridement and repair.”

Fisher created a moment of confusion Thursday when he said the operation had been conducted on the right knee. Fisher then clarified that when he said “right,” he meant “correct.”

Some fans have criticized Anthony, questioning the timing of the operation and whether it was necessary for him to put off surgery until he played in the All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden.

Anthony clearly wanted to be part of the event and the festivities that went with it, but some wondered if he should have had the operation a month ago or earlier, given how long he will be out of action.

The timetable for Anthony’s return, as laid out by Phil Jackson, the Knicks’ president, could be as long as four to six months. That could jeopardize Anthony’s readiness for training camp next season.

Anthony, who will turn 31 in May, has been dealing with knee pain since the opening month of the season.

Fisher said that Anthony’s absence and the approaching trade deadline did not affect the team’s ability to hold a lively practice on Thursday as it prepared to face the Miami Heat on Friday, starting the closing stretch of a season that cannot seem to end soon enough.

“The guys were good,” Fisher said.

[BullNBear52]

Jets, Mets and Knicks. Throw them all into the same boat and they are embarrassing.

[Wrinkles]

10000000% agreeeee, been saying that for yrs and take the Wilpons/Mets with him.....

[BullNBear52]

Dolan needs to go.

[Wrinkles]

Dragic to Miami, Knicks drag their heels, makes me sick to be a Knick fan, could puke.....

[BullNBear52]

Tim Duncan is a Five-Time Champion. Enough Said.
FEB. 14, 2015

Tim Duncan did not sound overjoyed to be in New York for his 15th N.B.A. All-Star weekend, or maybe it was more the company he was forced to keep late Friday morning.

“I enjoy the game; all the rest of the stuff I can do without,” he said during his mandatory news media session. “I don’t like this whole situation, but it is what it is; it’s what comes with the game.”

Someone braved the question that Duncan has stonewalled for nearly two decades as the centerpiece of the San Antonio winning machine: What is it about addressing the masses that he finds so objectionable?

“I don’t have that kind of time,” he said with a straight face that was his attempt at deadpan humor or, more likely, a cold, hard fact.

The interview proceeded with Duncan providing mostly clipped answers in a dedicated monotone, his delivery a cross between Derek Jeter (cautious) and Bill Belichick (curt). On the plus side, he stayed to the end and never said he was there only to avoid being fined.

No Marshawn Lynch is this proud five-time champion and perhaps the least celebrated all-timer in the history of the sport.

Some would argue that Duncan has been his own worst enemy in that regard. But at the level he has played, must we really require the athlete to show and tell? Have we not learned all we need to know about Duncan by watching him execute Coach Gregg Popovich’s playbook with a surgeon’s care and be the first to greet a thriving teammate with that familiar, playful pat on the head?

“One of the best teammates I ever had,” said Golden State’s Steve Kerr, a jump-shooting specialist with the Spurs for four seasons and two championships and Duncan’s coach with the Western Conference All-Stars for Sunday night’s game. “Incredibly confident with his game but humble with his approach, always taking the criticism for the rest of us.

“He’d come into the locker room after a loss and he’d say, ‘My fault,’ and you’d look at the stats and he’s got 38 points and 24 rebounds. Pretty sure it wasn’t your fault, Tim.”

Maybe blame is not really the issue regarding Duncan, who is widely respected but not quite revered outside South Texas. Had he been playing in New York, his quiet dignity and resolve would have made him the second coming of Willis Reed. But, yes, it’s also been his decision to treat the self-promotional side of the business somewhere on the torture scale between root canal and waterboarding.

“He doesn’t have the same sort of reputation as Magic, Michael and Larry because he’s so low-key,” Kerr said, referring to Johnson, Jordan and Bird. “The charisma those guys had, the endorsements, made them global icons. Tim prefers to go about his business and play.”

Casual and younger fans don’t see sex appeal in a player nicknamed the Big Fundamental. If nuance appealed to the masses, existentialist indie films would fill the multiplex instead of shootouts and car crashes. But N.B.A. coaches who select the substitutes should want to honor Duncan’s consistency, his longevity, every chance they get.


Yet last season, which conceivably could have been Duncan’s last, they left him off the All-Star team only months after he came within seconds of a title in Miami and months before he would win that elusive fifth ring 15 years after claiming his first.

Oh, but Duncan would rather have had the time off, go to the beach, went the rationale of those who weren’t appalled by the slight. All probably true, but that still was no excuse for not extending the invitation.

Nets Coach Lionel Hollins recently lobbied for Commissioner Adam Silver to add Kevin Garnett to this year’s Eastern Conference roster in recognition of career achievement. Garnett’s late-career performance is nowhere near Duncan’s, but it wasn’t a bad idea. It’s an All-Star Game, not an election to Congress. One such appointment per squad would hardly change the game’s dynamic.

Duncan said being selected as a substitute by the coaches meant more than the fans’ popularity contest to choose the starters. He didn’t expect it, he said, “but it’s an honor, them believing that I am still of All-Star caliber.”

At 38, he is averaging 14.5 points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, still doing all those intangible things, while playing at less than 100 percent. Popovich recently told reporters: “I mean, if you watch him, he walks with a limp. His leg doesn’t extend. So how does the guy play? I still ask myself that.”

In the final year of his contract, will Duncan play on beyond this season? He won’t say, though he acknowledged that quitting crossed his mind last summer.

Why didn’t he?

“If I walked away just to say I walked away on a high point, then that’s letting somebody else dictate what I do,” he said.
Continue reading the main story Write A Comment
Right to the end, he will be stubbornly aloof. But on the New York stage for what feels like his All-Star farewell, Duncan does deserve some of the love that typically goes to the shoe-company pitchmen, even if it won’t be for a “SportsCenter” highlight.

“I can’t dunk anymore,” he lied when asked who he’d like to poster-ize Sunday.

So make it for the crisp high screen, the perfect positional defense, the timely outlet pass. The selfless likes of Tim Duncan shall not pass this way again any time soon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/sports/basketball/selfless-tim-duncan-of-the-spurs.html?ref=basketball

[BullNBear52]

James L. Dolan, a Consummate 1 Percenter
FEB. 14, 2015

N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver paused in preparations for the corporate branding orgy that is his league’s All-Star Game and tossed a spray of a bouquet at James L. Dolan, the owner of the Knicks.

“Jim is a consummate New Yorker,” Silver told The New York Post last week. “Jim got an unkind email and responded with an unkind email.”

I confess the lesser spirits of my nature collectively gagged. The back story? A loyal Knicks fan of six decades’ vintage sent Dolan a distinctly annoyed but nonvulgar email. Dolan responded with a demeaning screed.

“I am just guessing but I’ll bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess,” Dolan wrote to 72-year-old Irving Bierman. “In fact I’ll bet you are negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe.”

A billionaire owner responds to a customer with a grenade launcher? My bile rose until my better spirits tiptoed in and whispered: The commissioner is correct. Dolan is a consummate New Yorker, of the 1 percent variety.

Dolan breaks federal labor laws and fires union leaders with impunity; he mints money from a public cable monopoly; and he gets a property tax exemption worth $54 million this year for Madison Square Garden, a for-profit enterprise.

How cool is that?

His Knicks team, dollar for dollar, has been the worst team in the league for 14 years now, playing a grand total of four playoff rounds. The Knicks accumulated losing records in 11 of those years; this year’s team counts as the Hope Diamond in his loser’s tiara.

Dolan has hired and fired with abandon. Such behavior raised his carrying costs. He had to pay out $10 million per to pick up Phil Jackson, for whom in truth I hold some hope.

The N.B.A. rewarded Dolan with the All-Star Game, to be played at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. (The N.B.A. handed the slam-dunk and assorted other contests to Barclays Center, that Taj Mahal that sits on land sown with publicly financed giveaways. The Nets’ owner, the Russian oligarch Mikhail D. Prokhorov, has chosen to remain offshore, perhaps because he wants to flip the Brooklyn team for a grotesque profit.)



My colleagues Louise Story and Stephanie Saul devoted the last week to writing of these wealthy sorts. They focused on the 1 percent housing project that is the Time Warner towers, where near every other floor appears to harbor a tenant working a hustle, often involving draining public treasuries in distant lands.

No one suffers consequences. I digress, but not too much.

The Communications Workers of America organized Dolan’s Cablevision workers. The workers voted to join a union, which is a fundamental American right.

Except not really. Dolan hangs out baseline at the Garden and slaps palms with his wealthy unionized athletes. In the low-rent precincts of his empire, where broad-shouldered men and women climb poles and crawl through basements, he prefers nonunionized sorts.

His officials labored to break the union.

Last year, a judge with the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Cablevision officials had threatened to reduce workers’ benefits and deny training if they unionized. The company unlawfully fired 22 technicians in Brooklyn who supported the union.

This struggle appears to have a happy ending. On Friday, the union announced, after more than three years, it had reached a tentative contract settlement with Cablevision. The fate of a union leader, fired for challenging management, remains uncertain.

The union declined to comment.

Let’s jog closer to Madison Square Garden. Some years ago, Dolan hired Anucha Browne Sanders to serve as a senior marketing executive. She earned big bonuses and raises. All seemed well, except not really.

She said Isiah Thomas, the former Knicks coach and executive, repeatedly called her a whore and used a misogynistic slur. Stephon Marbury, the point guard, also used the slur against her and had sex with one of Browne Sanders’s M.S.G. interns in the back of his van. The intern, Browne Sanders testified, had previously spoken of abusive behavior by Marbury’s cousin, who was employed at the Garden. As people do when they are cornered and demeaned, she sued. Dolan in 2007 testified on tape and in person. He might have possessed two left feet, so freely did he step on himself.

He sounded disbelieving when asked about the use of misogynistic slurs. "It’s not appropriate. It’s also not appropriate to murder anyone," Dolan said. "I don’t know if that’s happened here."

He fired her after she had complained of harassment, allegedly for pressuring employees to back up her story.

Did he talk to a lawyer? He gave a pained look.

“All decisions at the Garden I make on my own,” he said.

The jurors awarded $11.6 million to the defendant. They ruled that Dolan personally had to pay $3 million.

Credit goes to the N.B.A. Dolan was readying a protracted appeal. The former commissioner David Stern made clear his distaste for the frat house on 33rd Street and forced a settlement.

Dolan remained a no-apologies guy. The trial outcome was a travesty of judgment, his press office said.

I don’t want to fall down the same rabbit hole as Dolan did with Bierman, and come to uncharitable conclusions. I’d imagine Dolan is kind to puppies and little children, and he may sound righteous singing in the shower.

Dolan is a recovered alcoholic, and that is truly admirable.

On Friday, I called Bierman. Like most of us New York sorts, he has rooted for the Knicks with a vaguely insane passion. Talk about Willis Reed hobbling out onto the floor in 1970 against the Lakers, and you hear pins and needles in his voice.

“Then Clyde took over and said, ‘O.K., guys, it’s my game.’ ” Bierman is no fair-weather sort. But the last 15 years? Oy gevalt. “I’ve watched an awful lot of bad basketball,” he said. “You start to feel like a schnook.”

He found Dolan’s email and typed an intemperate email. You’ve “done a lot of utterly STUPID business things with the franchise,” he wrote. “Please NO MORE.”

Dolan wrote back, calling him a “hateful mess.” “Start rooting for the Nets,” Dolan wrote, “because the Knicks don’t want you.”

It’s worth noting, and I type out of personal experience, that a lot of us say stupid things. Did Dolan have second thoughts?

“I got sent a bad, hateful email,” the billionaire told the press Friday. “I responded, sort of tit for tat.”

I asked Bierman: Could you root for the Nets?

“Under no circumstances, ever,” he replied. “I don’t care who owns my Knickerbockers. I would adore the time when Dolan sells, but that’s up to him.”

Dolan, I imagine, will sit courtside Sunday at the All-Star Game.

Email: [e-mail]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/sports/jim-dolan-consummate-1-percenter.html?ref=basketball

[BullNBear52]

Website prods Dolan to sell Knicks
Updated: February 10, 2015, 3:08 AM ET
By Mike Mazzeo | ESPNNewYork.com

NEW YORK -- The disgruntled fans who started the multiplatform campaign calling for former New York Jets general manager John Idzik's ouster have found their next target: Knicks owner James Dolan.

Inspired by Dolan's email to a fan in which the Knicks owner told him to go root for the rival Brooklyn Nets, Jason Koeppel and his brother, Jared, along with friends Greg Kohler and Dan Filowitz, have launched Knicks4Sale.com, a detailed website that calls for Dolan to sell the team.

The new campaign, which also features a Twitter and a Facebook account, hopes to raise $20,000 in donations in order to raise a billboard on 30th Street and Seventh Avenue near Madison Square Garden.

"It was the 'Idzik news conference moment.' That's what we called it -- when we decided that management and ownership had gone too far and it was time for the fans to do something," Jason Koeppel, a self-described die-hard fan of the Jets and Knicks from Teaneck, N.J., told ESPNNewYork.com via phone Monday night.

"This email that he had the nerve to send to one of his fans was the moment. We talked last night -- the four of us -- and just said, you know what, we've had enough and we've gotta do something."

"I've been a Knick fan my whole life, and the past 15 years -- except for that one season where we won one playoff series -- have just been a nightmare," Koeppel continued. "We've been patient, and the cost of going to games has just skyrocketed to the point of being completely out of control, so we don't attend as many games anymore, but we definitely watch on TV, and it's just one terrible season after the other.

"We're sick of having Dolan around. We're sick of his meddling. He's an embarrassment. And it's embarrassing to us to read the email that he sent to a fan, so we just felt like it was time to embarrass him."

The slogan on that billboard will be determined by a fan vote. Assuming enough money is raised for it to be put up, the billboard would be up from the middle of March to the middle of April.

"It's gonna say something to the effect of 'Knicks 4 Sale: Competent owner needed. Inquire within,'" Koeppel said. "But we're gonna look to the creativity of the donors to help us in that process."

This past season, Koeppel and his friends started firejohnidzik.com. They also raised money for multiple billboards -- on highways and via airplane -- calling for Jets owner Woody Johnson to make a change. Idzik was eventually fired following the team's 4-12 season.

"Just like we didn't think that Woody Johnson was gonna go outside Route 3 [near MetLife Stadium] and look at a billboard and fire his general manager, we certainly don't think that James Dolan is gonna look at a billboard on 30th and Seventh and say, 'Hey, maybe you know what? I should sell the Knicks,'" Koeppel said. "But the whole point of this just to voice displeasure and maybe embarrass him to the point of realizing that what he's doing the last 15 years isn't working and it's time to step away."

Dolan hired Phil Jackson in March 2014 and rookie coach Derek Fisher in June to help rebuild the franchise. Dolan and Jackson said Jackson would have full autonomy as president after the 11-time NBA champion received a five-year, $60 million contract. Fisher was signed to a five-year, $25 million deal.

The Knicks (10-42) re-signed Carmelo Anthony to a five-year, $124 million max deal over the summer and, barring a stunning turnaround, will have a lottery pick in the first round of the NBA draft plus around $30 million to spend in free agency.

But Jackson recently told The New York Times that "so far, my experiment has fell flat on its face."

[fuagf]

hope Aussi Patty Mills is able to stay with them
http://hoopshabit.com/2014/06/16/golden-state-warriors-make-patrick-mills-offer/

[Pro-Life]

I'm happy for that organization... Duncan and friends will return for next year!!!

[BullNBear52]

Spurs Win Fifth Title, Cementing Dynasty Across Decades
By SCOTT CACCIOLAJUNE 15, 2014

SAN ANTONIO — The arena rumbled. It was only the first half on Sunday night, but there was already a growing sense of inevitability with each passing possession. Having withstood the best that LeBron James could offer, the Spurs were closing in on another championship.

Tim Duncan backed down an opponent before throwing in a baby hook. Manu Ginobili raced end to end for an emphatic dunk that nearly blew the top off AT&T Center. And James, the Miami Heat’s resident superstar and the best player on the planet, was rendered powerless by the Spurs’ slow march to history.

With their 104-87 win in Game 5 of the N.B.A. finals, the Spurs celebrated their fifth championship in 16 seasons as black-and-silver confetti fell from the rafters. San Antonio turned the series into a coronation by winning four of five games, including the last three, with the bonus of snuffing Miami’s well-publicized quest for a third straight title in the process.

“We’re a true team,” Tony Parker said.

Kawhi Leonard, who was named the finals’ most valuable player, finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Ginobili added 19 points, and Duncan, in his 17th season with the team, had 14 points and 8 rebounds.

The victory was even sweeter for the Spurs given their not-so-distant history with the Heat. In last year’s finals, the Spurs had a 3-2 series lead before it all slipped away: They blew a late lead in Game 6, then lost in Game 7. Many questioned whether the Spurs — who were not getting any younger — could muster another run.

“Last year’s loss was devastating,” Coach Gregg Popovich said. “I’ve said many times, a day didn’t go by where I didn’t think about Game 6.”

The Spurs responded by posting the league’s best record before storming through the playoffs. Their rematch with the Heat was fine art with a basketball: the passing, the footwork, the skill, the teamwork. If the Heat were a high-wire act without a net (James was the unfortunate performer on the trapeze), the Spurs were ballet dancers.

“They played exquisite basketball this series,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They are the better team. There’s no other way to say it. They played great basketball, and we couldn’t respond to it.”

James had a game-high 31 points. Dwyane Wade, hampered by bad knees and an injured hamstring in the regular season, struggled for the second straight game, finishing with 11 points.

“Nothing,” Wade said when he was asked if he was suffering from any physical limitations. “Just struggled a little bit.”

The loss was a dose of reality for James, who faces an uncertain off-season. James, Wade and Chris Bosh — Miami’s Big 3 — can all opt out of their contracts and become free agents. They have won two titles together and were hoping for a third, but the Spurs exposed some weaknesses.

They were on display in the third quarter, as the Heat missed their first seven shots. They looked sluggish on defense, too. The Spurs’ Patty Mills (17 points) blew past Miami’s baseline defenders for a reverse layup, then made two 3-pointers. Ginobili followed with a 3-pointer of his own for a 21-point lead, and the party was on.

That the Heat had seized a 16-point lead in the first quarter made the Spurs’ victory more impressive. San Antonio outscored Miami by 33 points the rest of the way.

“This is the sweetest one,” said Parker, who had 16 points in the win.

But while the championship was certainly about Duncan, Ginobili and Parker — their fourth title together in 12 seasons as teammates — it also underscored the coaching acumen of Popovich, the importance of the Spurs’ scouting department and how seamlessly the team incorporates new parts.

Consider Leonard, 22, a swingman who was acquired in a draft-day trade from the Indiana Pacers in 2011. Popovich has already anointed him the future face of the franchise, and in the last three games of the finals — all convincing wins for the Spurs — the future seemed to be now.

“It just feels like a dream to me,” Leonard said.

Consider also Boris Diaw, a formidable post presence whose old-school game should require him to wear sweatpants. He joined the Spurs last season as a reliable reserve and did his job without complaint before emerging as a dynamic starter in these finals.

“We’ve given him more of a prominent role, and he’s responded well at both ends of the floor,” Popovich said before the game.

It was pure Popovich: pragmatic to the point of near detachment. The Spurs have a system in a place. The system means making sacrifices. The system means winning games. The system means collecting championships.

It was a trying series for James. In Game 1, he cramped up when the air-conditioning system went out at AT&T Center. In Game 2, he turned one of his ankles. Back in Miami, the Heat lost Games 3 and 4 by a combined 40 points. For the series, he averaged 28.2 points while shooting 57.1 percent from the field.

“Obviously,” James said, “I didn’t do enough.”

Before the game, James said he wanted to be more aggressive, and it was an understatement. He was everywhere in the first quarter. He dunked in transition. He blocked layup attempts. He rebounded and defended and captivated the crowd. Nothing was going to come easily for San Antonio, James wanted to make sure of that.

When Wade missed on a runner early in the first quarter, James was there for a putback dunk that gave the Heat an 8-0 lead. The Spurs, so solid with their shooting throughout their series, missed their first five field-goal attempts. Later, after Ginobili barely grazed the front of the rim on a long jumper, James capitalized with a 3-pointer.

Spoelstra had made some changes of his own, starting Ray Allen in place of the struggling Mario Chalmers. Allen made a 3-pointer that extended Miami’s lead to 22-6.

The Heat finished the first quarter with a 29-22 lead, and it was due almost solely to James, who went 5 of 7 from the field, sank all five of his free throws, scored 17 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. His teammates scored 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting.

The game turned in the second quarter, though. James cooled, and the Spurs took advantage. Leonard drilled a 3-pointer to give the Spurs their first lead, 37-35.

Ginobili, too, found his form, following Leonard’s 3-pointer with an up-and-under layup. James punctuated that sequence by slamming the ball against the court, a sign of things to come. The Spurs had a 47-40 lead at halftime, and it continued to grow.

It was too much, even then, for the Heat to overcome. The Spurs were not letting this one slip away, not again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/sports/basketball/spurs-rally-to-rout-heat-and-win-the-nba-title.html?ref=basketball

[BullNBear52]

Really Appreciating These Spurs May Take Time
JUNE 16, 2014

Suffering is good. It reinforces character, resolve and commitment. Experienced in public, it exposes vulnerability. Handled with class, it heightens likability.

On the road to championship redemption, it helps to have an N.B.A. great anchoring the lane; two foreign-born guards and a coach who are undoubtedly headed to the Hall of Fame; a rising young star; and a bench full of dedicated and productive role players.

But as a motivational tool, pain can be potent, and in the case of Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs, it can also be promotional.

For a decade and a half, they were pro basketball’s most unsexy success story, but never were they more respected than after the excruciating way they lost last year to the Miami Heat.

Never was Duncan more exposed to the N.B.A.-watching world than when misery clouded his face in the moments of his most wrenching failure and his eyes misted after Game 7.

He was no longer the poker face giant, sharing only inside his circle. We plainly saw the broken heart of a four-time champion, how badly he wanted a career-bookend fifth title, how much it hurt to have been seconds away in Game 6.

Before this season’s rematch with the Heat, he even went out on an unfamiliar limb, transforming himself into Tim Duncan Messier.

“We’ll do it this time,” he said on the eve of the Spurs’ five-game wipeout of the Heat, punctuated Sunday night with a 104-87 clincher in San Antonio.

Duncan’s promise told Isiah Thomas everything he needed to know.

“He said it so casually but it told you that every day, for the whole season, that’s all he was thinking about,” Thomas said. “I know what that’s like, when you come so close, when they’ve got the trophy and Champagne in your locker room one minute, and then they’re wheeling it out.”

In the history of the N.B.A. finals, nobody suffered more than Jerry West, a loser in eight of nine championship series in 14 years with the Los Angeles Lakers. But in the more modern N.B.A., which by most measures began in 1980 with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, Thomas and the Detroit Pistons remain the barometer for heartbreak, for crushing defeat in consecutive seasons along the way to the top of the mountain.

It was Thomas who floated the infamous inbounds pass that was stolen along with Game 5 and ultimately the 1987 Eastern Conference finals in Boston by Bird. It was Thomas who led his team back the next season, past the Celtics, exploding for 25 third-quarter points on a sprained ankle in Game 6 of the finals against the Lakers at Los Angeles.

The Spurs were denied last season when Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard missed late free throws and Ray Allen memorably connected from the corner. Fourteen seconds away in Game 6 with a 1-point lead in 1988, the Pistons were victimized by what many recall as a phantom foul, Bill Laimbeer whistled for breathing on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as he pivoted for a sky hook from the right baseline.

The details fade. The hurt remains, stored for repurposing.

“I remember after Game 6, we’re in the locker room, it’s very quiet, and Chuck comes in,” Thomas said in a telephone interview, referring to Coach Chuck Daly. “He said, ‘Bring it in,’ and we got in a circle.

“But what is there to say? It’s so gut-wrenching. You take it with you all summer, carry it around. But you’re also thinking, if we had had home-court advantage, that’s our championship. So you’re already getting ready to bring that into next season. That’s what Timmy and the Spurs did; they went out and got the best record.”

The Pistons won a league-best 63 games in 1988-89, and swept the banged-up Lakers in the finals. As Thomas noted, the Spurs differed from his team in one significant way: Their core veterans had already been champions. But like the Pistons, the Spurs were never much celebrated, never adopted and endorsed by Shoe Company America.

The Bad Boy Pistons played a generally unloved brawny brand of ball, and their two championships were sandwiched between the far more popular Lakers-Celtics and Jordan-Bulls eras. The Spurs were fronted by the publicity-shy Duncan, the prickly coach Gregg Popovich and a chip on their organizational shoulder for the accurate perception that the country and even the league preferred Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in the finals to them.

Of the Spurs, who have the best winning percentage of any major sports franchise over the last 17 years, or since Duncan arrived, Phil Jackson said in April: “I wouldn’t call San Antonio a dynasty” because “they never won consecutive championships.” A nitpick for sure, but in a Twitter posting late Sunday night, Jackson wrote: “Congrats to Spurs and Pop. They overcame a mind numbing loss last year to comeback stronger physically, mentally, and spiritually.”

What a difference a year makes, Zen and now. Understand, however, that the two outcomes are part of one narrative, just as it was for Thomas and the Pistons a quarter century ago. For them, distance brought more appreciation, along with the flourishing touch of a recent ESPN documentarian.

In time, when the 2013-14 champions earn their own reel of fortune, even the most grudging holdouts on the Spurs — most of them brainwashed by the aforementioned mythmakers on what pro basketball at its best is supposed to be — will come around.

They will recognize the individual talent, more than most realize, blending magnificently in a blur of body and ball movement. They will smile at the sight of Leonard, 22, shouting not as a self-aggrandizing showman, only out of astonishment, while receiving the most valuable player trophy from Bill Russell.

They will relish the memory of the great LeBron James, dethroned but respectful, hugging Duncan tight; of the celebratory embrace of the Frenchmen Tony Parker and Boris Diaw; of the flags of Argentina and Italy draped around the shoulders of Ginobili and Marco Belinelli; and of an emotionally spent Popovich watching the celebration unfold from the bench.

Asked about the burden of bouncing all the way back, Duncan said: “We had the team to, if we believed and let it go.” He meant the pain of last season, and he most likely lied. “You never let it go,” Thomas said. “I’ve carried mine around for years.”

By reputation bad or boring, handling the pain is one way to change perception. Last season came widespread respect. This season brought heightened appreciation. For Duncan and the Spurs, it’s only a matter of time before they are remembered as eternally special.

[fuagf]

yep, he is, yet still playing well .. i just discovered, again, that ours isn't until September, sure
will remember you then .. lol .. :) .. just see yours is coming up soon, so yessir .. same to you!

[CryptoWStreet]

Agree. I believe his hurt also. Happy Father's Day buddy!!!