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Post by Brinyi on Jun 7, 2005 7:43:43 GMT -5
Yes, but the impression he left was, it's amazing to think that I came from a God-foresaken place like Coatesville and made it to the NBA finals.
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Post by janie on Jun 7, 2005 14:40:59 GMT -5
Yes, but the impression he left was, it's amazing to think that I came from a God-foresaken place like Coatesville and made it to the NBA finals. Haaa, that's very true, it did sound like that! ;D And the poor old town is that, though they have the usual downtown-revival thing trying to happen. It's an old steel town with hideous (to me) new mini-mansions springing up all around its outskirts by the thousands, while the town itself stays moribund. It's the American way!
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Post by janie on Jun 9, 2005 10:03:01 GMT -5
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Post by janie on Jun 9, 2005 10:05:34 GMT -5
That post is actually very accurate. The Spurs really do have just 28 fans outside of San Antonio, and we are all depicted there! I'm one of the green ones! (because i recycle.) ;D
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Post by Lee on Jun 9, 2005 10:06:32 GMT -5
Good luck to whoever's team tonight ;D
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 9, 2005 10:44:13 GMT -5
I'm ready to nap, baby!
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Post by janie on Jun 9, 2005 10:57:01 GMT -5
me, too! I should take a long nap -- for the rest of the day! -- just to be sure I'm good to go! Too bad all the dreary tv sports dopes keep dissing this series, saying it will be boring and awful. Why? No arrogant a**hole stars, of course! What a shame! I will really, really miss them so much.
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Post by janie on Jun 9, 2005 16:54:03 GMT -5
ewww, why do they have to put faux-wiseman PHIL JACKSON on the pre-game show? I thought we had escaped from that whole Laker crowd till next season. no fair!!! whine whine
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 9, 2005 20:21:59 GMT -5
You know you're a geezer when... Alanis Morissette is starting to look old!
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Post by janie on Jun 10, 2005 5:59:59 GMT -5
You know you're a geezer when... Alanis Morissette is starting to look old! OMG, I thought the same thing!! But what I really can't believe is that the Spurs won that game. I was so disgusted at the way they started -- could they complete ONE pass, make ONE defensive stop without fouling -- that I went to bed. And I wake up to find out they turned that execrable start around?? Am watching Sportscenter to see how they did it :lust: Manu :lust:, but I don't regret that good night's sleep!
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Post by janie on Jun 10, 2005 6:08:31 GMT -5
Ha, they're calling him Obi Wan Ginobli.
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Post by Lee on Jun 10, 2005 17:41:12 GMT -5
You know you're a geezer when... Alanis Morissette is starting to look old! Ouch!! I already felt I'm old when she just had her big break.
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 10, 2005 18:00:01 GMT -5
You know, I thought that was a great game. Everybody was whining about the low score, but this is beautiful -- two teams with great defences and great offensive players that can break the defences down. I am loving it! Manu rocks. And I like Billups more every time I see him.
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Post by janie on Jun 11, 2005 7:44:38 GMT -5
Ginobili has become the Spurs' mane man
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, June 11, 2005
San Antonio -- In the past year, Manu Ginobili's game and mane have both grown noticeably, and there might be a connection.
Denver Nuggets coach George Karl swears that Ginobili uses his long, moppish hair to draw the referees' attention to his flops.
Nearly all NBA players flop -- use overly dramatic pratfalls in hopes of drawing fouls. Most of them use the standard textbook flop, arms pinwheeling as they stagger back and fall on their tush.
It's bad acting, like Jerry Lewis playing Macbeth. Oh, Laaaady!
Ginobili's falls are more creative and authentic. He looks like a man being thrown out of a saloon. When it comes to flopping, or at least to falling, he has a repertoire. And the hair does fly.
Sonics guard Ray Allen recently scoffed, "(H)is hair goes all wild, and it looks like someone just murdered him. Those fouls aren't that hard."
What's significant about Karl, Allen and others in a snit about Ginobili's hair is what this signifies: Manu has become relevant.
He is a player. He no longer is an opening act. Tim Duncan is the team leader, but more and more, with the game on the line, the Spurs look to Manu to make his magic -- with touches of tragic.
Ginobili's magic goes beyond his ability to get to the basket. It's about intensity.
"He took the ball anywhere he wanted to (in the fourth quarter of Game 1), " Pistons coach Larry Brown said Friday. "He made every hustle play and he got to the rim. ... And his will was much greater than ours."
It's crazy how it has come to this, Ginobili as a force for the Spurs, because:
-- Coach Gregg Popovich is a control guy who demands that basketball be played by the book. He has achieved great success by having his structured game plan interpreted by two of the most traditional and elegant stars of recent years, David Robinson and Duncan.
-- Ginobili is an improviser given to incredible solos that seem beyond anyone's control.
It took the coach and the player about two seasons to figure out one another and to form a working relationship.
"I basically have decided that he has all the room that he wants," Popovich said Friday.
When did he decide that?
"Probably at the beginning of the season. It took me a couple of years. You know, we had a lot of talks, knocked heads, as far as me trying to control him and him trying to let me know that 'This is what I do.'
"The more I watched him play, the more film I watched, the more I realized there was going to be a hell of a lot more good doing it his way than my way, and at the beginning of this season we made the commitment that we're going to eat a couple of turnovers or we're going to eat a bad shot here and there, and we're going to see where it goes. And this is where it's gone."
Ginobili learned early on that if there's anything Popovich loves more than controlling every beat of the team's heart, it's winning. And learning. Ginobili saw that Popovich was granting him license that he had never granted other players, so Ginobili gave ground, too.
"I knew that I could help the team more if I followed my instincts a little bit more," Ginobili said. "So it's not that we made an agreement, but I tried to calm down and slow down the pace a little bit, and he slowed down a little bit, too, and allowed me to do more things."
That's right, folks, the Ginobili you watched shred the defending- champion Pistons on Thursday night is the dialed-back, underwraps version.
If Ginobili's heroics wind up leading the Spurs to the title, Pistons coach Larry Brown must take a share of the blame. Brown has long been a mentor to Popovich, and Brown's relationship with Allen Iverson in Philadelphia surely was a lesson in granting artistic freedom to an unorthodox player with genius creative skills.
Brown massaged that relationship until his -- and Iverson's -- eyes bled. Iverson worked at it, too, and together they reached the NBA Finals.
It's a leap of faith for a coach, granting that kind of freedom, because Iverson and Ginobili both work without a net. Which is breathtaking, but has a big potential downside.
Ginobili keeps the other Spurs on the edges of their seats.
"Everything he does surprises me," Duncan said. "Even playing with him all year, when he gets into a rhythm like that (Game 1) where he starts going, it's like you want to sit there and watch him play."
Once Ginobili breaches the perimeter defense and enters the lane, form takes a holiday. You can almost hear furniture breaking.
"It's a controlled chaos," Spurs guard Brent Barry said. "And Manu's the only one who's in control of it. He's aggressive, at times he's ferocious. It's like what you see at times from Kobe Bryant."
Ginobili is like Douglas Fairbanks Sr., a star who performs his own stunts, and Manu pays the price. It was Barry who nicknamed him "El Contusion."
As for the long hair helping him draw fouls, Ginobili didn't talk about that, but he told me he hasn't cut his hair in almost a year, and he doesn't have a barber. So deal with it, Ray Allen.
E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com.
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Post by janie on Jun 12, 2005 14:14:05 GMT -5
I like Billups more every time I see him. He's amazing, isn't he? I love all those Pistons starters. It's hard to root against them, but I have to. Another LATE start tonight! Why why why!
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Post by janie on Jun 12, 2005 19:47:53 GMT -5
VAMOS! ALLEZ! GO GO GO SPURS!!!! For some nice Manu photos, see the "I Love Manu" thread!
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Post by janie on Jun 12, 2005 20:37:32 GMT -5
Tayshaun always makes me think of a spider with those looooong & skinny arms and legs, and his head sort of bobbing loosely on the skinny neck! I worry about him; he looks breakable!
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Post by Lee on Jun 13, 2005 13:07:51 GMT -5
Watch the last 8 minutes in 4QTR last night and Manu put on quite a clinic.
In the post game show in local ABC station, D'Antoni said Ginobili is the best basketball player in the world.
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Post by janie on Jun 13, 2005 15:08:15 GMT -5
Watch the last 8 minutes in 4QTR last night and Manu put on quite a clinic. In the post game show in local ABC station, D'Antoni said Ginobili is the best basketball player in the world. Wow!
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Post by janie on Jun 14, 2005 19:47:56 GMT -5
I never liked Phil Jackson, but I used to respect him (sort of) -- okay, maybe not, but at least I used to think he was fairly intelligent, and maybe a little deeper than the average jock.
But in reading his book, I became disillusioned and began to realize that PJ is nothing special in the brains department, and definitely not so hot in the "deep" department, either. And now he has proved my new view of him to be correct, because he is moronic enough to return to the Lakers. You can't go home again, Phil. Aren't you "deep" enough to know that?
Oh well, maybe at least PJ can make the Lakers good enough again to bother rooting against them! I missed that pleasure for the whole 2nd half of this season, when they sunk so low they were just too pathetic to bother "hating" (though I took a certain pleasure in their vast patheticness, too, as any hardened anti-Lakerite must!) :satan:
Go Spurs!
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 15, 2005 7:42:41 GMT -5
Jackson is a pathetic weed. And what hole did Manu disappear into last night?
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Post by Lee on Jun 15, 2005 10:02:16 GMT -5
And what hole did Manu disappear into last night? Not just Manu, I could hardly find Duncan considering his height btw, my son declared he wants Detroit to win.
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 15, 2005 10:07:26 GMT -5
That's true -- Parker and Bowen were the only ones who seemed to have any oomph.
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Post by janie on Jun 15, 2005 14:06:28 GMT -5
The exact same thing happened last year! After the Spurs went up 2-0 on the Lakers, it was all "oh Tony oh Tony, who can ever stop him!". And that was the end of Tony! This year it was "oh Manu oh Manu, who can ever stop him!" So then, predictably, my Manu disappeared! So how come the Spurs couldn't see the writing on the wall if I could? I shoulda e-mailed Pop!! But at the same time I'm happy for the Pistons. Not nice for the defending Champions to lose so meekly. And think how relieved esther kim from Sid's board must be!
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Post by janie on Jun 16, 2005 19:15:16 GMT -5
allez! vamos! go win, youze guys from TEXAS
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Post by janie on Jun 17, 2005 8:11:49 GMT -5
Thank God I went to bed early and missed the whole game! I can't even watch Sportscenter: I saw a few minutes of it and they kept showing this shot of TD sitting on the bench looking like a pathetic wretch. Have you no pride, Tim, Spurs?? So awful. I am losing my respect for this team -- AGAIN. Bunch of big, soft babies, don't know what to do when they get behind! "We're not winning, waaaaaahhhh!!! Let's give up!!"
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Post by Lee on Jun 17, 2005 9:29:35 GMT -5
I didn't watch the match but somehow caught that awful, awful clip on Sportscenter. It's a miracle that a team can be that brilliant vs Suns and first 2 final games, then suddenly plays like an absolute loser.
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Post by janie on Jun 19, 2005 13:28:40 GMT -5
In the post game show in local ABC station, D'Antoni said Ginobili is the best basketball player in the world. Wonder what D'Antoni's thinking now ...
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Post by Lee on Jun 20, 2005 11:46:08 GMT -5
In the post game show in local ABC station, D'Antoni said Ginobili is the best basketball player in the world. Wonder what D'Antoni's thinking now ... D'Antoni: :shit: I should say that during the Suns/Spurs series. Look how I jinx him. I should say the same about Duncan and Parker.
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Post by Lee on Jun 20, 2005 11:47:15 GMT -5
It's funny to see a big guy like Duncan chewing on his knuckles. I guess he used to chew on his finger nails.
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