One Half Shapes The Future For Two Franchises

As the buzzer sounded for the end of the first half during the fourth game between Memphis and San Antonio, the Grizzlies players headed into the locker room with a two-point deficit. They understood the ramifications if they were to lose this one; a trip back to Texas with the series tied.

Most teams would buckle under the pressure of trying to pull off a big upset over the top seed, especially when comparing the two franchise’s roster experience in the postseason. The core of San Antonio have been together for nearly a decade and have already accumulated numerous championships in that span, while Memphis has only four players on their roster who have actually played during the playoffs.

With those credentials, the smart bet would be on the Spurs to even up the series and the Grizzlies to falter in the second half.

Unfortunately for Tim Duncan and his pals, Memphis didn’t care about the odds.


In one of the most stunning halves of play in NBA playoff history, Memphis came out swinging by converting countless big shots and swarming San Antonio with shut down defense that created hordes of uncharacteristic turnovers by, arguably, one of the savviest teams in recent memory. Once the middle of the fourth quarter hit and a twenty point deficit stood before them, all Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Richard Jefferson could do was sit on the bench and stare dumbfounded out at the hardwood court before them as their reserves finished up the game.




By the time the horn sounded for the end of the game, Zach Randolph, Mike Conley, and Marc Gasol huddled the rest of their team together for their end game, informal team meeting with their raucous and boisterous home crowd shrieking proudly behind them over their win.

Although both teams will go back to San Antonio no matter what the outcome of game four was, that second half changed the outlook of the series and possibly the future of both franchises.

When the seeding for the playoffs were set, it appeared to be a cakewalk for the Spurs. The Grizzlies were a young team that was missing their best player in Rudy Gay and appeared to have insufficient personnel to take on the deep and experienced number one seed in the Western Conference. Just getting a win would be victory enough for a franchise that entered the 2011 NBA Playoffs without ever winning at home in their postseason history.

Now, Memphis has become the hunter and the Spurs are the defenseless prey hoping to somehow evade their now inevitable demise. The Spurs would be the first top seed to get knocked in the first round by an eighth seed since the Warriors beat the top seeded Mavericks in 2007.


Along with a humiliating first round defeat would be the probability that this is most likely the dynasty’s last round of dominance.

With Duncan’s output declining rapidly at the age of 35 and Ginobili’s body breaking down, another title run after this season appears highly unlikely. Teams like Oklahoma City, Chicago, Miami, and Memphis have core players that are entering the prime of their careers in their mid twenties. It would only be a matter of time before the Spurs would be leap-frogged over by other up-and-coming dynasties.

Along with the aging veterans, there doesn’t appear to be an answer as to who will lead this team back to prominence in the future. Although five of the key players are under the age of 28 (Parker (28), Gary Neal (26), Tiago Splitter (26), George Hill (24), and DeJuan Blair (22), aside from Parker, they are only role players who have nowhere near the pedigree or the potential their elder counterparts had at their age.

To put it blatantly: don’t expect the Spurs to come into the Western Conference as the number one seed anytime soon again.

On the flip side, the second half in game four can be a jumping off point for a possible, future dynasty in Memphis.

If anything, those 24 minutes could be the blueprint for their future. They exemplified a team that would never give up, always work hard, and wouldn’t buy into the hype of playing a higher seed. Those are qualities that are not easy to teach such an adolescent squad and harder to maintain when a team is put in a spot they have never experienced before.

For many franchises with a similar roster to the Grizzlies (they have ten players under the age of 26 and only one player over the age of 30), getting a lead on a veteran team and being one win away from their first playoff series can be the start of something bigger down the road. Even if they somehow lose this series, expect this to be a great learning experience in how to be a contender in future postseasons.

One great example is examining the two number eight seeds from the 2010 Playoffs.

The Chicago Bulls entered the Eastern Conference as the last seed and made the playoffs for the first time since 2007. Their young core never experienced the postseason before and relished every moment of it, even though they were bounced out in five games by Cleveland. They rode last year’s experience to become the overall top seed in the East this season and recently took out Indiana to advance into the second round.

On the other side of the bracket is the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were the last team to clinch a Western Conference playoff berth in 2010. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook’s squad was a young team at the time and got their team to the postseason for the first time since they were the Seattle Supersonics in 2005. They pushed the Lakers to six games before they were eventually defeated. Determined to use that series as a building block for their future, they entered the 2011 NBA playoffs as the fourth seed and are now one win away from being a second round team.

Those examples should prove helpful for Memphis as they go forward building a contender.

No matter what happens at the conclusion of this series, the second half of game four will forever live in infamy for both franchises as the turning point in their futures

This Day in Black Sports History: February 18, 1986

In the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA), only four players have recorded a quadruple-double, which is the accumulation of double-digit number totals in four of five statistical categories—points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots—in a game.

“The reason why [quadruple-double] is such a hard thing to accomplish is because it requires a player to be completely dominant on both ends of the court without being too selfish—so he can get the assists—without fouling out trying to block every shot or grab every rebound. A lot of guys can get the points, rebounds and assists, but it’s the defensive stuff that messes everybody up. You have to love defense to get a quadruple-double. There’s no way around it.” - Nate Thurmond

On Feb. 18, 1986, Alvin Cyrrale Robertson, a four-time NBA All-Star, followed in the enormous footsteps of Thurmond, by registering the second quadruple-double in league history.

While playing for the San Antonio Spurs, the multi-dimensional Robertson compiled 20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals in a game against the Phoenix Suns.

Former Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon and former Spurs center David Robinson recorded quadruple-doubles in 1990 and 1994 respectively to join Thurmond and Robertson in this exclusive club.

However, what distinguished Robertson’s quadruple-double is that his came with steals as the fourth category. Thurmond (22 points, 14 rebounds 13 assists, 12 blocks), Olajuwon (18 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists, 11 blocks) and Robinson (34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 blocks) registered theirs with blocks as the fourth category.

Robertson’s historic achievement was one of the highlights in a banner year for the University of Arkansas product, who was selected by the Spurs with the seventh overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft.

By doubling his scoring output from his rookie season, and averaging 3.7 steals per game, Robertson would win the Most Improved Player Award and the Defensive Player of the Year Award for the 1985-86 season, as well as earn the first of four All-Star selections in his 11-year career.

After playing for the Spurs (1984-1989), Milwaukee Bucks (1989-1993), Detroit Pistons (1993) and the Toronto Raptors (1995-1996), Robertson retired holding the top career steals-per-game average in NBA history (2.71 spg), a record that has not been surpassed, and the record holder for the most consecutive games with a steal (105), a mark now held by New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul (108).

Robertson would hang up his sneakers with career averages of 14.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.7 steals per game.

And of all the legendary guards that have graced the NBA courts, such as Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, ‘Magic’ Johnson, and Michael Jordan, Robertson is the first, and last, guard to register a quadruple-double in a game.

Click here to read the original article at Examiner.com.

Sporadic Era-tic: The Death of the Superfriends

Blowing in the Wind, originally uploaded by awonderfulsplash.

Worry not, dear friends! The Superfriends meme is not dead. It just falls to this lonely spore to wind the clock of change and paradigm. Someone has to declare something dead after all this talk of viral this video and viral that, hashtag trending moments in the blistering web-spun online sun. Our eyes can only be hosts to these ghosts of existence for so long.

So, existence versus non-existence tonight. I declare death to the Superfriends not because they do not exist and/or will not soon come to proliferate. I only offer that such a means to overcoming the mean streets of mediocrity must at some point come to be judged as either viable or f(l)ailing. I recognize it's early in the NBA season, but a verdict must be passed such that all other verdicts may be measured, consciously or collective-subconsciously, upon its wavily inconsistent metaphorical shores.

Sorry, a little rusty here. I offer, in return for your patience and persistence and co-pre-cognizance with me, an alternative.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh: These are the new figureheads of the Superfriends mold. Amar'e, CP3, 'Melo: These are the leaders of the new, if new be someday told. Right now, the verdict is out on the ledge like hot pie charts waiting for sticky fingered nerds to reach out and grasp at the pretense of truth. And who's the early boy playing Worms: Battle Islands? I'll give you a hint: it's not the eight-and-six Heat. Rather, I suggest you take a look at the twelve-and-eleven Spurs.

That's right, the wily vets, the geriatric section, divorcee's row, the leaders of the old, the Spurs currently hold the best win percentage in the league. How are they doing it? Not with an injection of new legs, because Tiago Splitter ain't doing diddly past six points and three pulls, and DaJuan Blair is the opposite of new legs. They're doing it with the same old system based around Tim Duncan and trickling down to the aforementioned soon-to-be divorcee Tony Parker, the finally healthy Manu Ginobli, and the revitalized Richard Jefferson.

So the Spurs are twelve-and-one. What's new, Nagamatsu? Why write about the difference in paradigms now? Because LeBron James affords us a unique perspective on the efficacy of Superfriends vs. San Antonio as models for building successful basketball teams. In Cleveland, King James was privy to a build similar to that of the Spurs, as was much bruited about when the two teams faced in the finals of '07. Under the careful build of Popovich acolytes Danny Ferry and Mike Brown, LeBron James saw a solid string of successful seasons. Now, having left the patronage of such system, he enters into something more akin to the 80's Laker Showtime teams under Pat Riley's baleful, pomaded watch.

Obviously, the Showtime teams weren't quite a Superfriends model. Perhaps I'm just saying that because they were successful and such a model would ruin my paradigm study. Still, those squads lacked the mercenary feel of such teams as the post-championship Rockets featuring Olajuwon, Drexler, and Barkley and/or Pippen, as I mentioned in my last epocrypha. What other unsuccessful Superfriends squads can we point to? Barkley's 76ers with Dr. J and Moses Malone, as well as Pippen's stint with the Jail Blazers both fit the bill. Dallas' multiple attempts at paving their way to super teams with the Mark Cuban's Benjamins failed, as did the '04 Lakers. (And I'm sure I'm forgetting a whole host of 'em)

Batmanuel, Captain Liberty, The Tick and Arthur, originally uploaded by Walkabout Wolf.

Which brings us to the anomalies, the outliers as Malcolm Gladwell would put it. Sure, the '04 Lakers failed with Gary Payton and Karl Malone in tow, but realistically they should have won. Statistically, they should have won. Only Malone's injury kept them from dominating that series. And then Shaq left, and who knows. But what about the current, contemporary version of the Lakers? Isn't that a four-headed beast with Kobe, Pau, Lamar, and Artest? In short, yes. This current iteration is what one might term a "Superfriends" squad. However, what separates them is the system. Phil Jackson's "trust your players to fall or fly when they most need your trust" system is one of a kind. As a Lakers fan, I am petrified at the thought of trying to get that seventh in my watching career without the Zen Master. Here's the other thing: Until recently, this system was not one that played nice with the Superfriends mold. In the first three-peat, the team swallowed stars whole and left them barely shells of role players. Glen Rice, Mitch Richmond, Isaiah Rider. All three were eaten up and spit out by the '00-'02 Lakers.

The other outlier? The '08 Boston Celtics. There's a team that fit the Superfriends mold to a T. What sets them apart is Ubuntu. They had an identity from the start. Furthermore, the team's looking more and more like a Spurs team built around Rondo. But that's a side note. San Antonio is not the only team prospering under the Popovich Spurs paradigm. The 10-2 New Orleans Hornets (3rd highest win percentage in the league right now) are newly adapting themselves to the model under Popovich pupil Monty Williams. Similarly, the 10-4 Oklahoma City Thunder have followed Sam Presti in making Durant their Duncan and building down from there.

Pencil Vs Camera - 19, originally uploaded by Ben Heine.

What tic should you take away from all this? What should you allow to syphon blood from your Superfriend-like excessive thoughts? Let's just say the Lakers have Zen, the Celts have Ubuntu, what do the Heat have?

Are Tony Parker & Eva Longoria the Reason NY Yankees' Derek Jeter Isn't Married?

With the recent announcement that actress Eva Longoria has filed for divorce from San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker, eyes widened and jaws dropped all across the country. Especially in light of the discovery of numerous text messages from Parker to Erin Barry, the wife of former teammate Brent Barry.

Unfortunately though, the impending dissolution of the Parkers’ three-year marriage shouldn’t come as much of a surprise at all. Over the course of the past several decades, the professional sports landscape is replete with evidence that marital fidelity has gradually become a dying concept.

The reality is polls and studies indicate that while nearly half of marriages within the general population end in divorce, a discouraging statistic intrinsically, the divorce rate among professional athletes is between 60 and 80 percent.

What’s even more disheartening is there are no viable solutions in sight because the contributing factors to this dilemma are inherent to the occupation.

Much like actors, actresses and music artists, professional athletes are increasingly hard pressed to give what it emotionally, mentally and spiritually requires to sustain a marriage.

Between what is necessitated to keep their bodies in peak condition, rigorous travel schedules and numerous public appearances, among other time commitments, it appears that when they utter the words ‘I do/will’ athletes are married to their profession and public image more than their actual spouses.

But what truly takes its toll on the marriage of a professional sports athlete is the temptations associated their celebrity status. And the most irresistible of them all, particularly for male athletes, is sex.

Day in and day out, today’s male athlete is bombarded by offers from attractive women who will go to extreme lengths for the monetary gain and/or thrill of ‘bedding’ one. An allurement that would test the moral character and fiber of any married man.

On the flip side of the coin, the aforementioned ease of access to sexual trysts often results in pursuits of those experiences by the athletes themselves. And the results can be extremely devastating.

Marital infidelity, broken unions and even the contraction of the AIDS virus have plagued the lives of athletes from all walks of life, from Kobe Bryant to ‘Magic’ Johnson to Tiger Woods.

The marriage of Tony Parker and Eva Longoria is simply the latest and one of the most publicized to fall victim to this incurable epidemic.

Male athletes and their wives may enter the institution with the best of intentions. But because they either spend more time preparing for a lavish wedding than the reality of marriage or take for granted the level of commitment to sustain it, up to eight out of 10 fall by the wayside.

This brings us to the curious case of New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who has dated a bevy of beautiful starlets including Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jordana Brewster and Mariah Carey.

But yet at 36-years-old, even with Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive, Minka Kelly, on his arm nowadays, the captain of Major League Baseball’s most valuable team and America’s favorite baseball player has managed to elude the bite of the marriage bug.

So although becoming a husband and a father would have enhanced his already squeaky clean public persona, Jeter has chosen the road less traveled.

Now is it because Jeter is fully cognizant of how taxing being a professional athlete is on a marriage or is the freedom that comes with being single too difficult to give up for the eleven-time All-Star?

Or is it both?

Either way, today’s male athlete should be more contemplative about getting married when the plethora of challenges that come with playing professional sports are thrown into the equation.

So whether it’s the divorce of Tony Parker and Eva Longoria, the Tiger Woods sex scandal or ‘Magic’ Johnson contracting the AIDS virus, as surprising as those stories are, the level of shock should be at an absolute minimum at this point.

Athletes can do extraordinary things on the field, but they are only human. And fame and fortune can be as much of a curse as they are a blessing.

Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com, which includes relevant links and a special report on the impending divorce of Tony Parker and Eva Longoria.

Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich in Mid-Season Interview Form

The NBA training camps are starting to get underway which means that players and coaches are getting used to getting bombarded by the media.

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich decided to have a little fun with some reporters after being asked a rather tame question:

Coach Pop being Coach Pop from 48 Minutes of Hell on Vimeo.

(Courtesy of That NBA Lottery Pick)