Open Letter to Suns Fans
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on Apr 30, 2008 11:04 AM CDT
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"When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before." — Jacob Riis
Welcome to Pounding the Rock.
Blam!...
Blam!...
Blam!
Fresh off the Spurs 5 game win over the Suns I'm in great spirits. We quickly dispatched of a first round opponent many had picked us to lose against.
Suns fans, on the other hand, are living through much darker times. For the third time in four years under Mike D'Antoni's Fun in the Sun style they have been ousted by the Spurs. Each time with a "what if". Joe Johnson, the suspensions, Grant Hill, and a Tim Duncan 3-ball. Not only that, but the team seems to be one in transition. Rumors started immediately after the game that Mike D'Antoni . Midway through the Spurs thrashing of the Suns in Game 3 I decided to head over to The Bright Side of the Sun to revel in the misery of the whining Suns faithful. Much to my surprise I found very little whining. Not only did I not find much whining, I found a mostly intelligent discussion of the Suns situation and very insightful analysis of the teams strengths and weaknesses (insightful in that it matched up with my opinions) I hate to say it, but I quickly developed a fondness for many of the (what appear to me) BSotS regulars.
You can't surf the web today without reading an obituary on the Suns. I'm here not to tell you things will be OK. I don't know the path your team will choose to take nor do I predict an outcome for it. I can only try to explain to you why I think your team lost and how it gives you something to look for in the future.
Blam!...
Blam!...
Blam!
A "what if" doesn't mean you should have won. It doesn't mean you were a better team or even as good a team. And most importantly, it doesn't mean you were "this" close. The team that wins a seven game series is the better team. Period. In the Tim Duncan era, I don't honestly believe we were better than any team that beat us. I think we were as good as the Mavs in '06. But not better. That series, though, was one of the greatest 7-game series of all-time. Of the teams we've beaten, I think only the Pistons in '05 were really close to being as good. (The qualifying condition on "The team that wins a seven game series is the better team. Period." is that I mean among the two teams playing. Just because Golden State beat Dallas last year doesn't make me think Golden State would have been a more dangerous team for the Spurs. I'm saying that in the way two teams match up, the better team wins.)
I highly recommend a book called The Fine Green Line by John Paul Newport. It's about a guy who spends a year on the Pro-Golf Mini-tours. "The Fine Green Line" is the lesson of the book. The author learns that what appears like a minor difference in results to an outsider is really a tremendous difference talent, preparation, and execution. The basic premise is that making yourself 1-stroke better per round may seem like a trivial amount to a non-professional but that the difference between you and the guy that beat you by one stroke is much greater than you might think and you are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.
Blam!...
Blam!...
Blam!
Why do I bring this up? I don't think the Suns were really that close to beating the Spurs this year or any other year for that matter. I think that once you throw out the two blowout games you see that the Spurs won because they out-executed the Suns and that, my friends, is no accident and certainly not a coincidence. The Spurs play all year to prepare for the playoffs. Not one player was asked to do anything they hadn't done all year on several occasions. Well, out side of Tim's 3-pointer in Game 1. But, I think you understand my point. It wasn't the first time Finley hit a 3 to send us to overtime and it wasn't the first time Udoka played big minutes to give us a defensive post presence against a low-post bully like Diaw.
The Spurs play the same way all year. They come to camp in shape, they play tenacious defense, they run their offense, they don't talk much trash, they play physical, they flop, they complain, etc. The intensity isn't always there, but the style is always the same. To me, you don't have to look any further than a couple Steve Nash quotes after Game 1 this year and last year. This year he said,
We had the game won a few times and just weren't tough enough or disciplined enough to make every single play when it counted
and after last year's Game 1 he said,
"Very surprising, very frustrating," he said. "How many times can you talk about it? We just have to have a bigger heart and continue to push through these invisible barriers that seem to pop up. I don't know what they are, but sometimes we just don't play as hard as we should."
The playoffs aren't the time to learn to execute. They aren't the time to learn to be physically tough. And they certainly aren't the time to learn to be mentally tough.
Blam!...
Blam!...
Blam!
I don't know what your off-season holds for you or how you will fair next year. My inclination is to think that you won't be as good. It appears that Kerr has decided to make the team a more traditional style team and I don't think you really have the personnel to do it. Nash, Stoudemire, Barbosa, and Marion when he was there are not well-suited to a half-court grind it out game. D'Antoni's fast break style did a fantastic job of playing to his players strengths and minimizing their weaknesses. Shaq and Hill are pretty old and squeezing a full healthy year out of them will be tough if not lucky. Your bench is thin. You are over the cap and your owner doesn't want to spend money.
It's a crazy world in the NBA. The Suns were 2 games out of first place in the Western Conference and came out the 6 seed with a first round exit. Your team had a good yet frustrating year. They played well enough for you to drink the Kool-Aid, but not well enough to make a grab at the ring. Now, it seems change is inevitable and you may not be infatuated with the Kool-Aid man. But, there is hope. Don't hope that you are as exciting. Don't hope that you stay healthy. Don't hope that Amare learns to play defense. No, you should hope that your team executes their game plan relentlessly. Hope that they learn to Pound the Rock. The goal isn't to be the most exciting, the funnest, or the MVP. The goal is to be the last one standing. Everything you do should be with that singular goal in mind.
Blam!...
Blam!...
Blam!
Don't drink the Kool-Aid BSotS'ers. Make the Kool-Aid.
See you next season.
With great respect,
AusTechSpur
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Great writing ATS, and great points. I completely agree with your respect for BSotS as well. I never do this, but during this series went over like you did to satisfy my suspicion that all suns fans are delusional whiners. I also was very surprised and enlightened by the intellectual honesty and responsibility over there, and was impressed by the guys’ candor and writing. There’s SOME good thinkers in phx, and I do feel badly that they’ve had to endure the failures of the past half decade under Coach D’oh.
I would post a ‘goodbye and good luck and you have my respect’ over there, but in the time that I sign up for an account and go through all the motions on their site I could have said something really groundbreaking and witty on PtR. You ought to link your post on their site.
Thanks again for the good post…
by SgtinManusArmy on Apr 30, 2008 11:16 AM CDT reply actions
Thanks SiMA
I had actually planned on posting it on their site, even got my account activated (which takes 24 hours, by the way) but decided against it. I figure if they find it and think it appropriate then they can link to it.
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on Apr 30, 2008 11:26 AM CDT reply actions
No need
After game 4, I wrote this piece and posted it on their Fanpost.
http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2008/4/28/462448/optimism
Superman wears Manu Ginobili pajamas to bed.
I know
I saw it and intentionally borrowed the quote via cut-and-paste and then re-wrote the clang, clang, clang to blam!. I thought plagiarizing you was necessary to make my stuff complete.
I liked your post and it is also part of the reason I didn’t want to go to their board.
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on Apr 30, 2008 11:49 AM CDT up reply actions
I enjoyed this post. However…I do think my “Clang” works better than “Blam”... haha jk. Nice work.
Superman wears Manu Ginobili pajamas to bed.
Clang sounds pretty bad to me… Seriously.
But other than that, that was a pretty damn nice post. Kudos. And their responses were definitely surprising in tone. Well, except for that idiot near the bottom, but there’s an idiot in every thread.
And no, I’m not talking about myself.
Seemed appropriate...
clang (klaŋ)
intransitive verb
1. to make, or strike together with, a loud, sharp, ringing sound, as of metal being struck
2. to move with such a sound
3. to make a loud, harsh cry, as esp. the crane
Superman wears Manu Ginobili pajamas to bed.
I am consistent if nothing else
In the vein of missing the pajamas joke in the chat thread, when I read your ‘optimism’ post on BSotS I thought you were being all literary and shit. I thought it was the ‘clang’ of a bell. That you were taunting the Suns fans with the Clang! Clang! Clang! of a bell.
Ask not for whom the bells tolls…
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on May 2, 2008 3:30 PM CDT up reply actions
Well, yes. But we’re pounding a rock, not a steel beam. BLAM is manlier. And comic-ish, so right up Mister Sinister’s alley, wherever he is.
Everyone's a critic
The reason I used “Clang” was that it best seem to fit 1. Pounding a metal hammer onto a chisel. and 2. to describe the sound heard after Shaq’s free throws. Blam just didn’t seem to do it justice.
Superman wears Manu Ginobili pajamas to bed.
LatinD has a point
Blam! is the sound that you would see in a Superman comic book when he was pounding the rock in his Manu Ginobili pajamas. Because, you know, if you have Manu Ginobili pajamas you don’t wear them just to bed.
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on May 2, 2008 9:08 PM CDT up reply actions
Totally forgot to tell you, CM-
That WAS a great post on BSotS. I went over after you first said you posted it, and was proud. Most impressive that you kept it classy and honorable, and let your words do the digging without mocking or patronizing. It likely got everyone over there thinking even more and it was right on. I couldn’t have ventured over there and not gone for the throat, but you did in a way that was intelligent and fair, and I enjoyed reading it.
And yes, usually I’m a cynic and a dillweed….. but today I’m all about praise. Loving and respecting PtR, AND eliminating the phx fleas in the first round tend to soften one up a little.
by SgtinManusArmy on Apr 30, 2008 12:05 PM CDT up reply actions
Thank you.
As I’ve said before, I live in Dallas so I’m usually watching Spurs games alone. My friends can’t stand the Spurs for obvious reasons. I can’t say enough about how PTR and our members have made Spurs games that much more enjoyable for me to watch (which I didn’t think was possible).
Superman wears Manu Ginobili pajamas to bed.
truth
i live in dallas as well and after the TCU vs. A&M baseball game (TCU lost, blast) i watched it with my mavs buddies. they were picking apart everything we were doing, calling us the usual (floppers, etc.) and saying they had no respect for duncan. next season i plan on hanging out here so i can at least have some support, instead of biased opinions.
by Hamer_SpursFan on Apr 30, 2008 12:27 PM CDT up reply actions
While I'm at it...
...I did have some other thoughts that I either thought would detract from my message or because I’m just not a good enough writer to incorporate smoothly.
1. No Suns fan is ever allowed to say the following again: “I hate Manu Ginobili because he is a flopper”. You can hate him all you want. But you can’t say the flopper part without following up with “almost as bad a flopper as Steve Nash who I also hate”. Steve out-flopped Manu easy in this series. The best/worst being on Duncan last night where he fell down with no contact. Then the next time down court he paid the floppers price, that we are all very used to, when he got the block call on Tony on a very iffy call. Make now mistake, the refs remember and penalize.
2. Tony Parker was a FAR better player in the series than Steve Nash. Check the stat lines: for Tony and for Steve. I think it is further proof that Steve will not thrive in a half-court system. When Steve was on Tony, he got abused. Tony logged heavy minutes covering Nash.
3. I noticed last night that the refs decided NOT to call the lane violation on Shaq even though he clearly did it a couple times. I wish they would at least come up with SOME consistency.
4. I wouldn’t say the refs called a great game last night, but they did have a bunch of weird plays to call. IMHO, Steve Nash didn’t touch the ball and that was a BIG call to go our way.
5. If the Suns don’t want Raja Bell, I’ll take him.
6. Late in the game, I think on Tony’s jumper with about 30 seconds left, I noticed that as he went around the Duncan screen dribbling with his left hand that Diaw reached out and grabbed, very briefly, Tony’s right arm just before Tony stopped to come up for his shot. Is this something that happens all the time? Is it really a foul? Do they call it? Is this what Bruce does, the well-timed grab that the refs can’t really see and doesn’t obviously have an effect on the play but still makes it difficult to shoot?
7. Barbosa’s shot selection is some of the worst I’ve ever seen from a non-Knick. I can only imagine how he and Pop would butt heads.
8. I really think that should have been a flagrant foul on Bell. I’m not whining, just saying. He made no play at the ball whatever and clearly forearmed Tony. It also was made to look worse because Nash had bumped Tony off-balance just a bit before Bell hit him.
9. Had the Suns won last night, I still think we would have managed to win a game. But, I will say I would have gotten my full-fledged nervous Freak on.
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on Apr 30, 2008 11:47 AM CDT reply actions
Suns' Fan Commenting
In response to your points:
1. Manu got one call simply because he contorted his body in such a way that the ref must’ve come to the conclusion that he had to have been fouled. I think this is some of the angst. He wasn’t touched, but it sure looked like it hurt. I don’t know if that qualifies as a “flop” or as the refs blowing the whistle on reaction/expectation alone. Steve did try a flop on that Duncan drive. If he had simply stood still, he would’ve had a better chance at the call (although a charge would’ve been a bad call), but not every defending thinks you have to hit the ground to get a call.
2. Um, yes. I think, though, that Nash MUST adapt to a half-court system simply because he cannot play at the pace he’s played at over the last two years. It was apparent pre-Shaq trade. He’s got to change his game. We’ll see if he can. Even before Shaq, we were clamoring for him to pass it to Amare more often.
3. Consistency? In the playoffs? The most frustrating part is when you let the guy get away with it for over a decade and then decide to start calling it. Like palming the ball. One way or the other, please.
4. Nash never came close to touching that ball. I don’t know why Bell tried to pass to a well-covered Nash running into the corner when Boris was wide open at the three-point line (with 25 seconds to go) However, I was shocked that Amare drew a charge on Duncan in the first half. I didn’t think he could do it, and then I saw his foot in the restricted area.
5. Take Bell. He is a “hustle player” that hasn’t picked up a loose ball since he took the ball from Kobe after the clothesline.
6. Diaw did it. This is also exactly what Bowen does. Watch Horry’s steal late in the game, too. Parker grabbed Nash’s arm. The difference between the officiating this year and last year was the manner in which the Suns reacted to it. It’s tough to see/make that call because the refs are looking forward, not behind the play. So, the Suns started doing the same things and were complaining less because they were getting away with the same stuff.
7. That’s because he’s Brazilian. Brazilian soccer players love to shoot and score. That is all. I play soccer with them. Barbosa plays like a Brazilian soccer player. Enough repetition?
8. No, he was running to the spot where Parker was going to be and lost the race. His arms were out, but they did not come up above the shoulders. Arms above Parker’s shoulders would’ve been flagrant.
9. Spurs would’ve won Game 7. The Suns are great at digging monstrous holes for themselves, making heroic comebacks and then falling short like a Greek Tragedy.
Mmmmm ... Guinness
Two "back at ya's"
1. I forgot to mention that while Nash may have had the most egregious flop of the series, the most awkward looking and embarrassing was Tim flopping against Shaq in Game 4 I think.
7. We might get a Brazilian next year. It should be interesting.
8. This is more about the rule than the play. A flagrant foul doesn’t have to be a blow to the head. It only has to be unnecessarily rough contact, especially when not making a play on the ball. Shots to the head are just clear cut cases. Shaq got a flagrant in game 3 for hip-checking or shouldering Tim. He wasn’t anywhere near the head.
Thanks for coming by.
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on May 1, 2008 12:11 AM CDT up reply actions
I missed something
That was 3 back at ya’s.
Also, by your definition Horry’s foul on Nash wouldn’t have been a flagrant foul.
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on May 1, 2008 10:30 AM CDT up reply actions
Last thoughts
1. The most embarrassing flop was Manu in Game 4. The one where he grabbed the rebound and then flopped himself out of bounds. That was hilarious.
8. Maybe you’re right. The problem with the league is that they are trying to do “zero tolerance” crap and “zero tolerance” policies are always stupid. They allow the decision-makers to say, “I am stupid and don’t know how to make a decision. So, I refuse to take responsibility.” And, then, they go and use their judgment anyway, complaining they were not allowed to use the judgment.
Check out the radio link on our site.
I’ll leave you alone now. You guys have better things to do than console the vanquished.
Mmmmm ... Guinness
1. Did you ever consider that Manu might have been actually fouled on that play? It sure looked like he was shoved hard and could not control himself. That was true even at regular speed and in slow mo. Even floppers do get fouled from time to time.
4. Nash certainly did come close to touching the ball. The angles I saw really made it look like he touched it, though TV can be deceptive.
No, Manu was not fouled
No, not on the play I’m talking about. I think it was near the end of the game.
He squirmed through two guys, while in the air, and around a third (as if he some sort of jet thrusters allowing him to move like a UFO). It was an amazing play. He was not fouled. Nor was he trying to flop; he was trying to get to the hoop. Like I said, though, I’d give a try at a free throw for style points.
What I’m saying is that sometimes officials call what they think happened simply because they can’t see what actually happened. It’s not a knock on refs or anyone else. It’s the way the human mind works. Things happen so quickly that, in order to remember them, you associate blocks of information with the outcome. What it takes is a re-training of your brain. It can happen, but not for most of us.
This is what happened when Diaw grabbed Parker or Parker grabbed Nash - or just about any other player grabs another - from behind on the dribble. The refs don’t have the ocular muscle memory to see it all and work it out that way in their minds. They don’t. This year, the Suns stopped whining and started doing the same thing—leading some Spurs’ fans to complain the Suns were getting all the calls.
Nash did come close to touching the ball on the last turnover. The ball was in his vicinity (whatever that word means), but Bowen knocked it out. Since we cannot watch the same thing, I don’t know what you’re talking about. It was clear to me, though.
Mmmmm ... Guinness
I think a lot of the blame has been unfairly thrown on Mike D. Admittedly, he was definately out-coached by Pop, but I really believe he is a good (but not great) coach. As ATS said, he maximized his players’ talents and minimized their weaknesses. Just look at what he did for Diaw. Diaw was a back-up guard on the HAWKS—remember, the 12-win ‘05 Hawks. The next season he’s a pivotal contributer on one of the best teams in the league. The problem (and I know I’m not the first to harp on this) was Shaq. He single-handedly ruined Mike D’s system. The reason Nash was an MVP-caliber player for 3 seasons was because he was the perfect fit for the system he was placed in. Same goes for Barbosa, Marion, and Stoudamire.
But Shaq’s fat-ass forced them all into a style they weren’t suited for. It was a horrible decision that I blame Kerr and owner Rober Sarver for. Jesus, if they wanted interior defense and rebounding, why didn’t they got after someone like Samuel Dalembert? Now the Suns are stuck in salary-cap hell (see also, the Dallas Mavericks) and Nash is clearly slowing down. I know this may be blasphemy to some Spurs’ fans, but I’ve always really liked the Suns. After the Spurs were eliminated in ‘06, I was really pulling for the Suns to win it all. Now they are rapidly declining. This was the last possible year, and I can safely say that th Suns will never be a true contender again. Sure, they’ll make the playoffs, but they’ll never get past the 2nd round without serious changes. I’m angry because I loved the epic battle of styles between the Suns and the Spurs. The Spurs were always the better team, but the Suns always gave them a good challenge. Sorry for the long rant, but I’ll end by saying that I hate Robert Sarver. He’s the root of the Suns’ downfall for running Colangelo out of town. Technically, Steve Kerr made the trade, but like Cuban with Kidd, Sarver’s fingerprints were all over the Shaq trade. Thanks a lot for destroying one of the West’s best rivalies asshole!
by ForeignFlopper on Apr 30, 2008 12:40 PM CDT reply actions
But take into account...
That D’Antoni has always overlooked defense. In practice he emphasizes offense and often neglects defense. Can you imagine the type of player Amare would be if he played under Pop’s system? Coach D’s system was built to run and gun and although it’s “fun” to watch, it hasn’t won them a championship. Also, D’Antoni has never ran more than a 7 man rotation during the season. This has never allowed his bench to grow during the season and has always left them without depth for the playoffs. As a coach, you have to be willing to change not only what your players are doing, but what you’re doing as well. In that regard, he has failed.
Superman wears Manu Ginobili pajamas to bed.
As I said, Mike D is a good, but not great, coach. His inattention to defense, often porr in-game adjustments, and lack of faith in his bench prevent him from being a great coach. However, look at it this way: if Amare played for Pop he would probably be much better defensively, but I don’t think he’d be the same caliber player on offense, basically he’d be more balanced, which is good for the Spurs’ system, but not for the Suns’. I don’t think the Suns could ever win a championship, but they’d always be in the running (which sounds illogical, I know). At their best, the Suns are a tough 2nd or Conference Finals opponent. That’s D’Antoni’s doing, and I think that’s what makes him good.
Back when we were constantly losing to the Lakers, I had a brief epiphany...
It sometimes seems, during a game, that something or another is conspiring against your team. Humans have a strong psychological tendency to personalize external events that really have little or nothing to do with them… like a medieval mob panicking over a comet in the sky, or a modern person ranting that the SUV driver in front of them in the merge lane is blocking intentionally, instead of say, just driving carefully because he/she has some fragile cargo.
It’s no surprise that this comes up during sporting events. They really do thrive on the natural tribalism ingrained into humankind, and being a fan of a given team just enhances that. That team? Its MY/YOUR/OUR team. Everyone else is the enemy. So, we bitch about Nash or Nowitzki, and occasionally fantasize about such players receiving simultaneous flagrant fouls from Shaq, Dwight Howard, Ron Artest, and Jason Vorhees. Granted, there’s been a serious drive to curb any outright hatred in the last couple of decades, but that’s necessary in the first place because basketball-as-entertainment primarily works on an emotional level where an Us-vs-Them mentality is paramount. So, our local guys get canonized while the ‘other’ is subjected to low-level demonization. But for the most part, these athletes are decent, if pampered and spoiled, people. Some are easily misunderstood, like Stephen Jackson. Some of them are great people who do great things, like Mutumbo. Some of them are outright saints, like David Robinson. Far and away tho, they are just otherwise normal people living in a highly abnormal situation. That’s why it occasionally seems remarkable, but shouldn’t, that a change of uniform can change you opinion about someone dramatically.
It becomes easy to believe that the refs are out to get you when a few calls go the wrong way. During game four, I could have sworn that the refs were allowing a lot of contact for Phoenix defenders, while whistling the Spurs for all sorts chippy calls when they were on D. It wasn’t any one foul… it just seemed to be the overall tone. And I suppose it’s easy for Suns fans to think that the Basketball Gods are out to get them. One year after another, there’s been the extenuating circumstance. Joe Johnson, the NashGash and the suspensions, ect, ect. But what’s easy to miss is that those extenuating circumstances exist for every team, all the time. How well do you remember that Duncan was fighting a severe ankle sprain in 2005. Or was it 2003? Damn… I can’t really remember, because we won that year. How often have you read about Manu being badly overplayed and exhausted in 2007? Not much, because we won. I remember losing in 2004 tho… and I remember all the crap that caused it, from Tony’s bad post-up defense (and the lack of any weak-side help) against Payton, to Derek Fisher’s 0.4 shot. And in 2006? Well, Manu was betraying his first signs of strain from playing for several dozen months straight without a break, and Duncan wasn’t completely healthy either. And the refs during the Dallas series? My god, they were terrible. Dirk made more free throws by himself than our starting line-up took. But what was worst about the series was that all the loose balls just seemed to find their way to Dallas players. If they missed a shot, our guys would block out well, but the ball just managed to bounce a little higher, and directly to a Mavs player surrounded by three Spurs… I mean, what are the chances? And what were the chances that it would happen over, and over, and over again… but it did happen.
And, of course, none of that compares to the crap that we saw during the Lakers series from 00-02. Everything… I mean, EVERYTHING seemed to go against us. We got no bounces, no calls, and all the critical shots just seemed to fall for the Lakers, no matter how good our late D was.
But usually, when it seems like the refs are against you, it’s because the other team is on a hot streak, or being more aggressive… or maybe they’re intentionally and repeatedly attacking your team’s weak spots. When all the bounces seem to be going the wrong way, it’s probably because the other team is hustling just a bit more. When injuries are going against you, maybe it’s because your guys are overplayed, and your bench isn’t as deep as you like to think it is. When other inexplicable things happen, like suspensions, technicals, ect… maybe it’s because your coach doesn’t keep discipline as tight as he should.
But when EVERYTHING going against you, from injuries, to the refs, to the league’s front office… trust me… it’s not because anything is out to get you or your players. It’s just because you’re playing against a better team.
chaos... panic... pandemonium... my work here is done.
Yep, Amen is the right word.
Good post, rick, very well said.
Is it “ect?” I always thought it was “etc.” Dammit.
by SgtinManusArmy on Apr 30, 2008 9:36 PM CDT up reply actions
it’s an abbreviation for “etcetera”... so, technically, it’s “etc.”. But I’m a lazy typer, and this blog doesn’t let us re-edit our comments after we’ve hit “post”... which is probably for the best, IMO. Typos and bad grammer should be preserved for posterity.
chaos... panic... pandemonium... my work here is done.
Great post, but...
...there IS some home-cooking during the playoffs, and not all of that is imagination.
Refs can affect the outcome of a game, whether we like this fact or not, and they have done so in numerous occasions. I remember watching the Mavs/Heat finals and being relatively unbiased (despite my hate for all things Dallas at the time) I could tell the Mavs were being screwed over in some stretches of that series.
But seriously, great post. And I agree with most of its conclusions.
Had the Suns kept O'Neal on the bench in the fourth...
Did anyone else notice how the Suns essentially turned the game around with O’Neal on the bench in the 3rd? And when did the Spurs make their comeback? With O’Neal back IN the game in the 4th.
As a Spurs fan I can’t help but be happy with the result. But it sure sounds like a microcosm of the Suns season…when they played true to their small-ball-quick-paced D’Antoni mantra they were a better team.
Shaq was to the Suns as a gigantic meteor was to the dinosaurs. End of an era folks… and although I will continue to dislike any team led by STAT I can begin torelish a renewed rivalry with the Lakers.
My most humble appreciations
ATS, what a great post, and excellent follow up with, “While I’m at it”—you make me proud to call Austin my home.
r2g, excellent comments—every so often I read something on this site that I agree with, or that I wish I’d written, or that I find expresses my unexpressed beliefs about things, but rarely if never do I find ALL THREE of those wrapped up in a single piece. You did such a great job of putting the experience of being a fan into perspective, with a healthy dose of reality, that I don’t think that the word epiphany is misused, as it so often is.
Well done all around, guys—and thanks.
Actually, it's more of a guideline than a rule. - Dr. Peter Venkman
Dang
If you are in wilco and austin we must be damn near neighbors.
by Wayne Vore (ATS) on May 1, 2008 12:05 AM CDT up reply actions
The respect is mutual
I’m linking to this over at BSotS. Thank you for appreciating what we’re doing over there. I can’t speak for all of our contributors, but I think we make a concerted effort to strike a balance between being shameless homers and demonstrating a functional basketball IQ.
I dig coming over here and checking out what’s being written on the other side of the fence and like what I’ve found.
Thanks for winning gracefully.
Ditto - Mikey speaks for the team at BSotS
Someday, we will get you guys!! /shakes fist!
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