fuck him…

whoever coined the phrase: “if you ain’t with us, you’re against us…”, knew what they were talking about.

I, for one, won’t miss him. He reminded me of guys that my buddy and I love to hate at the courts we play on. Nothing but threes. You can say all you want about how “he could run the point in a pinch.” or whatever other excuses we had built personally for him, but everyone has to know that when you start saying things like that to justify someone’s presence, they aren’t getting it done anymore. We can find other people to hit our threes, and to run our point in a pinch.

As much as I liked Barry during his stint here, he was never a player I felt was essential to our success. People always wonder why I like Horry and Oberto so much. That’s because they (willingly) do things that nobody cares about, but that still matter. Horry hit shots, to be sure, but he was a virtual swiss army knife of shit that teams needed to win when it counted. Always good for a block, a steal, a foul, or his infamous threes. Barry was good at threes, nothing more. In fact, short of his clutch near miss against SAC a few seasons ago, I don’t recall anything of legendary status. We’ll find younger, and more willing.

We can, and will, easily replace him. His comedy will be missed, but when your best player is also the NBA’s biggest dork, you don’t want for any “comedy”

Goodbye, Brent. Enjoy the short, one dimensional remainder of your career in the worst city in Texas.

Yep our best FA walks right out the door. Sure isn’t surprising that nobody is pursuing the likes of Finley and Horry is it?

I like how the Rockets made Barry’s arrival seem like some late breaking, essential, need to know shit. “It’s official”.... geez

That’s the kind of shit that you say when a newer, better kind of Pokemon game comes out or what have you…

“it’s official, these ain’t your daddy’s pokemon!”

“it’s official, that was definitely the ugliest girl I ever grenade jumped to clear the runway for you, bro…”

“it’s official, I have NEVER had the shits like that, man!”

“it’s official, these officially licensed official “Pirates of the Carribean” sticker packs officially just gave me a chub!”

“it’s official, this is the biggest sausage-fest I have ever been privy to in my short, totally straight in a non-homophobic way, life…”

i’m almost too sad about this to post, but reading you guys mash down my man makes me even more sad, so i’ll try to strike a blow for the other side.

brent barry is for sure a liability on defense and he is a one dimensional scorer. true. but does anyone remember that he also played a big part in helping stave off the pistons in 2005? his play at point when tony needed a blow was like a finger in the dike that saved the town from being wiped out by flood. you might remember that there were times in that series when beno couldnt even get the ball to half court. barry fixed that. his play in the laker series was outstanding even though we lost. my own brent barry highlight reel is much longer, but i’ll spare you all a bullet-point recollection of that.

the other thing about him was that he is an outstanding passer who rarely turned the ball over. the ball moved when he was in the game and the offensive sets were better because of his presence. will this ever make him more than a role player? no. he wasn’t more than that when he came in and leaves the same way. but he was a positive role player and one who does give you another dimension when he’s in there.

the other thing for me with bones barry is personal. i was thrilled when he arrived. i heard barry recant the story of his younger days in basketball a couple of times and it struck a chord with me. basically, he grew up in suburban northern california around rich white kids who were either not interested in basketball or weren’t much competition. from there, barry and his brothers used to go into the playgrounds of oakland looking for pick-up games to play. barry always said that he was proud to have made a professional career come out of his immediate non-basketball surroundings when other kids were getting into skateboards or bikes.

this resonated with my personal life as i am a few years older than brent, white and moved to a larger city in my middle school years. not finding much of an outlet for my basketball fix in those new surroundings, i started heading into the city for pick-up games as soon as i could drive. obviously, i never made it as far as brent, but i always identified with that story when i first heard it. its all about love of the game.

given that, i was giddy when he came to south texas and now i am in a small state of mouring that he will be gone. saw it coming though and hopefully, the bright side is that the spurs might have a few extra dollars to throw in the pot for someone else to help out the bench.

now, i’m trying to figure out whether i have to change my screen name now that its namesake has departed…....even worse is that me and my little boy had grown attached to yelling out a YEEEEAAAAHHHHH BOOONNNESSS! whenever he nailed one of those one dimensional outside shots of his. gonna miss that (wiping tear from corner of eye). yes, i’m about to credit brent barry with some of my son’s spurs fanhood.

i knew this day would come after he played so well in the playoffs, but i was hoping that he would hang it up as a spur. now, if you will all excuse me, i will go cry in some beer for a couple of days.

Could this be a sign that Pop wants to roll with the youngsters this year? I would love to see him give a ton of rope to Curious George, Frenchie Part Deux, James Gist, and Roger Mason. I mean, with Tim, Tony, and Manu, it’s not like the team will be awful if they throw the young guys into the pool and let them sink or swim.

We can be sure that’s what’s going down if Fin and RoHo are unemployed, or at least get some DNPs, on opening night.

He was my 3rd favorite Spur the past four years. I liked his game, I liked his personality, I liked his quotes. I liked his fake no-look I’m totally looking passes. How can anyone dislike Brent Barry?

That’s like two guys on the Rockets roster now that should be Spurs. No wonder they’re my second favorite team.

the first thing i wake up to this morning is my radio going off with espn’s sportscenter announcing BARRY has just signed a deal with houston. CRAP!! needless to say, my day was off to a running start toward doom. i’ve always liked the lad, always will, but why houston? he had to go in-division? anyway, who cares if he was one-dimensional. 75% of the players in the nba are one-dimensional, that’s why they’re role players. he’s actually two-dimensional, because he was a good floor-spacer, which is more important than most think. anyway, i digress. adios, bones…we’ll miss you (at least some of us will).

Mango’s don’t do that manu!

Damn. Sad news.

Barry was damn funny. I also can’t wait for him to become an analyst. Like Michael I will probably be following the Rockets more next season, no matter how much I despise T-Mac.

Just what I asked Santa for in this offseason: less Barry and more Horry. Life’s good!

I am not happy about this. Yes Brent could not play defense, but you can say that about half of the league. His passing, his crafty back-doors, and his nails three-point shooting will be missed. Also, he was one of the few Spurs who would hold his head up and rally the troops when they were down. While most Spurs were content to sit on the bench with morose expressions, Barry would often shout words of encouragement and inspiration. He is a competitor and the Spurs need players like that. His personality is the polar opposite of the quiet “professional” Finley, who disappears into his head for quarters, games, or series of games whenever his shot is not falling.

It’s not like the Rockets paid a lot for him. He will average just under 2 million per year, for a 2 year contract. That would have been worth it for the Spurs, even if Barry is too old to play in 09-10.

The worst thing about this is that it means that Finley will likely be re-signed. Pop will probably want at least one ancient veteran at the off-guard spot. If Manu plays in the Olympics, then we could be looking at Finley as a starter for most of the season. Blecch!