Clutchs Buckets

Why Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker will never say they were “only props”

I love NBA basketball. I spent significant portions of each day reading about NBA basketball, listening to podcasts about NBA basketball, and watching NBA basketball. Sometimes I even put together some words about NBA basketball myself. And sometimes I ask myself: Are you spending too much time on NBA basketball?

Then I think back to when I first got a Facebook account, I guess it was only about five years ago. I entered one of the biggest NBA groups I could find — and what I saw there I couldn’t believe. Let me emphasize at this point I’m not what you’d consider a digital native. And I never even dared to enter the NBA bubble on Twitter, not even “Spurs Twitter”. That, to me, is only a term. I have never experienced it myself. And I intend to keep it that way. But back to my experience on Facebook, which made me realize I don’t spend too much time on the NBA. (Because I found worse examples than myself.)

There are a few players, or former players, who have voluntary PR armies on social media that appear to have dedicated their lives to post conclusive evidence about why player X is the GOAT and not player Y. Or vice versa. And then there’s at least an equal number of voluntary PR agents on social media that want to convince you, if it’s the last thing they do, that neither player X nor player Y is the GOAT, but player Z instead. My experience in that Facebook group ended abruptly. I decided post something myself. It read: “Advanced metrics – useful tools for player evaluation, or instruments created to discredit player Z”. I got kicked out immediately.

It’s a good thing I got kicked out. Because, frankly, I don’t want to be part of a bubble that is taking the game hostage for a GOAT discussion that feeds on itself and will never conclude. The most important thing to me is always the next game. Still, there’s no way denying that a considerable part of the NBA is just plain narrative. And as much as player X was probably the greatest basketball player ever, his name is Michael Jordan by the way, that guy is also a master in creating narrative. You don’t have to have watched “The Last Dance” to be able to tell. I never have, by the way. But I witnessed the media reaction to it. And it was massive. In a sense, it still is.

But basketball is still a game of five against five. And you probably don’t get to be the greatest player of all time if you haven’t got any team mates that aren’t great as well.

I know many of us Pounders have little love form him, but I think Charles Barkley had a point in the legendary Oprah Winfrey head-to-head between him and Jordan:

Barkley said: “‘How many rings you got?’ He [Jordan] always throws that up at me. I mean, I wasn’t the one lucky enough to play with Scottie Pippen. If I had Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, I would have wo some, too.”

To which Jordan said: “So you didn’t like your team mates?”

And then Barkley said: “I loved my team mates, they just weren’t as good as Scottie and Dennis.”

Be that as it may. The Oprah head-to-head was a long, long time ago. But you can count on Jordan as a keeper of his legacy. The most recent case in point was “The Last Dance”. And the repercussions to that can be felt as I write this.

Earlier this week, GQ published an excerpt of Pippen’s upcoming memoir “Unguarded”, in which he criticizes “The Last Dance” as follows: “They glorified Michael Jordan while not giving nearly enough praise to me and my proud teammates.” The media headlines to the GQ report most of the time featured Pippen’s quote: “I was only a prop.”

Let’s be realistic here, in the end “The Last Dance” has given Pippen a nice opportunity to cash in himself. And that’s what he does.

Still, the headlines about his memoir made me proud to be a Spurs fan. And you know why? Because it’s hard to image, very hard to imagine, that we are ever going to see either Manu Ginobili or Tony Parker come with a quote like “I was only a prop.”

For Tony, the case is rather simple why he won’t: He was Finals MVP in 2007, and deservedly so.

It’s a bit different with Manu. Considering he sacrificed superstar credentials coming off the bench for major parts of his career, he could easily complain about being sidelined. But I guess he won’t. Not only because Manu is Manu. But also, to name an example that stuck with me, because how a certain Tim Duncan spoke about him after the championship in 2005.

Duncan had been in the league for eight years then. Eight years that saw him win three rings, three Finals MVPs and two regular season MVPs. You could legitimately call him the best basketball player on the planet. And the legitimately best basketball player on the planet had this to say about Manu, who was a close second in terms of Finals MVP that year.

“I don’t even think we’ve scratched the surface of him. He’s going to continue to grow, and we’re going to continue to grow around him.”

Can you imagine Jordan saying this about anyone else on the planet? I can’t.

But what’s more important to me, if it were possible to trade the six championships the Bulls won with Jordan for the five the Spurs won with Duncan, so Duncan’s Spurs would have three-peated twice in the 90s, I wouldn’t do it.

Here’s why: Success is what I want as a fan. But culture is what I need. Timmy gave both us.

by August Bembel on Ponding the Rock

When NBA Players LOSE THEIR MIND...

This is one of the wildest situations that you’ll ever see in the league. Let me explain. Obviously the game is decided but the whole arena gets a free taco if the Lakers hold Chicago under 100 points. And look what happens. The Bulls knew this and they’re fighting like it’s the playoffs. Just so that the fans don’t get the taco. Look at this fiasco. In one of the most ridiculous sequences that I’ve ever seen, at the very last second, a foul is called and to everyone’s disappointment in the Staples Center the Bulls were actually that petty and got to 100 points.

The NBA has seen its fair share of moments where players act completely opposite of how they normally should, and do things that are unexplainable.

So let’s check out some of those mental lapses. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
Last season the Knicks and the Pelicans played a close game and were tied with 2 second left. Bledsoe has the final shot and misses it. But then look at this. Both teams completely blank out and head to the locker rooms as if the game is decided and over.

We’ve obviously witnessed a situation where a player forgets the score but an entire team to do that? And on top of that both teams? That staggering.

While on this topic let’s quickly mention Derek Harper here who is actually the originator of this.

In game 4 of the 1984 playoffs the game is tied and the Mavs have a chance to win it. But you can see Harper going all the way at half court, and jumps with excitement thinking the’d won, while everyone else looks in disbelief.

So yeah, for all of you younger NBA fans, the legendary J.R. Smith brain freeze in the finals has already been done before, although to Harper’s defense I guess, the stakes weren’t that high.
Smith of course has been involved in another similar miscalculation of time and score.

Tied at the end of the game, with the shot clock expiring, the Knicks hit the rim, and try to reset and hold the ball for the final shot. But the ball finds its way to J.R. who immediately fires away a three and misses it giving the Rockets a chance for the final shot. And yeah, the Knicks eventually lost this game. Smith was asked after the game why he did it, and he straight up said that he thought they were down by 2. Absolutely incredible.

That same season New York fans suffered twice from this type of play. And just check out Walt Fraizer almost crying as he tries to understand what just happened.

Guys let me tell you, as a Knicks fan for 20 years, I’ve seen it all, and I can only laugh now at moments like these.
But if I could at least guess what they were thinking, I certainly cannot do that for P.J. Tucker.

Gordon is clearly inbounding the ball, but P.J. doesn’t want to touch it, giving New York an easy 2 points in a close game. You can see Gordon going crazy as he watches this.

I’m sure this is one of the rare lowlights in Tucker’s career, otherwise always known for his competitiveness and fight on every play.
Similar to that, is this sequence from Kevin Love that I still can’t figure out. He kind of gets pushed on the rebound, and you can see him disappointed under the basket. But then look at this. He just slaps the ball in bounds and as it gets stolen, Love literally doesn’t seem to care and casually walks around not even looking at the action, let alone doing something.

I guess being the only guy left from that championship Cleveland team and now constantly being at the bottom of the standings can sometimes hit hard so there are moments like this.
It’s all good I understand Kevin.

And in this type of video, I have to mention the legendary, iconic Al Horford flinch. He did explain it once as a way to have fun during the game, at the free throw line when the game slows down, but then, there are many of these live play examples, where he does it in the middle of a possession instead of going for the rebound.
And look at this. Dude is literally at the three point line miles away from the shot. There’s no way his depth perception is that messed up.

What’s going through Horford’s mind during these situations is still one of the NBA’s unsolved mysteries.

Also unexplainable is this defense by New Orleans against the Lakers. LA has the ball out of the time out, and you know how teams always inbound under the basket they attack. Well the Lakers sneakily lined up at the opposite basket, and nobody on the New Orleans team remembered that they should defend the other side. So that left Kobe completely uncontested on a fast break, he got the outlet pass, and finished with an easy dunk.

Again, it’s 1 thing if a player has a mental lapse and makes a mistake, but an entire team is unbelievable.

Look at this defense from the Bulls. As Jarret Jack bends down with the ball in his hands to tie his shoes, nobody does a single thing to even try and steal the ball. They all just wait and watch him do his thing.

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When NBA Players LOSE THEIR MIND... This is one of the wildest situations that you’ll ever see in the league. Let me explain. Obviously the game is decided but the whole arena gets a free taco ...