The Orlando Magic are reeling. After a tough loss to the Lakers last night the Magic have now dropped seven of their past nine games. What does this have to do with the Spurs? Well, among the contenders no one overhauled their roster over the summer more than Orlando and San Antonio.
That both teams have [...]

The Spurs are often cast in the role of league bore. Implicit to this claim is the frequently smuggled-in connotation that the Spurs represent an older school of basketball, that they’re a tiny band of staid traditionalist. One hears jokes, for example, about Gregg Popovich’s disapproval of the dunk shot or his controlling, deeply-repressed fears [...]

I have no doubt that Gregg Popovich exhorts all his young pivots in the virtues of “getting their work done early.” It’s common advice. The San Antonio Spurs target players who incline their eye toward the wisdom of common advice.
Antonio McDyess gets his work done early, and his numbers and teammates benefit from it. It’s [...]

Coach Popovich,
Listen, we know you hate doing in-between quarter interviews during televised games. Who wouldn’t? You’re concerned about winning a game and some suit with a microphone hits you with “Coach, how will your team stop Kobe Bryant in the second half?”  There is only so much one can say to such empty questions.  But [...]

I have a love/hate relationship with off-the-court affairs, whether it the good or bad kind. Like any cultural activity, basketball does not exist in an impervious vacuum that is separated from the racial, economic and political crosscurrents that define our day. Not surprisingly, the men of the NBA are often affected by and work to [...]

A recent Mike Monroe column began with this stirring hypothetical:
It is nearly impossible to overstate the impact David Maurice Robinson had on the sports landscape of South Texas, but it is simple to try.
Imagine San Antonio without the Spurs.
Tonight I was reminded of these words while reading through some old articles about David Robinson. Let’s [...]

When news of Derrick Rose’s sham SAT scores hit, I ho-hummed my way through the headlines without much thought. No need to get all huffy–I really couldn’t care less.

Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good soccer. I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: “A pretty move, for the love of God.”
-Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow
This past weekend the English Premier League played [...]

The always provocative Wendell Berry is good at digging for disease, never becoming arrested at the surface, staring at symptoms. He wants to get beneath all that.  In a thoughtful Harper’s piece dated May, 2008 –Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits–Berry takes on the disease of limitlessness.  Early last year, Berry was responding to the [...]

During the 2nd quarter of Sunday’s Spurs Summer League game, Dennis Lindsey gave an insightful interview to Joel Myers, who had the game call. An transcript is not available, but LJ Ellis has summarized the interview in a set of talking points. He’s given me permission to reproduce his notes here.  The Spurs are sometimes [...]

The presumed net worth of Peter Holt, CEO and owner of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, is around $80 million, making him one of the least wealthy owners in the NBA. Mr. Holt’s wealth derives from HOLT CAT, the nation’s largest authorized dealer of caterpillar machines, of which he is also CEO. Given the housing crisis [...]

You can’t say the Spurs don’t catch breaks, even during a season limited by injury.  The breaks started in earnest when the Mavericks dealt Harris for Kidd (and added to the fun by dismissing Avery Johnson) this time last year. They backed themselves right out of a fierce rivalry with San Antonio. The Suns trade [...]

If you haven’t had an opportunity to read Michael Lewis’ cover story from this weekend’s New York Times Magazine, you probably should. Using the lives and current roles of Shane Battier and Houston Rocket’s GM Daryl Morey as a framework, the piece discusses the increased usage of advanced statistics in scouting and game-planning in the [...]

Even though tonight’s loss isn’t that surprising (we often underperform on the back end of back-to-backs), it is a bit disappointing. It’s not disappointing because we go into the break on a loss or because it brings our Rodeo Road Trip record to an even 2 and 2. It’s disappointing because it highlights the Spurs’ [...]

In the early 20th century, an assortment of authors grew frustrated with the limitations of the novel. Artists such as Marcel Proust, James Joyce and Hermann Broch crafted epic literary pieces which slowly but surely led to the deconstruction of the form that had dominated Western literature for 4 centuries. But the avante garde stylings [...]