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 [...]

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 [...]

Back in November Gregg Popovich was busy inculcating roster newbies into Spurs culture. Roger Mason Jr. summed it up this way: “Honestly, it’s beyond expectations,” Mason said. “The most impressive thing that I’ve seen Pop do is, before the election, he had us watch a video on the civil rights movement. For me, you know [...]

Last night’s Lakers game call featured a chart (with commentary) on the Spurs collective age. You know, the usual “window is closing because they’re long in the tooth” shtick. There must be a broadcaster Stuff Mart where this sentiment is sold as the candy of choice in the check out lanes. In honor of the [...]

I want to take a few moments to attach a follow up comment to yesterday’s TrueHoop, Malcolm Gladwell, and Malik Hairston post. The Austin Toros are a good basketball team. This will sound controversial to some, but they have more talent on their roster than most, if not all, D1 programs. The Toros are not [...]

Back on December 11, TrueHoop ran a bullet commenting on a New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell. In response to the article, Henry Abbott wrote: …in professions like picking NFL quarterbacks or good teachers, it is nearly impossible to know who will succeed until you see them try. That means that the best way to [...]

David Robinson is a certain inductee into 2009′s Basketball Hall of Fame class. I’ll leave reflections about his measurable, on-the-court contributions to basketball for a later post. Those who do measurables well think The Admiral was the best center of the last 20 years. But, again, I’ll leave that for later. When I read that [...]

Rasheed Wallace was whistled for a tech in last night’s game after protesting an offensive foul he committed against Matt Bonner. This was the turning point in the contest, which featured multiple levels of embarrassing performance from the Spurs. Wallace scored 19 in the game, 17 of which came after being cited for bad manners. [...]

In grade school, I watched The Flintstones ad naseum. I liked the cartoon, but I was especially fascinated by Fred’s feet. How could he get the car to go so fast without scuffing a toe? Didn’t Wilma freak out when they rubbed feet in bed? Did he see a pedicurist? These are the hard questions [...]