Spurs success translating off the court in more ways than one
Sometimes these things just work out better than we can write them. In an interesting parallel to the team’s success, the San Antonio Spurs are ranked eighth in the NBA in jersey sales (via CNBC):
1. Los Angeles Lakers
2. Boston Celtics
3. Miami Heat
4. New York Knicks
5. Chicago Bulls
6. Oklahoma City Thunder
7. Orlando Magic
8. San Antonio Spurs
9. Denver Nuggets
10. Phoenix Suns
And yet not a single Spurs player cracks the top-15 in individual jersey sales.
A top-10 finish is not bad for a small market team without one of the 15 biggest stars to help carry the load. It’s sort of like contending for an NBA championship without an MVP candidate or likely All-NBA candidate.
Truly a team effort all the way around. Of course, great teams are not judged by regular season sales. There’s still plenty of time to pick up that new Gary Neal jersey and make it the playoff breakthrough jersey of the year.
I contributed to those sales this year.
I’ve purchased a Splitter and Hill jersey this year, and if I have some extra cash, I’m going to buy a Neal too.
Interesting. Some new fans locally, statewide, and around the country taking notice of the outstanding year. And there’s no denying the color scheme (ala the Raiders- I wonder did the NFL ever send a thank-you note to NWA (Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, etc.)
As all Lakers fans across the world exhaled after just receiving the news that Andrew Bynum is fine and will be a hundred percent for Sunday… I realized the opposite must be true for Spurs, Celtics, and Heat fans. So on behalf of all Lakers fans I wanna send our appologies on Bynum’s good health.
As far as jersey sales go, I’m no expert, but it is almost impossible to find a TD jersey anywhere nowadays. It’s always either Manu or Tony. Kobe, Lebron, and Kevin Durant are easy to find almost anywhere. I’m sure this has something to do with numbers 1, 3, and 6 being on this list.
I have a Vinny Del Negro Jersey, a Dennis Rodman, Avery Johnson, The Admiral (of course), Mario Ellie, Manu, Parker, and Duncan.
It seems like ever since we changed the Spurs color scheme from the pink,white, black to a more black and silver, I have seen more people wearing Spurs apparel. Winning championships sure helps.
@ Austin
Most sports memobilia /sports clothing retail outlets will carry the longtime stars’ jerseys and well as the popular newcomers (Paul, Rose; you will see Blake, Love, and Wall soon).
But hey—you’re just a catalog (paper or website) away from ordering any player’s jersey -from NBAStore.com or East Bay, etc.
Austin – I was on South Beach this past weekend and much to my surprise, saw a Duncan jersey hanging in a store window near where the Jersey Shore cast was housed.
Then went inside and they had a $19.99 sale rack with Lebron’s #23 in both white and blue.
Knick jerseys are probably slightly inflated given everyone who bought a Felton/Gallinari jersey to start the season had to trade it in. I still see Felton on some subway billboards across Manhattan.
@Aaron
“So on behalf of all Lakers fans I wanna send our appologies on Bynum’s good health.”
On behalf of all Spurs fans, I wanna send our appologies to you for having such wonderful school teachers, who didn’t do a very good job teaching you how to spell.
Based on nationwide or worldwide sales?
I have almost an entire chester drawer dedicated to Spurs jerseys. Getting kinda full. Need to throw out some of my wife’s stuff in one of her drawers to make room for more.
Anybody interested in some slightly used under apparel so as to make room for more Spur’s Jerseys?
Please no, You’ve gotta be kidding me. Please no just no. Hopefully it’s not too bad.
Down goes Ginobili. I don’t understand the logic behind playing them in this game, Popovich.
What joke Pop, after tanking last game, put the starters today. Really?
Phoenix killing the Spurs in PnR, and Spurs have one very good PnR defender, and he is in bench.
Really a joke.
@Bruno,
Unfortunately its the same old Pop. And he’s probably going to roll the BB combo out on the floor after Timmy & Dyess sit. Crap! Manu is down. Why the hell do the starters have to play just to get hurt in the last game?
@Titletown99030507
Spurs now is going to be eliminated in 1st round, great. Manu out for 5 days- 30 days
Manu’s injury looked to be a hyperextended elbow so hopefully that’s not too bad and he’s atleast back for game 3/4 of the first round.
It looks like Memphis totally tanked the last two games to ensure they’re playing us. I still think we beat the Grizz even without Manu. Grizz are hugely overrated by a bunch of posters on this board. They have good size and athleticism but we have better players and smarter players and I see that prevailing over a 7 game series. Only Randolph, Battier and Allen have actually played in the post season.
One last thought on the injury is that it was a total freak accident, his arm got trapped between Duncan and Grant Hill. That could have happened on any practice or scrimmage, so don’t blame Pop, and he put Splitt in so we got our wish…. Eventually.
MSteele
I agree. I think they can beat the Grizz without Manu too. But even with MANU some people think they would be a nightmare for the SPURS. If they can’t beat the Grizz then they got no business in there.
The starters can’t just be kept on a shelf forever and suddenly be ready to play when you decide to unwrap them. Manu’s injury was unfortunate, but hopefully he’ll be back before the 2nd round. I think the Spurs win against the Grizzlies without him. Neal is going to step up and have a great series.
The Grizzlies are down by 30 against the Clippers. 30!
I can already see them salivating thinking of the Spurs.
Losing just to be the 8th seed and play the Spurs?
Pathetic.
pop toys with lineup too much. needs to remain consistent with starters and rotations. adjust minutes slightly, accordingly.
if manu played last night, he would not have been injured tonight.
chaos theory.
And we can’t beat the Suns?
Look 1st quarter and 3rd quarter team, this is what we have without Manu. Nobody remember DAllas 2009??
ya memphis is going to be wishing they won these games. tanking games is in poor taste, but if they think they have a shot let em try. postseason spurs will be a different team than regular season spurs. all the matchups they think they have will go right down the drain after a few adjustments and they dont have the talent to keep up…spurs in 5 over memphis…thats my prediction.
Spurs Ginobili-less is like the Cavs
To Aaron. Might be hard for you to believe but I’m glad he will be all right don’t want any excuses if the Spurs win and the Lakers don’t. I would rather see them leave it all on the floor and let the best team win. There are alot of Spurs fans who feel the same way.
Is it just me or does it seem like a Spur player comes up limping every possession!!! Suns are the suns and the Grizz are a totally different animal lol It took as too long to get going but we have played some good ‘D’ for long stretches in this game. Does anyone else think Danny Green could give solid backup mins??
Is Pop trying make Duncan got hurt too?? This game is over. Put the scrubs. Spurs have no power
Come on Kings you can do it! Id love to see memphis reaction when they realized they just traded vsing the Mavs for the Spurs! Thats what you get for tanking games and you are not locked in your seed absolutely pathetic, bad for the league and completly against the spirit of competition.
Spurs enemy of last 15 games attacks again, just he, the most consistent “player” of Spurs in last 14 years, is time to retire, Pop.
@Bruno
Pop has done a great job of managing every one on this teams minutes. He only played Tim 30 mins, he needs mins to get himself in playoff shape so I’m not annoyed with that move and it gave us a chance to win the game so I can’t complain.
Pop didn’t play Splitter today, get over it. We all want him to play but if Pop doesn’t play him there is not a thing me, you or anyone esle on this board can do about it. Pop makes mistakes but he’s one of the best coaches in the league so please just be quiet.
@MSteele
Lol??!!Do u think i am concerned about Splitter?? Ginobili get injury!! Without Manu, Spurs is going to maybe be eliminated in 1st round.
Have no sense put the starters today, he tank last game, why play today??? Who cares about Splitter, Spurs season >>>>>>Splitter
The Grizzlies have no play off winning experience and no closer… Bring them on. And I hope for the lakers sake, they bring it. According to odom they’re to cocky when playing lesser teams to win. They have NO in the 1st round…
Pop shouldn’t have played the starters. There was no reason, really.
And now, we’ll be lucky if we escape round 1.
God I hate to see that “told you so” smile on Barkley’s face when it happens.
Next season they should give the coaching helm to Coach Bud. Pop can go and sip his wine.
During the game, watching Bonner made my eyes hurt. Beyond that, Grizzlies don’t scare me.
Side note, Lakers pretty much get a first round bye for playing the hornets.
“And now, we’ll be lucky if we escape round 1.”
lol this is ridiculous, memphis are missing Rudy Gay, even without manu the spurs are heavy favourites.
The rotations are back to what you’ve been watching the last 15 games or so which really suck. One thing Pop has made it known that the BB combo will be there throughout the playoffs while Timmy and Dyess sit. Not winning anything like that. Even if Bonner makes 3 three pointers in a game it’s still a bad trade off for his defense. You can hustle all you want but that doesn’t mean your being productive if you get scored on over and over. Same goes for Blair he can hustle the hell all he wants and get some rebounds but two points over his head all night long really sucks to watch. Bring on next season. I ain’t watching this shit anymore. Oh yeah its going to be the same next season, right same coach.
Before I sign off when is Timmy’s last season?
Wow..Manu gets hurt on game 82 after a great season…just pure bad luck…
I like that POP played his Stars…we have been very inconsistent lately and we need to get in a rhythm..I even hoped they played yesterday but back to back would be too much anyway…
Well now we are at a disadvantage as I think that Memphis & Boston are the 2 best teams to defend TP and reduce his penetration in this league and they know that so that is why they tanked the last 2 games to be #8 to meet SA in 1st round.. so now we have to bring it and win without Manu…
Drive for …Go Spurs Go…
How can anyone complain about other’s tanking when the Spurs have done the same for the last two games? We led the league from day one as the top seed, only to lose it on the last day of the regular season.
The Spurs lost 8 of their last 12 games and now Manu is certainly not going to be 100% for the playoffs.
Seems like there should be a bit more than casual concern. Frankly, Barkley’s predictions of them not making it past round two doesn’t look so foolish now– in fact I’d be surprised if there’s not decent money in Vegas betting against them getting by the Grizzlies.
They will certainly need to figure out something. I hope Pop knows what he’s doing as I just don’t think you can magically “turn things around” just because you’re in the playoffs.
The defense tonight was spectacularly poor. Most of the night, Phoenix had it’s choice of open shots– passing up wide-open 18 footers for other wide open 12 footers. Wow.
It’s obvious that Title only watches the plays that Splitter does well on…… Like he mist have not seen Robin Lopez beat up Splitter tonight…… Or the Lakers last night……. He keeps saying Blair gets shot over as if Splitter doesn’t get scored on at all or something………Blair gives you more positives on a consistent bases…… the rebounds and steals….. and Tiago also gives you some of that, but not as much as Blair………. and his defense isn’t that much better……. so why play him over Blair………
Sorry folks the Bonner/Blair thing has already been exposed for what it really is and quite frankly its not enough. Pop teased us for the last 3 weeks and now I’m waking up from my dream only to be in a nightmare like those Freddy movies. Shit I feel worse than when MSteele showed me that mouse. Damn!
Hey MSteele put the mouse up again. I need a laugh.
@TD,
That’s because the BB boys play a gazillion minutes jackass.
@TD,
Dude is Blair your step brother. Damn you defend his ass to the death with your silly rhetoric. I will be counting the number of points his ass gets scored on throughout the playoffs and give you a nice number to chew on when it’s all over.
Go right ahead title……. Because we all know SPLITTER has NEVER been scored upon…………lmfao………He has played over 700 minutes of shut out basketball……..No one every gets a rebound over him, he rotates over and shuts down every attempt in the lane, and his 1 on 1 D reminds me of TD and Robinson combined…….
DUDE get over it……. Splitter doesn’t get minutes because his game is too dependent on people giving him easy layups……… He needs to work on his skills and until he does he will always be at the Bottom of the list…… POP loves Bonner…… I have no idea why(1 dimensional) and that 1 dimension can be taken away too easy…….So yes Splitter should get minutes……. But Blair has EARNED his minutes and DESERVES some playing time……. So its not Blair that’s taking away his time….. it’s Bonner…….
@ Rafael April 13th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
“Spurs Ginobili-less is like the Cavs”
—-> Reeeeeeeally..I mean Manu is important but CAVS.. you guys are ridiculous…
@ Concerned , April 13th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
“Down goes Ginobili. I don’t understand the logic
behind playing them in this game, Popovich”
—-> They needed to get in rhythm and injuries can happen anytime so it’s just fate & we have to deal with it…..every champ gets lucky(remember LA and the loss of Perkins for BOSTON..)….
@TD,
Blair doesn’t deserve shit. He didn’t earn shit. Pop just loves the guy period. Face it dude Blair is not a center or a power forward. And he’s going to get played. Splitter would kill his ass one on one and I would love to see it.
That mouse is hilarious… haha. Anyways you can blame Pop for putting Blair and Bonner in together, obviously, and not playing Splitter butno one can blame him for getting the starters some minutes. A lot of people, myself included, were saying over the last few days ‘Rest starters against LA, Play starters at PHX’ and I have no problem with them playing today. They need some game time to get up to speed. Imagine if they had of came out against Mem, the way they came out tonight – they would be down 10-15 points in the 1st game of the playoffs which isn’t the way to start off. They needed to play to get rid of the rust.
And finally on that Manu injury – total freak accident, could have happened in any scrimmage or practice… heck Tony could injure himself getting out of bed. I still think we have way too much to get put out by a very flawed Memphis team.
Early Indications are Manu’s injury isn’t serious.
TD even said “Luckily, its not serious…..”
According to ESPN.
Best case scenario Manu just misses Game 1.
@TD,
I expected a double double from Blair for all those minutes he played. 8 points. Not impressed but he gave up twice as much. That’s sad. Expect to see more of that. And you think that’s great?