WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

Longoria's Parker Tattoo
Actress Eva Longoria is so in love with her boyfriend Tony Parker, she has had his initials tattooed in an intimate area of her body.

The "Desperate Housewives" star, 30, started dating the San Antonio Spurs basketball ace after ending her on/off relationship with 'N Sync hunk JC Chasez in January.

Longoria enthuses, "You can see three of my tattoos, they're all on public display, but the one that has Tony's initials is only seen by him.

"I'm not saying where it is -- but let's just say he gets to view it on a very regular basis!"



PS HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL ! -Funk

Speedy Claxton at Home in OKC

There's not much else to say about the preseason, except that it's over. On Tuesday, it'll be down to business for the once and future kings of basketball.

Ok, file this bit of minutiae on former Spur Speedy Claxton under "Where Are They Now."

"This definitely feels like home now," point guard Speedy Claxton said. "I thought it was going to feel like an 82 road-game schedule, but it doesn't. This definitely feels like home."

At first the players were living in a hotel, but many since have found their own places in town. Forward Chris Andersen has moved six of his cars to Oklahoma City. Claxton, an avid bowler, is more comfortable now that he's found an alley he likes.

Peter Holt, you're on notice.

Kudos to the man for helping us win three championships and for shelling out lots of big, long-term contracts for a small-market team. And I respect the concept of fiscal responsibility (even though I'm a left-wing, tax-and-spend whacko). But why did he force management to trim our roster to 13 players? There were a couple of young guys on our preseason roster who would have been good long-term prospects for the team to develop, and it really wouldn't have cost Holt that much to pony up for at least one of them. (Yes, the team is facing a luxury-tax penalty, but the way the system works, one minimum contract wouldn't make a big difference.) What particularly worries me is that we only have four true swingmen on our roster, and three of them are 32 or older. Why the hell didn't we keep Melvin Sanders, who would have given us some athleticism and defense at off guard and small forward, might have saved our asses in the event of an injury, and might even have developed into a real contributor down the road? According to Johnny Ludden, he had the right personality and work ethic to be Spurs material. What's especially egregious is that this decision was made despite the fact that the Spurs don't have any sure-fire prospects in the pipeline (i.e. players developing in Europe) at these positions, where we're aging rapidly.

Peter Holt, you’re on notice.

Reviewing the preseason

Praise Allah, the preseason is over. Ok, so the win-loss record means nothing. What did we learn from the Spurs' preseason?

The Pacers are going to be tough. But then, we knew that already.

Peter Holt really IS cheap when it comes to the luxury tax. (See my other post.)

The Spurs should have a quicker start this year than they usually do, but we probably won't see them dominate in the first month or so. As Finley reveals in this article, playing for the Spurs is different from playing for any other team, and it takes time for even great players to adjust to the Spurs' offensive and defensive schemes and priorities:

"I thought I'd come in and catch on overnight," he said. "Offensively and defensively, their whole way of approaching the game is far different from what I was playing in the last eight years of my career."

A lot of players can't make it in the Spurs' system. It separates the chaff from the wheat, as I imagine Peter Holt might say. But with time, NVE, Finley, and Oberto will no doubt thrive, because they are smart players with balls and a dedication to winning. Brent Barry had a hard time adjusting last year, but when the playoffs hit, he nailed his treys, D'ed and nutted up, and played important minutes for us in the Finals.

From what I've read, the main negative about the Spurs' preseason performance was the lack of D, and certain stats bear that out. We gave up 101 points to a 76ers team playing without AI, despite the fact that Pop played close to a regular rotation in that game. But this problem shouldn't last, as it was probably due largely to the integration of the three new guys and less individual effort from some guys than they usually give.

We have finally discovered a situation in which Manu Ginobili plays with less than Satanic intensity: preseason games the year after winning a championship. I'm betting he flicks the switch and has a big game against the Nuggets on Tuesday night.

Nazr is a bit of a question mark right now, as he only played in a few games due to the birth of his child and his wife's subsequent illness. (Congratulations, Nazr. We hope your wife gets well soon.) Pop was really counting on having him work on his understanding of the Spurs' system in camp this year (since he was acquired mid-season last year), and unfortunately he missed a lot of that.

The biggest positive of the preseason is probably the fact that almost everyone on the roster showed flashes of individual greatness. The usual suspects had their moments, with TD looking like he's ready to bitchslap the league's frontcourts, the new guys got better as the preseason progressed, Beno had some great games, Rasho is apparently making a serious bid to be the permanent starter at center, and even our favorite Kiwi made a big impression. Brent Barry, as many fans have predicted, looks poised to have a good season despite the competition he faces for playing time. He seems to be much more comfortable on the floor than last year, and he capped off his nice preseason with a 21-point, 6-assist, 5-rebound performance, including a three-pointer to take the lead in the final minute. Personally, I love Brent, and I'm excited to see him playing so confidently (or at least read that he is).

It's going to be beautiful to watch this team come together. It all starts Tuesday night at 7PM Central on TNT, when TD gets his third ring and Horry his sixth.

'How tired of the San Antonio Spurs' success are you?'

Nice Q&A session by Matthew from San Antonio Spurs Blog in SportsFan Magazine:

Q: On a scale of 1-10, how tired of the San Antonio Spurs' success are you? (With "one" being not at all, and "ten" being the kind of pain you feel when you see Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on the cover of a magazine at the supermarket.)

A: Definitely a 1. Despite winning the title, the Spurs are still a team in flux. There are a lot of interesting side plots to follow. Will Parker's offensive game continue to develop? Will Manu play at the same level he did in the playoffs? Will Tim Duncan continue his trend of shouldering less of the offensive burden? How well will Oberto, Finley and Van Exel fit in? Who's going to start at center? Will Barry, Mohammed or Nesterovic get traded during the season? Will Eva break Tony's heart? Will Duncan embrace the fro? Will Popovich say one provocative thing the whole season? How many more times will Duncan say something is "basically retarded?"

NBA GMs pick Spurs to Repeat

Did someone say "Spurs dynasty?"

The San Antonio Spurs are overwhelming favorites to repeat as NBA champions, according to an NBA.com survey of the league's general managers.

The Spurs received 77 percent of the vote among the approximately 25 GMs who responded. That percentage is the highest a team has received in the four years the survey has been conducted. The defending champions got 96 percent of the vote to win the Western Conference and 100 percent to win the Southwest Division.

Miami also was a unanimous pick to win the Southeast. Results were posted beginning Tuesday on NBA.com.

San Antonio star Tim Duncan got more than 78 percent of the votes as the league's top power forward and is the favorite to win another MVP award. Other popular choices among the league GMs were Miami's Shaquille O'Neal, who got 84 percent as the top center, and Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki (77 percent) as the league's top international player.

Spurs Preseason Dominance Continues

Apparently it's worth mentioning for several media outlets that the Spurs have "lost six of its seven exhibition games." San Antonio Express-News Staff Writer Johnny Ludden knows better, though.

If there was any question as to whether the Spurs' newcomers would be ready to immediately contribute, it might have been answered Saturday night.

Michael Finley, Nick Van Exel and Fabricio Oberto combined for 35 points off the bench as the Spurs lost to the New York Knicks 96-90 at the SBC Center.

Oberto (10 points, six rebounds) brought the crowd — and his teammates — to their feet with a between-the-legs pass to Finley, who was standing behind him in the corner. Finley made the open jump shot for two of his 15 points.

Van Exel (10 points, four assists) later threw a wrap-around pass to Oberto, who laid the ball through the rim as he was fouled.

Despite their influx of talent, the Spurs showed they haven't lost their willingness to share the ball. On one fourth-quarter possession, they made seven passes until Oberto sprang free for a layup.

"We are all starting to play better together," Manu Ginobili said. "We still need to get to know each other better, but we are making some progress. We're on the right track."

Spurs Rank High as Fantasy Players

Not only do our three big guns have what it takes to win another NBA Title this year, they also have the balanced stats to make them outstanding Fantasy League players, according to Yahoo! Sports Brandon Funston.

Centers : #1 Tim Duncan
"Getting a bit Shaq-like at the line, and he's missed some games the past two years, but he's never had below 20 points, 11 boards and 2 blocks in his career."

Shooting Guards: #6 Manu Ginobili
"Does it all, brings his hard hat to the job and leaves it all on the court."

Point Guards: #17 Tony Parker
"He's improved by baby steps every year and, at 23, he still has room to grow. Fantasy owners hope the growth will come in treys and FT%."

2005-2006 Silver Dancers

Information about this year's Spurs Silver Dancers can be found here.

I've seen quite a few people disparage our Silver Dancers as having a low drool factor, but I think they're pretty delectable myself.





And I'm sure they're all intelligent, interesting individuals and most certainly not sex objects.

Toronto Craptors lose to Israeli team

This is an old story already, but I have to say a few words about what some have seen as an apocalyptic defeat for the NBA.

Bullshit.

The Craptors played a preseason game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, an Israeli team that has historically been dominant in the Euroleague - the second-best basketball league in the world. They have won, for example, three of the past five Euroleague championships.

Their win over the Craptors says nothing about the state of the NBA, which is still by far the best basketball league in the world. Why?

1. Losing to the Euroleague champion is not like losing to a middle-school team from Tajikistan.

2. Describing Maccabi as an "Israeli" team is an easy way for the media to hype this up to an ignorant American audience - as if the Craptors lost to a bunch of long-haired, bearded, Orthodox guys in yarmulkes. In fact, one of the stars of the team, the guy who made the winning shot, is American (as are other players on the team.)

3. The Craptors are hardly representative of the true level of play in the NBA. Hell, if it weren't for Stern's desire to tap into that all-important Canadian market, they would be demoted to the developmental league. If anything, the fact that the final score was so close suggests that a REAL NBA team would have destroyed them. I know the Spurs would have.

4. The NBA has almost ALL of the best international players. (A few of the better holdouts, like the Spurs' Oh, Boy! Oberto and Sarunas Jasikevicius, joined the NBA this year.)

5. The 1978 NBA champion Washington Bullets lost to Maccabi that year. 'Nuff said.

Having said all this, I still think the NBA champions should be called just that, and not the "world champions." The NBA champion would have to prove it on the court to lay claim to that title.

NBA dress code

There's been a lot of noise in the media about the new dress code being instituted by the NBA, and I thought we here at Spurs Dynasty should put our two cents in.

My take is (relatively) short and sweet:

The NBA certainly has the right to do this, just like any other employer.

The players should suck it up and deal with it - as they should even if they weren't being paid assloads of money.

Is it racist? No. It's primarily about money, as most business decisions are. The people in charge of the NBA think that by appealing to the wealthier segment of their audience and potential audience, they can make more money. But yes, it is primarily intended to target the hip-hop, "thuggy" style of dress popular among younger players. As such, like many things in America, it has inevitable racial overtones. But that's different from being racist.

Finally...dress codes suck ass. I personally detest wearing formal clothing, as anyone who knows me could easily guess. And I feel a certain amount of sympathy for our own TD, who has complained about it. But as long as people are shallow (i.e. forever), there will always be superficial shit like dress codes to deal with.

Your thoughts, guys?

Spurs tickets on sale Saturday, October 22 at 10 AM

Buy them online (through Ticketbastard, unfortunately) here.

Get down to the SBC/AT&T Center and support our Spurs as they dismantle the league.

We here

We here at SpursDynasty know it.

Steve Kerr knows it... from Spurs dynasty? It's got a certain ring to it -"The Spurs appear on the verge of a dynasty, having already won three titles in seven years and showing no signs of weakening."

Now you know it.

"Longoria Wants To Be A 'Desperate Housewife'"

Just last night I was saying that I doubt the Tony-Eva romance will amount to much. Tony is busy building the Spurs Dynasty in San Antonio while Eva is playing a desperate housewife in Los Angeles. How could their long distance relationship be serious?

"Desperate Housewives" Eva Longoria is dropping hints that she's ready to become engaged to her pro basketball boyfriend, San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker.

Could it be that her quote to Inside TV magazine was her way of spilling the beans?

"This is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with," she said.

The couple has been dating for seven months. The 30-year-old actress was married once before to actor Tyler Christopher.

Could this be the Year of the Kiwi?

Thanks to two posters on SpursReport, Eddy from Austin (for the first pic) and Jan 21 2005 (for the logo). And yes, for anyone who's wondering, that is indeed our own Fabri "Oh, Boy!" Oberto schooling Marks in the second photo.

T.J. Ford back with a vengeance

In his first game back from his career- and potentially life-threatening spinal cord injury, former University of Texas star T.J. Ford scored 17 points and passed for 4 assists. What an amazing story. I seriously doubted that he could or would ever play in the NBA again. Keep proving me wrong, T.J.!

Sizzling Spurs rack up another loss

There's one stat I did like from this game, however. There's a nice fat "4" at the intersection of "Sean Marks" and "BS." And no, that doesn't stand for "bullshit."

Apparently he also had a couple of dunks, one of them quite shizznitilating, on passes from Manu.

R.I.P. Jason Collier

Our condolences to the family and friends of Jason Collier, who passed away this morning, apparently because of a heart condition. Jason was a five-year NBA veteran currently playing for the Atlanta Hawks.

Let's hope the same thing doesn't happen to Eddy Curry down the road.

Life is a fragile and tenuous thing. Make the most of it.

AS THE SEASON STARTS, ONE QUESTION REMAINS

Join the SpursDynasty.com Fantasy League!

SpursDynasty.com will be hosting a free NBA fantasy league through Yahoo! Sports this season. We'll be having our draft sometime in mid-November. Stay tuned for more details.

Don't sweat these preseason losses.

As Dan and I were discussing last night, these preseason losses mean exactly nothing. If you haven't been following the games, don't be bothered by that 0-3 record. The Spurs' starters are playing very few minutes, and key players are sitting out entire games. In the 4th quarter, Pop is playing the five guys who are trying to make the team, not regular rotation players. Unlike most teams, the Spurs don't need confidence-building wins against a bunch of scrubs. We have the luxury of letting guys get lots and lots of rest in the preseason, because of our depth and the players' familiarity with each other and the system. In the last two or three games of preseason, Pop will start playing the regulars more. And then teams will be faced with this dilemma:





*This was done by an Aussie poster on Spurstalk. Very cool.

Get well soon, Amare...

...so the Spurs can kick your ass.

Injuries are the shittiest thing about sports. Fans of teams with injured stars have to live with agonizing lost opportunities, fans of teams that beat them have to live with tainted victories, and both sides are left to wonder just how things would have gone down if everyone had been healthy and how much greatness we were robbed of by that bitch known as Fate.

Would the Spurs have repeated as champs in 2000 if Timmy hadn't been injured? Would they have won in 2003 if their road to the Finals through a difficult Western Conference hadn't been made easier by injuries? Well, at least we Spurs fans can console ourselves with those three O'Brienses (For some reason, the word "O'Brienses" puts me in mind of a punctuation issue: how do you show possession for a word that's already possessive? I've always wondered about shit like that. Burgers from Burger King are "Burger King's burgers," but what are burgers from McDonald's called - "McDonald's's burgers"? Another question I'll probably never have an answer to.) on display in the SBC (soon to be AT&T - don't you love it when corporate giants become corporate behemoths?) Center.

Enough long-winded parenthetical musings. On to the point: I feel bad for "Push-ups"* Amare and for NBA fans, because he is an incredibly exciting young player with the potential to be one of the greatest ever. I hope that future is not altered by this injury, and I hope Amare can get back to full strength in time for the Spurs to administer another ass-stomping in the playoffs. I'll suffer no tainted victory this year.


* Addendum: If anyone's wondering why I called him "Push-ups," it's because he did push-ups during a game against the Spurs to celebrate a good play he'd just made. Amare seems like a decent guy, but the Spurs don't take that kind of bullshit. Both times players have done that to us, they've lost the game.

The moral of the story: do NOT make Tim angry.



It is illogical to celebrate when you are about to lose.

Thanks to the unknown photoshopper who did this.

A few observations on the Spurs-Heat game...

...from someone who didn't actually watch it but read an awful lot about it:

Tim and Manu gave dominating performances and looked completely rust-free.

Tim seems to have improved his free-throw stroke. But one game means nothing, of course.

Brent and Beno played very well, showing great confidence and aggressiveness. They should prosper in their second season playing for the Spurs.

Rasho and Nazr struggled against Snaq and got in foul trouble very quickly. Hopefully, they'll improve over the course of the season, but if we face the Heat in the Finals, we may need all the frontcourt depth we have.

The new signees (Finley, Van Exel, and Oh Boy! Oberto) are still learning, but they showed great potential. Oberto already looks very smooth on offense but needs to improve his D.

Sean Marks showed off a great outside shot and lots of hustle, but he needs to improve his overall productivity.

Of the guys fighting to make the team, two showed the most potential: Sharrod Ford and Melvin Sanders. Ford is a 6'9" tweener with lots of athleticism. He has a good inside game on offense but is probably too skinny to play power forward in the NBA. The Spurs may try to convert him into a small forward. They've been looking for a long, tall, athletic small forward since Hedo's departure, and his athleticism should allow him to make that transition, especially on the all-important defensive end.

Melvin Sanders is a 6'5" shooting guard who doesn't have a polished offensive game yet, but he's athletic and can already play smothering defense.

Most importantly, the Spurs' top players looked impressive against the Heat's top players.

It's going to be a hell of a season, folks.

Check out NBA Inside Stuff this week

This week's episode, first broadcast on Sunday, 10/9 but due to be aired again by ESPN on Tuesday, 10/11 (and perhaps later in the week by NBA TV), features a segment on our own Manu Motherfucking Ginobili.

Spurs' Kiwi Lays Down the Smaq on Shaq

Although the Spurs' 3rd string players fumbled away a victory in their charity game against the Heat, there were a number of exciting things about the game for Spurs fans, particularly the surprising performance of one Sean Marks. Marks, the Spurs' token New Zealander, dominated Shaquille O'Neal in the paint, throwing down a pair of vicious dunks in his face and consistently rejecting Shaq's weak shit. The hapless Shaq could only stare at the floor in humiliation as he was taunted mercilessly by the intimidating Kiwi.

Yes, the preceding was in fact based on a wet dream I had last night, but Sean did play quite well, hitting 4 of 5 shots, including a trey, to help keep the Spurs in the game down the stretch. With Rasho and Nazr looking ineffective, he may finally win himself a place in the Spurs' rotation this season.

In doing so, he will get sweet revenge on those doubters out there who still think he can't play. You know who you are.

Spurs Dynasty?

It could certainly be argued that we're already in the middle of the Spurs Dynasty, interrupted only by a playoff fart against the (motherfucking) Lakers in 2004. In any case, the last few seasons have been tremendous, and this season looks to be the best ever. But there is no guarantee that the dynasty will extend far beyond this season and next. Why? Because the Spurs rely on great depth, and their bench, as great as it is, is aging. Big Shot Rob will turn 57 this season, Fin is 32, NVE is 33, Brent is 33, and Oberto is 30 - not to mention the all-important Bruce Bowen, who is 34. We're fortunate that to this point, Bruce and Rob have played as if they were in their 20's. And we're fortunate that no one will have to play heavy minutes during the regular season, so they can go into the playoffs with plenty of energy. But how much longer can these guys last?

Fortunately, the Spurs draft well, usually make good decisions about what players to pursue (in terms of guys who will fit into their system), and now have the ability to attract the free agents they want. With the rights to Scola, Ian Mahinmi, and a couple of other promising players in Europe, they should be able to reload when they need to. With Manu and TD in their primes, and with a pair of 23-year-old point guards, we should be set for a long time to come.

It's a dynasty, baby!

Spurs are "Scary"

That's the word that was used in the caption beneath this image of Tim Duncan in today's Yahoo! Sports:

Today's poll question was: "Will the Spurs repeat as NBA Champions?" Given that San Antonio is a small market, it's surprising that almost half said, "Yes." Maybe it's because Steve Kerr makes such a persuasive case.

So while contenders like Phoenix, Houston and Denver hustle and try to figure out how to topple San Antonio's dynasty, the Spurs simply sit back, count their rings and add pieces to a puzzle that is already complete. Michael Finley and Nick Van Exel make the defending champs that much scarier. As a result, the Western Conference appears to be a race for second place.

Or maybe it's just that scary photo of Tim.

Oh boy, Oberto!

From today's Houston Chronicle:

Not many in America have heard of Oberto, who schooled Vlade Divac in the 2002 World Championship gold medal game and stood his own against Tim Duncan in the Olympic semifinals in Athens. But soon enough Oberto may be mentioned in the same breath as San Antonio star Manu Ginobili.