Beno Breaks Finger; Michael Eats Tacos

Hard to believe it's October already. Football is in full swing, major league baseball is in the post season and our San Antonio Spurs opened their training camp on Tuesday.

Not much to report on the first week of camp, except that Beno Udrih broke his finger yesterday.

"It's really bad for him, because we'd talked about getting him minutes," coach Gregg Popovich said. "Tony was going to start out kind of slow, so it was an opportunity for (Udrih) to get some minutes. So this is a tough break for him, no pun intended."

In other news, the Spurs signed second-round pick Marcus Williams on Saturday. In addition to 6-7 forward Williams, the other new faces on the Spurs roster are 6-11 center Ian Mahinmi and 6-5 guard/forward Ime Udoka.

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Did anyone else catch the article in last Sunday's Dallas Morning News, "Mavs set to bounce back?"

The Spurs have won three of the last five championships and four of nine but have never repeated. Does that make them any less deserving of a dynasty tag? Probably not.

Buford said the organization is aware of the knock. At the end of the NBA Finals against Cleveland in June, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he couldn't care less about that.But now?

"I don't know that we feel a whole lot different this year than we did in '04 or '06," Buford said. "History has shown we didn't repeat in those years. But I don't think it's because we didn't put ourselves in position. In '04, it was Derek Fisher's shot. In '06, it was an overtime loss in Game 7 [to the Mavericks]. If either of those single plays had gone differently, maybe we're not answering that question.

"But I don't think we'd have done a lot differently with those teams. It was just time for the fortune to go a different direction."

In other words, the Spurs might now be looking for their 6th consecutive title, instead of "only" their 4th title in six years.

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In case you missed them last April, our resident post-game analyst, Michael Erler, contributed two essays for the New York Times series, "The Graduates: Eight College Seniors Face the Future." Michael's essays are now available for free, so check 'em out.

We're also proud to announce that Michael is now writing for the San Mateo Daily Journal. Hey, it may not be the New York Times, but it sure beats working for a living. You can check out his latest here. Mmm, tacos.