CEBU - The Western Conference is so loaded that if the playoffs would start today, the San Antonio Spurs will be seeded number 8. The league’s most experienced team, or to put it more bluntly, the oldest team, has another odd-numbered year ahead to look forward to. Consider the championship runs the Spurs had in ’99, ’03, ’05 and ’07. But considering also the ages of their core group, the 2009 title would be a big question mark.
Sparkplug Manu Ginobili is 31 and still out of circulation. Tim Duncan is 32. Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley and Kurt Thomas has 35 breathing down their necks. At the bottom half of the squad are young players but it’s the upper half that get things done. Yes, Tony Parker is young at 26, has matured, has Eva Longoria, but he needs the veterans to get things going.
Parker slices the lane better than any point guard and once there, his assortment of nearly ridiculous shots cannot be matched. The Frenchman, in his 8th season, is a score-first type of point guard but he also keeps his teammates involved and the best part is that he has improved on his jump shot.
The Spurs have a very rigid and institutionalized knowledge of the game and they know how to win. Coach Greg Popovich is on his 13th season with the Spurs, and together with Utah’s Gerry Sloan, they have the longest tenure of any coach in the league. Popovich runs a tight program which the players respect and follow.
If healthy, the Duncan-Ginobili-Parker trio is almost unbeatable and they don’t shy away from defense. Duncan has the best post-up game on the planet since Kevin McHale and if you think age has caught with him, he has missed only eight games the last three seasons. Finley is making his presence felt with the loss of Robert Horry and Brent Barry. Bowen is secured in Coach Pop’s rotation because he keeps opponents away from the basket. Plus, he can drain those three’s.
Fabricio Oberto and Thomas will alternate at center. Oberto played in all of 82 games last season and he knows how to bully his way inside the paint. Thomas is a veteran and knows what is expected from him.
In due time, the Spurs will go from being experienced to just plain old and this is where their problems begin as the West has gone younger and faster.
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Let me congratulate the women’s volleyball team of Liloan for winning, the second time around, the Cluster VI championship in the GUV Cup Tournament. They beat Team Cordova and Team Compostela in straight sets, and likewise winning by default over Team Consolacion.
Cordova and Compostela also won by default over Consolacion because of technicalities. For their strong desire to win, Consolacion fielded four non-illegible players. I pity the athletes for this irresponsibly selfish act of the team officials. How can you preach and promote fair play when within yourselves, you allow cheating.
I take my hat off to the game’s technical officials present, (Nona Catipay, Grace Antigua, Paul Delgado and others whose names escape my aged memory) who stood firm in their decision and stayed true with the rules of the tournament. If they did so otherwise, that would have opened the floodgates for the other teams for experimentation with player eligibility, as what is happening now in a league somewhere up north.
E-mail me at bobbytoohotty@lycos.com (THE FREEMAN)