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Spurs aren't too old to give Lakers fits
Despite the defending champions' advancing age, this isn't the West finals matchup the Lakers would have preferred. The Spurs are still awfully hard to get rid of.
Old Spurs never die . . .
At least not to this point, no matter how ready the Lakers were to see them go.
For anyone still wondering about the answer to that question the Lakers wouldn't take -- "Who do you want to play?" -- this isn't it.
Taking nothing away from the young Hornets, the Lakers have no nightmares about trips to New Orleans.
On the other hand, as far as the Lakers are concerned, San Antonio is hell with a Riverwalk running through it.
The Spurs swept the Lakers in 1999 before their title run started and eliminated the Lakers again in 2003 to end their title run.
Of course, the Lakers swept the Spurs back in 2001 and eliminated them in 2002 and 2004, but even some of the victories were harrowing.
Take 2004, when the Spurs won the first two games in San Antonio.
Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, whose contract was running out, said his team's future was "nebulous."
Gary Payton said it wasn't his fault Tony Parker kept going by him ("Let me get in the pick-and-roll 65 times and I'll bet I beat you too. . . . Somebody's got to be the scapegoat but you guys don't want to put it on who it's really supposed to be, huh?")
That, of course, was Shaquille O'Neal . . . whose stepfather, Phillip Harrison, had just zinged Kobe Bryant in the press ("Let's stop the drama and play ball").
Then the Lakers evened the series and went back to San Antonio, where in Game 5 Tim Duncan put the Spurs ahead with a running one-hander from the top of the key with 0.4 seconds left . . . before Derek Fisher won it with his 18-foot half-hook.
San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich called it "the cruelest loss I've ever been involved in."
In the jubilant winning dressing room, a dehydrated Bryant had to be hooked up to an IV.
Of the eight Spurs who played that night, five remain (Duncan, Parker, Manu Ginobili, Bruce Bowen, Robert Horry), so you can see why the Lakers would just as soon play 28 other teams.
Not that anything is the same.
Except for Bryant, Fisher and Luke Walton, this is a new Lakers team while the remaining Spurs are four years older.
The Spurs were already thought to be in decline two years ago when they fell to Dallas in the West semifinals.
If Dallas got a lot of calls in that series (Dirk Nowitzki going to the free-throw line to win Game 3 after stepping on Duncan's foot, Nowitzki going over Duncan's back to keep him from scoring at the end of regulation in Game 7), the Spurs couldn't cover the athletic Mavericks' small lineups and worried they had been passed by.
Last season with Dallas far out ahead on its 67-win pace, Popovich took the unusual step of announcing he would stand pat . . . looking like he was trying to end the debate about making trades in his own mind as well as everyone else's.
At least not to this point, no matter how ready the Lakers were to see them go.
Taking nothing away from the young Hornets, the Lakers have no nightmares about trips to New Orleans.
On the other hand, as far as the Lakers are concerned, San Antonio is hell with a Riverwalk running through it.
The Spurs swept the Lakers in 1999 before their title run started and eliminated the Lakers again in 2003 to end their title run.
Of course, the Lakers swept the Spurs back in 2001 and eliminated them in 2002 and 2004, but even some of the victories were harrowing.
Take 2004, when the Spurs won the first two games in San Antonio.
Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, whose contract was running out, said his team's future was "nebulous."
Gary Payton said it wasn't his fault Tony Parker kept going by him ("Let me get in the pick-and-roll 65 times and I'll bet I beat you too. . . . Somebody's got to be the scapegoat but you guys don't want to put it on who it's really supposed to be, huh?")
That, of course, was Shaquille O'Neal . . . whose stepfather, Phillip Harrison, had just zinged Kobe Bryant in the press ("Let's stop the drama and play ball").
Then the Lakers evened the series and went back to San Antonio, where in Game 5 Tim Duncan put the Spurs ahead with a running one-hander from the top of the key with 0.4 seconds left . . . before Derek Fisher won it with his 18-foot half-hook.
San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich called it "the cruelest loss I've ever been involved in."
In the jubilant winning dressing room, a dehydrated Bryant had to be hooked up to an IV.
Of the eight Spurs who played that night, five remain (Duncan, Parker, Manu Ginobili, Bruce Bowen, Robert Horry), so you can see why the Lakers would just as soon play 28 other teams.
Not that anything is the same.
Except for Bryant, Fisher and Luke Walton, this is a new Lakers team while the remaining Spurs are four years older.
The Spurs were already thought to be in decline two years ago when they fell to Dallas in the West semifinals.
If Dallas got a lot of calls in that series (Dirk Nowitzki going to the free-throw line to win Game 3 after stepping on Duncan's foot, Nowitzki going over Duncan's back to keep him from scoring at the end of regulation in Game 7), the Spurs couldn't cover the athletic Mavericks' small lineups and worried they had been passed by.
Last season with Dallas far out ahead on its 67-win pace, Popovich took the unusual step of announcing he would stand pat . . . looking like he was trying to end the debate about making trades in his own mind as well as everyone else's.
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