Spurs’ Success Avoids Customs

Tony and “Teemy,” a love story.

Tony is Tony Parker and “Teemy” is what he calls Tim Duncan in his French-accented English, coming as he does from Paris (France), which is not merely the City of Lights anymore but also the city of point guards.

Their story is also the Spurs’ story, in which a small-market franchise in a sleepy South Texas tourist trap, er, city, that appears headed for some other small market, takes its place as one of the NBA’s powers.

Duncan is the game’s best player, except when hurt or bricking free throws, but can’t do it alone, leaving Parker as their linchpin, with gruff Coach Gregg Popovich helping Parker realize his potential at whatever decibel level is necessary.

Or as Popovich put it Monday:

“Let me tell you about Tony Parker. We want him to be a combination of John Stockton and Stephon Marbury, all rolled into one. That’s what I want. I don’t want much.

“And he told me the other day, when I said that to him, ‘No, no, Pop! I am Tony Parker.’ ”

This is wonderful for them and promises to become more wonderful, although there’s a problem.

Tony Parker is 21.

He turns 22 in two weeks -- ah, maturity! -- but has started almost from the day he got here, at 19.

As a leader, Popovich now compares him to their Little General of yesteryear, Avery Johnson. This means, when Popovich tells Parker what to do, Tony may tell him to sit back down, he’s got it.

Nevertheless, Parker is still erratic, as he showed in March when he made 31% of his three-point shots, and April (20%), and in last spring’s Finals, when he averaged 14 points the hard way -- 21 over the first three games, seven over the last three.

Of course, the Spurs won a title, making Parker one of the youngest starting point guards to get a ring, not to mention the only one from Gay Paree.

His importance transcends last season’s title or this spring’s hopes. It was his arrival in 2001, weeks after the Lakers had laid waste to the Spurs in a humiliating 4-0 sweep, that began the transformation of the Spurs’ old roster into their new roster, ending speculation that Duncan would leave.

Only Duncan and Malik Rose remain from the 2001 team the Lakers put to the torch, and Rose is so deep in Popovich’s doghouse, light doesn’t penetrate that far.

The Lakers still have Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox and Devean George from 2001, although everyone is eager to see how long that lasts.

“I’d rather not change the team every year,” Popovich says. “Seems like we have to start from scratch every year, put everything together. And we don’t do that on purpose, ‘cause we think that’s the way you should do things.”

Because they won a title pre-transformation in 1999 and one in mid-transformation in 2003, and their starters now average 26 years of age, it’s been some rebuilding program.

No. 1 in Their Hearts Forever, They Hope

Not that greatness seemed imminent in 1994, when Popovich arrived as general manager.

The hiring demonstrated how desperate the franchise was. Popovich, an assistant coach on Don Nelson’s Golden State staff, had no front-office experience.

The Spurs were hemorrhaging money, prompting owner Red McCombs to sell the team to Robert McDermott, a retired Air Force general and insurance executive, who’d formed a group just to keep it in town.

Not that that assured its future. The Spurs played in the cavernous Alamodome, a misbegotten civic project that was supposed to attract the NFL and almost chased the NBA out of town, with awful sight lines and few luxury suites.

Nor was there a line of buyers for the suites they had. The “awl bidness” was in Houston and the financial community was in Dallas. San Antonio was more like a bedroom community for the outlying military bases, Ft. Sam Houston and the Randolph, Lackland and Brooks Air Force bases.

“There were people wanting to buy the [franchise] and get it moved out,” Popovich says. “That’s why Gen. McDermott stepped in with the other 22 guys.

“And that’s continued. People have been in here trying to buy the place. Not in the last three, four years....

“[But] they just said, ‘Get it done. What do you need? If it makes sense, we’ll do it.’

“We’ve come to them with a program that could sustain something year after year with players who want to be here. And you’ve got to do it like the big boys. You’ve got to do it like they’re going to do it in Chicago and L.A. and New York and all the markets that are bigger.”

Of course, their first priority was to keep the big boys from eating them.

The Spurs had one blessing, David Robinson, but he was 28 when Popovich arrived and 32 when a second bolt of draft lightning delivered Duncan in 1997.

The Spurs won their “asterisk” title -- thanks, Phil Jackson -- in the lockout-shortened 1999 season, with Popovich coaching too, and a supporting cast of aging journeymen such as Johnson, Sean Elliott, Mario Elie and Jaren Jackson.

The cast aged another year during the 1999-2000 season and expired in the first round of the playoffs, with Duncan hurt.

That was the summer Duncan, a free agent, almost went to Orlando with Grant Hill. Robinson came flying back from his vacation in Hawaii to assure Duncan he’d keep playing ... and Duncan finally told them he was staying.

“[Orlando] painted this picture for him,” says R.C. Buford, who was once Popovich’s assistant coach and has since succeeded him as GM. “They had a lot of No. 1 picks coming, they had the coach of the year [Doc Rivers].

“We didn’t have a lot to sell. What we had was a team that was pretty good at the time.... But going forward, David wasn’t going to play for a long time. We didn’t have extra draft picks at the time.

“But Pop’s basic philosophy was, ‘Tim, we’ve done this before. We can do it again, trust us.’

“And their relationship, being what it was, allowed that to happen.”

Of course, by the time that was over, the entire organization felt five years older.

Nor was that the end of that story, because Duncan got an opt-out in his new contract for 2003, when Robinson would be gone. In Orlando, the Magic set up its salary cap to keep a maximum slot waiting for him.

The 2000-2001 season went well, with the Spurs going 58-24 and becoming top-seeded. However, their postseason did not go well, ending when the Lakers walked on them in that 4-0 sweep.

“It was a difficult time,” Popovich says, “because we didn’t get to really defend the championship after ’99 because Tim was hurt. So it’s like not being in that playoff. So the following year, we just were embarrassed by the Lakers.

“We realized that part of it was because of age in certain spots on the court and we felt we had to add to what we had in the sense of more athleticism.... We felt that was absolutely necessary or there was a chance we were going to go in the wrong direction and waste our years with Tim Duncan.”

The big question was, how many years that would be?

That was the spring they drafted Parker with the last pick of the first round.

The Spurs had begun looking overseas years before, but mostly with second-round picks.

International players still seemed to come with their promise discounted, such as the guard they’d taken with the No. 57 pick in the 1999 draft, Emanuel Ginobili.

Buford -- and everyone else -- had seen Parker in the 2000 Nike Hoop Summit in Indianapolis. Of course, Tony was 17 and who ever heard of a drafting a point guard off a team called Paris Basket Racing?

However, this particular tyke not only had blinding speed, which everyone could see, he was as brash as he was quick. If others thought him a longshot, that never occurred to him.

“A lot of people think a European point guard can’t play in the NBA,” says Parker, the son of a former U.S. college player and a Frenchwoman. “But I’m 50-50, you know? I still got another half that’s American.

“Pop knew that, so he picked me.”

Actually, the Spurs got more than they’d bargained for. Parker’s brashness wasn’t only the usual bravado. He had turned pro at 15, hadn’t been overmatched then -- and wasn’t now.

“I don’t know if you could tell that, but what you could see was that he felt he belonged,” Buford said. “There were a lot of hyped guys. Zach Randolph was on that team [in the Hoop Summit]. Darius Miles. And every time they’d make a play, they’d act like fools.

“And Tony just played. He was a much more mature presence than most 18-, 19-year-olds. He was the guy that really was the driving force behind that international team....

“Then you went and saw him play in France in the European leagues and he’s the puppy in the group and he’s still playing like he felt he belongs, like this isn’t special.”

The 2001 draft was the one in which preps Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry went 1-2-3.

Randolph went to Portland at No. 19. Parker was hoping to go to Boston at No. 21, but Red Auerbach had heard good things about North Carolina’s Joe Forte and the Celtics took him.

Orlando at No. 22, wanted a point guard but a bigger one, and took Jeryl Sasser of Southern Methodist. Utah at No. 24 took a point guard from Spain named Raul Lopez. Indiana at No. 27 took a point guard from Iowa State, Jamaal Tinsley. The Lakers didn’t have a first-round pick.

So Parker became a Spur, announcing on draft night, “I want to help the Spurs beat the Lakers.”

No one got upset. He was an 18-year-old kid from Paris. What did he know?

Tony or Jason; Oh, Never Mind

What followed was an eye-opener: Parker took over in his rookie season as the starting point guard, ahead of veteran Terry Porter; playing for a veterans’ coach like Popovich on a team that was competing for a title.

“I never envisioned he would be starting in his first year or even getting major minutes,” Buford said. “I thought it’d be a two or three-year deal and by Year 3, who knows where he is?”

The change was immediate. Having stolen a top-level prospect, with the exciting Ginobili due to join them in a year, the roster looked different. There was no longer a buzz about Duncan leaving. A new owner, Peter Holt, bought the Spurs. The SBC Center opened. They built a practice facility, as Popovich had promised Duncan they would.

Of course, having installed a child who was more scorer than playmaker at the point, Popovich naturally offered a lot of direction and encouragement.

Discovering Parker could take it, Popovich dialed it up.

The greater the pressure, the better Parker did. Rookies are supposed to hit a wall during their first postseason play. In Parker’s 2002 playoff debut, he lit up the great Gary Payton of Seattle, averaging 17 points in a 4-1 walkover.

In last spring’s first round, Phoenix targeted Parker, sending the bigger, stronger Marbury at him. The Suns won the opener and Marbury outscored Parker in Games 1 and 2, 58-9.

The rest of the series, Parker averaged 18 points, shot 48% and the Spurs prevailed.

The Spurs went all the way, then began pursuing Jason Kidd as soon as the parade was over.

With one superstar getting the benefit of calls, and a bunch of kids, the Spurs wanted two superstars. They thought Kidd and Parker could play together ... and if they couldn’t, Parker would be tradable.

Parker claimed not to care before finally telling the San Antonio News-Express’ Johnny Ludden that he did care.

In contrast to the Lakers, who are happy to give chapter and verse on their years of controversy, the Spurs don’t like having theirs brought up.

“That’s old,” Parker says. “You still want to talk about that?

“The Jason Kidd story, I think me and Pop, we learn a lot from it. I was kind of young so I didn’t want to tell them that I was not very happy with that. So finally, the last couple of days, I told him, you know. So he was mad at me for not telling him before....

“I think we learned a lot from it, but I wanted to prove him that I can carry that team and be the leader of that team and be a point guard.”

In other words, Parker told Popovich he was upset and Popovich got mad at him for that too.

When Kidd turned them down, and Karl Malone did too, the Spurs settled for Rasho Nesterovic, Hedo Turkoglu and Robert Horry, leaving Parker to try to become the second superstar.

And in the first round, when Parker crisped the Grizzlies’ Jason Williams, who isn’t much of a defender, and Earl Watson, who is, averaging 21 points in the Spurs’ sweep, it didn’t seem ridiculous, or even premature.

“If you came to all of the games this year, you cannot think of one point guard who did that during the course of the season in this building,” Memphis Coach Hubie Brown said. “He finishes in the paint in the face of your big people. Right in their face.

“You go through the NBA right now and you don’t have five point guards who can do that.... So give him his due.”

Then Parker scored 20 points with nine assists in Game 1 against Payton, who said he needed more help, or more chances to get back at Parker.

It’s happening. Whether it happens fast enough or not, it’s happening.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Leading Men

San Antonio’s Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are among the top 10 playoff leaders in scoring, field-goal percentage, rebounds (Duncan) and assists (Parker). Through May 3:

SCORING

*--* G FG FT PTS AVG Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas 5 45 36 133 26.6 Kevin Garnett, Minnesota 5 49 31 129 25.8 Kobe Bryant, Lakers 6 49 49 153 25.5 Tim Duncan, San Antonio 5 53 21 127 25.4 Mike Bibby, Sacramento 5 43 20 118 23.6 Stephon Marbury, New York 4 31 17 85 21.3 Kenyon Martin, New Jersey 5 42 20 104 20.8 Tony Parker, San Antonio 5 37 18 104 20.8 Paul Pierce, Boston 4 26 26 83 20.8 Sam Cassell, Minnesota 5 36 21 103 20.6

*--*

FIELD-GOAL PERCENTAGE

*--* FG FGA PCT Tim Duncan, San Antonio 53 86 616 Kenyon Martin, New Jersey 42 70 600 Tayshaun Prince, Detroit 41 69 594 Pau Gasol, Memphis 28 49 571 Brad Miller, Sacramento 19 36 528 Shaquille O’Neal, Lakers 42 80 525 Bonzi Wells, Memphis 19 37 514 Al Harrington, Indiana 24 47 511 Nazr Mohammed, New York 15 30 500 Tony Parker, San Antonio 37 74 500 Ben Wallace, Detroit 25 50 500

*--*

REBOUNDS

*--* G OFF DEF TOT AVG Kevin Garnett, Minnesota 5 8 66 74 14.8 Ben Wallace, Detroit 6 22 56 78 13.0 Kenyon Martin, New Jersey 5 8 53 61 12.2 Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas 5 13 46 59 11.8 Shaquille O’Neal, Lakers 6 24 45 69 11.5 Kurt Thomas, New York 4 9 37 46 11.5 Marcus Camby, Denver 5 14 43 57 11.4 Karl Malone, Lakers 6 10 53 63 10.5 Jim Jackson, Houston 5 3 49 52 10.4 Tim Duncan, San Antonio 5 13 38 51 10.2

*--*

ASSISTS

*--* G AST AVG Steve Nash, Dallas 5 45 9.0 Parker, San Antonio 5 43 8.6 Jason Kidd, New Jersey 5 42 8.4 Steve Francis, Houston 5 38 7.6 Baron Davis, New Orleans 6 45 7.5 Damon Jones, Milwaukee 5 37 7.4 Kevin Garnett, Minnesota 5 35 7.0 Stephon Marbury, New York 4 26 6.5 Chauncey Billups, Detroit 6 38 6.3 Doug Christie, Sacramento 5 31 6.2

*--*