马刺1998-99赛季实录（780+篇）

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-22, By Jerry Briggs

媒体狂欢是总决赛的必备元素 - 但一些球员发现压力难以承受

周一，在麦迪逊广场花园外的街道上，一位老妇人对着另一位女士破口大骂。

显然，当天的喧嚣对她来说太过分了，于是她朝最近的目标发泄了几句脏话。

路过的人几乎都没有转头，只有几个人忍俊不禁地笑了笑。这都是大都市生活的一部分，这里有数百万人生活、工作，每天都在努力应对城市丛林。

在 NBA 总决赛中打球也可能相当繁忙。

据统计，大约 1500 名记者涌入马刺队和纽约尼克斯队的系列赛。

不同的是，如果一个球员在心理上崩溃，无法应对人群般的采访，他们需要为此付出代价。

问问尼克斯队前锋拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson) 就知道了，他周日因为拒绝参加 30 分钟的媒体采访，并对联盟公关部门的一名女性成员破口大骂，被罚款 25,000 美元。联盟还因尼克斯队未让约翰逊接受采访，对他们罚款 25,000 美元。

总的来说，马刺队周一对罚款的反应是，虽然他们理解约翰逊的沮丧，但他们支持联盟的立场。

马刺队后卫马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie) 在上午的投篮训练结束后，最初和记者们开玩笑说：“你们真是一群麻烦精。”

但他推测，约翰逊的怒火更多地与他的膝盖伤势、他 15 投 3 中的糟糕表现以及尼克斯队在第三场之前以 0 比 2 落后有关。

埃利说："当你输球并且受伤的时候，真的很沮丧。你知道，LJ 还没有完全康复，他被问了很多问题。那家伙是个战士。你要尊重他甚至愿意上场（比赛）。”

在总决赛中，球员们每天都面临着记者们的围追堵截。

当同一个问题被问了几次时，他们就会感到沮丧。这是不可避免的，因为有些记者可能离最初的对话距离太远。然后，当他们能与球员面对面时，同样的问题又被问了一遍。

埃利被媒体普遍认为是联盟中最配合的球员之一，他说在冠军争夺战中需要耐心。

埃利说：“媒体有时确实会让人沮丧。他们总是在问同样的问题：'你会怎么做不同？'你必须对他们有点耐心。”

纽约的小报刊登了关于约翰逊发脾气的头条新闻。《纽约每日新闻》的封底标题是：“LJ 的 50G 怒火”。《每日新闻》的一位专栏作家写道：“在拉里的世界里，媒体是一个特别低等的物种。”

马刺队的一位替补前锋马利克·罗斯(Malik Rose) 说，他认为对约翰逊的罚款可能 “有点过分”。但总的来说，马刺队并没有为约翰逊的行为辩护。

埃利说：“当你输球的时候，你就会有点沮丧。那是 LJ 的问题。我无法控制。这是我们所有人都要面对的。这是总决赛的一部分。你知道，你想要曝光率，你想要出现在黄金时段。这就是总决赛的意义所在，处理好（媒体）。处理好街上的人。酒店工作人员。这是工作的一部分。”

媒体与 NBA 球员和管理人员之间的紧张关系相当普遍。

一位资深记者说：“你会听到有人说，‘滚出我们视线’，或诸如此类的话。有时是时间和地点的问题。是情况使然。我会为我们的职业辩护。但（所有的记者）并没有相同的经历、训练、专业知识。他们的目标也不相同。”

周一上午，NBA 授予西雅图超音速队后卫赫西·霍金斯(Hersey Hawkins) 运动精神奖。联盟和许多媒体认为，大多数 NBA 球员都像霍金斯一样，举止得体，意识到了公众的看法。

霍金斯说：“我一直很自豪，努力以一种不会让我的球队失望、不会让 NBA 失望以及不会让我家人失望的方式表现自己。”

在季后赛中，那些越线并违反联盟规则的球员很快就被处理了。

联盟对洛杉矶湖人队中锋沙奎尔·奥尼尔(Shaquille O’Neal) 罚款 7500 美元，因为他对西部半决赛第一场比赛结束时的一名裁判出言不逊。联盟还因约翰逊在东部决赛中两次缺席媒体采访而对他罚款 10,000 美元。

埃利说：“很多媒体人士都想听听某些球员怎么说。拉里·约翰逊是他们球队的重要组成部分。人们想听听他的意见。他们想知道他心里在想什么。这就是总决赛的意义所在。你会有来自世界各地的（媒体）人士想要认识你。这是你的工作的一部分。”

点击查看原文：Media circus a Finals essential - But some players find pressure to be difficult

Media circus a Finals essential - But some players find pressure to be difficult

On the street outside Madison Square Garden on Monday, an elderly lady cursed at another woman.

Apparently, the hustle and bustle of the day was too much for her, so she unleashed a few obscenities at the nearest target.

People passing by barely turned their heads. A few grinned in amusement. It’s all a part of life in the big city, where millions live and work and try to cope with the urban jungle each day.

Playing in the NBA Finals can get pretty hectic, too.

At last count, about 1,500 journalists had descended on the series between the Spurs and the New York Knicks.

The difference is, if a player melts down mentally and can’t deal with the mob-scene interviews, there are consequences to pay.

Just ask Knicks forward Larry Johnson, who was fined $25,000 Sunday for failing to participate in all of a 30-minute media session and then cursing at a female member of the league’s public-relations staff. The league also fined the Knicks $25,000 for failing to make Johnson available for interviews.

For the most part, the Spurs reacted to the fine Monday by saying while they understood Johnson’s frustrations, they supported the league’s stance.

Initially, Spurs guard Mario Elie joked about it with reporters after the morning shootaround, saying, “Y’all are a pain.”

But he speculated that Johnson’s tirade had more to do with his knee injury, his 3-for-15 shooting and the Knicks’ 0-2 deficit in the series going into Game 3 .

“It’s frustrating when you’re losing and you’re hurting,” Elie said. “You know, LJ is not 100 percent and he’s getting a lot of questions. That guy is a warrior. You got to give him respect for even going out there (to play).”

In the Finals, players are confronted by waves of reporters on a daily basis.

Frustration sets in for them when the same question is asked several times. It’s inevitable, because some reporters may be out of hearing distance from the initial conversation. Then when they can get face to face with the player, the same question is asked again.

Elie, generally viewed by the media as one of the most accommodating players in the league, said patience is required in the championship series.

“The media can get frustrating sometimes,” Elie said. “(They are) asking the same thing: ‘What you going to do different?’ You have to be a little patient with them.”

New York’s tabloids ran big headlines about Johnson’s outburst. “L.J.'s 50G TIRADE” was the message on the back page of the New York Daily News. “In Larry’s world,” wrote a Daily News columnist, “the media is a particularly low subspecies.”

One Spur, reserve forward Malik Rose, said he thought Johnson’s fine might have been “a little stiff.” But for the most part, the Spurs weren’t defending Johnson’s actions.

“When you lose, you get a little frustrated,” Elie said. “That’s LJ’s problem. It’s something I can’t control. It’s something we all got to deal with. It’s what comes with the Finals. You know, you want the pub (publicity), you want to be in prime time. That’s what the Finals are all about, dealing with (the media). Dealing with people on the street. The hotel people. That’s part of the job.”

Contentious relationships between the media and NBA players and management personnel are fairly commonplace.

“You have guys saying, ‘Get out of (our) faces,’ or whatever,” one veteran reporter said. “Sometimes it’s the time and place. It’s circumstance. I’ll defend our profession. But (all reporters) don’t have the same experiences, training, expertise. They don’t have the same goals.”

The NBA on Monday morning honored Seattle guard Hersey Hawkins with its sportsmanship award. The league and many in the media believe most of the NBA’s players are like Hawkins, generally well-mannered and conscious of public perception.

“I have always taken pride in trying to conduct myself in a manner that I would not disrespect any organization that I played for, that I would not disrespect the NBA and that I would not disrespect my family,” Hawkins said.

In the playoffs, players who have gotten out of line and flouted league rules have been dealt with quickly.

The league fined Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal $7,500 for verbally abusing a referee at the end of Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Spurs. The league also fined Johnson $10,000 for skipping two media interview sessions in the Eastern Conference finals.

“A lot of media people want to hear what certain guys have to say,” Elie said. “Larry Johnson is a pivotal part of their team. People want to hear his opinion. They want to know what is on his mind. That’s what the Finals are all about. You got (media) people from all over the world trying to get to know you. It’s part of your job.”

By Jerry Briggs, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-22, By Nicole Foy

麦迪逊广场花园是尼克斯的天堂

这里，人们称之为圣地。

或者：世界上最伟大的竞技场。

有时，纽约人谦虚地说，它就是宇宙的中心。

周一晚上，麦迪逊广场花园没有让人失望。这座历史悠久的场馆为其传奇的尼克斯队举办了一个激动人心的返乡仪式，此前球队在上周经历了在阿拉莫城的艰难客场之旅。

NBA总决赛第三场比赛吸引了来自各行各业的球迷，从好莱坞明星到为球队全身涂上橙色和蓝色的狂热球迷。

在花园所谓的“名人排”上，一群星光熠熠的球迷聚集在一起为尼克斯队加油，但赛前接受采访的几位人士都表达了对来自圣安东尼奥的对手的赞赏。

好莱坞演员比利·克里斯托(Billy Crystal)表示，他很高兴看到马刺队能走到这一步。他回忆起马刺队球员大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)和肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)曾在他的电影《忘掉巴黎》(Forget Paris)中客串演出，这部电影讲述的是一位NBA裁判的爱情故事。

“他们是一支伟大的球队，看他们的比赛很有趣，”克里斯托说。“大卫·罗宾逊是个很棒的人。如果尼克斯队输了，我为他感到高兴。他是一个非凡的人，”克里斯托补充道。

长期持有季票的电影制作人斯派克·李(Spike Lee)表示，他现在感觉好多了，因为尼克斯队回到了“主场”。

李上周为了第二场比赛去了圣安东尼奥，他周一回忆起马刺球迷对待他的方式。

“我印象深刻，”他笑着说。“他们在那里的待遇比他们在印第安纳的时候好。事实上，和印第安纳相比，他们把我当国王一样对待。”

但李对阿拉莫圆顶体育馆作为篮球比赛场地却并不友好。

“太糟糕了。它是为橄榄球建造的，你就能看出来，”他说。“我的意思是，人们坐在两英里外的帘子后面。太荒谬了。”

“花园——那才是真正的货色，”李评论道。

“只要打开词典，看看‘麦加’这个词——它解释了一切，”他说。

几秒钟后，李引起了马刺队中锋威尔·珀杜(Will Perdue)的注意，后者正在球场上附近热身。李的眼睛里闪着光芒，他掏出一叠现金——大约25张100美元的钞票——指着珀杜。

“来吧——你的，”他开玩笑地对珀杜大喊。“就今晚的比赛，不是整个系列赛。来吧！”

珀杜大笑起来，然后挥手示意李走开。

就在李的下方，演员兼喜剧演员克里斯·洛克(Chris Rock)坐了下来。当被问及他对马刺队对阵尼克斯队的比赛有什么看法时，洛克赞扬了圣安东尼奥队。

“你不可能不喜欢马刺队，”他说。“关于这支球队没有不好的地方。他们拥有一些伟大的球员，他们努力工作才走到这一步。我祝他们好运。”

好莱坞演员马特·狄龙(Matt Dillon)将马刺队的成功归功于罗宾逊和蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)等球员。

“他们显然是一支非常棒的球队，”他说。“他们有一些非常高大的球员，这真的很有帮助。不过，我们想打败他们。”

在附近，马刺队老板彼得·霍尔特(Peter Holt)正在体验传奇花园的氛围。尽管他说他更喜欢阿拉莫圆顶体育馆为第一场和第二场比赛举办的近4万名球迷的欢呼声，但霍尔特表示，他对这个地方的神秘感仍然着迷。

“这是世界上最大的舞台，”他说。“我的意思是，我们还能要求一个比这更棒的场景来举办所有这一切吗？”

花园因举办数十年的体育和娱乐活动而赢得了“麦加”的称号，吸引了穆罕默德·阿里、猫王、格莱美奖和教皇约翰·保罗二世等人物。

“我认为是历史真正让我着迷，”霍尔特说。“你沿着这些墙壁走，看到阿里参加比赛，看到弗兰克·辛纳屈(Frank Sinatra)的照片，那些历史和传统真的让你着迷。”

现今的麦迪逊广场花园，位于时代广场西南约10个街区，实际上是第四个同类建筑。最初的建筑位于麦迪逊大道，介于23街和26街之间。

正是第一个花园为P.T.巴纳姆(P.T. Barnum)最早的马戏表演找到了一个家。拳击比赛也在这里举行，为这项运动的传奇崛起以及它与花园遗产的密切联系奠定了基础。

正是现今的竞技场见证了穆罕默德·阿里与乔·弗雷泽(Joe Frazier)在“世纪之战”中相遇。这场1971年的比赛是为了争夺世界重量级拳击冠军，许多人至今仍认为这是过去100年最伟大的体育赛事。

最近，花园恢复了其作为拳击表演场的声誉，举办了埃文德·霍利菲尔德(Evander Holyfield)和伦诺克斯·刘易斯(Lennox Lewis)的售罄比赛。在那之前，1995年，圣安东尼奥的杰西·詹姆斯·莱伊(Jesse James Leija)在这里输给了奥斯卡·德拉霍亚(Oscar de la Hoya)。

点击查看原文：Garden is Eden for Knicks

Garden is Eden for Knicks

Here they just call it Mecca.

Or: the Greatest Arena in the World.

And sometimes, when New Yorkers are being really modest, they refer to it as The Center of the Universe.

On Monday night, Madison Square Garden didn’t disappoint. The historic venue threw an electrifying homecoming for its fabled Knicks after the team’s brutal road trip to the Alamo City last week.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals drew fans from all walks of life, from Hollywood celebrities to hard- core, paint-your-body-orange-and-blue fans.

Along the so-called “Celebrity Row” of the Garden, a star-studded cast of fans gathered to show their support for the Knicks - but several interviewed before the game professed admiration for their opponents from San Antonio.

Hollywood actor Billy Crystal said he was happy the Spurs had made it this far. He recalled how Spurs players David Robinson and Sean Elliott had cameo roles in his movie, “Forget Paris,” a love story about an NBA referee.

“They’re a great team, and they’re fun to watch,” Crystal said. “David Robinson is a great guy. If the Knicks don’t win, I’m very happy for him. He’s an extraordinary human being,” Crystal added.

Filmmaker Spike Lee, a longtime season ticket holder, said he felt better now that his Knicks were back on “home turf.”

Lee, who made the trip to San Antonio last week for Game 2, recalled Monday how Spurs fans treated him.

“I was pretty impressed,” he said, grinning. “They treated me better there than they did in Indiana. In fact, they treated me like a king compared to Indiana.”

But Lee wasn’t so kind about the Alamodome as a setting for basketball.

“It was horrible. It was built for football and you could tell it,” he said. “I mean, people were sitting behind a curtain two miles a way. It was ridiculous.”

“The Garden - now that’s the real deal,” Lee remarked.

“Just look in the dictionary and look at the word - mecca. That will explain it all,” he said.

Seconds later, Lee caught the attention of Spurs center Will Perdue, who was warming up nearby on the court. With a twinkle in his eye, Lee pulled out a wad of cash - $100 bills, about 25 of them - and pointed at Perdue.

“Come on - it’s yours,” he shouted playfully at Perdue. “Just tonight’s game, not the whole series. Come on!”

Perdue broke out in laughter, then waved Lee off.

Just down from Lee, actor-comedian Chris Rock took his seat. Asked his thoughts about the Spurs-Knicks matchup, Rock complimented San Antonio.

“You cannot not like the Spurs,” he said. “There’s nothing bad to say about that team. They’ve got some great players who’ve worked hard to get to this point. I wish them the best of luck.”

Hollywood actor Matt Dillon attributed the Spurs’ success so far to players such as Robinson and Tim Duncan.

“They’re obviously a really great team,” he said. “You’ve got some really big guys and that really helps. We’re looking to whoop them, though.”

Nearby, Spurs owner Peter Holt was taking in the atmosphere of the legendary Garden. Although he said he preferred the roar of the nearly 40,000 fans who packed the Alamodome for Games 1 and 2, Holt said he was still captivated by the mystique of the place.

“It’s the biggest stage in the world,” he said. “I mean, could we have asked for a more wonderful setting for all of this to happen?”

The Garden earned its “mecca” label from hosting decades of sports and entertainment events, drawing the likes of Muhammad Ali, Elvis, the Grammys and Pope John Paul II.

“I think it’s the history that really fascinates me,” Holt said. “You walk along these walls and see Ali at fights and you see Frank Sinatra pictures and that history and tradition really gets you.”

The current Madison Square Garden, about 10 blocks southwest of Times Square, is actually the fourth of its kind. The original structure stood on Madison Avenue between 23rd and 26th streets.

It was at the first Garden that P.T. Barnum found a home for his earliest circus shows. Boxing matches also were held there, laying the groundwork for the sport’s mythical rise in popularity and its close association with the Garden legacy.

It was at the current arena that Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier in “The Fight of the Century.” The 1971 bout to determine the heavyweight championship of the world is still considered by many as the greatest sports event of the last 100 years.

Recently, the Garden revived its status as a boxing showcase, hosting the sold-out fight between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. Before that, in 1995, San Antonio’s Jesse James Leija lost a bout here to Oscar de la Hoya.

By Nicole Foy, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-22, By Arthur Garcia

沃尔顿：尼克斯的困境源于控球后卫

为什么尼克斯无法得分？是马刺队的防守？是纽约伤病满营的前锋阵容？还是全队的投篮低迷？

这可能是三者的综合因素，但根据比尔·沃尔顿(Bill Walton)的说法，尼克斯在总决赛中的大部分困境都与控球后卫查理·沃德(Charlie Ward)和克里斯·柴尔德斯(Chris Childs)有关。

“查理·沃德在联盟中任何其他球队都不会首发，”名人堂成员沃尔顿说道，他是 NBC 的工作室分析师。“甚至可以说，查理·沃德在联盟中任何其他球队都无法获得上场机会。他们给这名球员开出 3000 万美元的合同，这令人感到悲哀。”

沃尔顿也对柴尔德斯的合同和价值表达了质疑。

“他们给这两名水平不高的控球后卫提供了 5500 万美元的合同，”沃尔顿说道。“如果你要打小球阵容，你就没有犯错的空间。如果你拥有卡里姆·阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔或沙奎尔·奥尼尔，担任控球后卫就很容易了，你只需要运球和投篮就行了。如果你拥有的前锋阵容像尼克斯一样无法终结进攻，你最好让罗德·斯特里克兰、蒂姆·哈达威、加里·佩顿（或）杰森·基德在后场指挥。”

沃德和柴尔德斯已经习惯了媒体和尼克斯球迷对他们的严厉批评。

“每个人都喜欢批评控球后卫，我不介意人们批评我们，”沃德说道。“我们尽力帮助球队获胜，我们不是靠四个人在场上比赛就走到今天这一步的。所以每个人都愿意并且能够做好自己的工作，我们的工作就是防守、传球给队友，并在有机会的时候投篮。”

沃德和柴尔德斯的表现让“得分”这两个字从控球后卫的定义中消失了。他们在两场比赛中只合计得到 18 分。在他们的带领下，尼克斯的系列赛投篮命中率不足 36%。

“这不是仅仅控球后卫的问题，而是每个人都出了问题，”沃德说道。“这是一场团队比赛。我们错失了一些投篮机会。我们只要命中投篮就行了，我们一定能做到。”

沃德首发了这两场比赛，表现略微出色，9 投 5 中，其中包括尼克斯的三分球命中率中的两记。柴尔德斯出场时间更多（52 分钟对 47 分钟），但 16 投 3 中。

“尼克斯的问题在于谁发挥出色，谁发挥失常，”沃尔顿说道。“（拉特雷尔）斯普雷维尔 - 不擅长突破左路，没有三分球能力，投篮选择糟糕。马库斯·坎比 - 天赋异禀，但技术欠佳。他被扔进了垃圾堆，就像在湖人和开拓者时一样。克里斯·柴尔德斯表现如此糟糕，我听说有人说，‘嘿，查理·沃德去哪儿了？’这是多么可悲啊？”

马刺队的控球后卫埃弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)的表现也并不耀眼，两场比赛共得到 14 分和 13 次助攻，但他不需要像其他球员那样出色，因为圣安东尼奥拥有强大的锋线阵容优势。

柴尔德斯表示，如果尼克斯能更快地进入进攻状态，他们的进攻就会好很多。这就是他的工作。

“我们没有做好的地方就是快速推进球，更快地进入进攻，”柴尔德斯说道。“我们花费了太多时间来组织进攻，而当只剩下 10 秒或 12 秒的时候，他们是一支非常出色的防守球队。”

点击查看原文：Walton: Knicks' woes point to point guards

Walton: Knicks’ woes point to point guards

Why can’t the Knicks score? Is it the Spurs’ defense? Is it New York’s banged-up frontline? Is it a team-wide shooting slump?

It’s probably a combination of all three, but most of the Knicks’ woes in the NBA Finals, according to Bill Walton, lie with point guards Charlie Ward and Chris Childs.

“Charlie Ward would not start for any other team in the league,” said Walton, a Hall of Famer and studio analyst for NBC. “It’s arguable that Charlie Ward would not make any other team in the league. Here’s a guy that they’re paying $30 million to and that’s sad.”

Childs’ contract and worth don’t escape Walton, either.

“They’ve got $55 million spread between two point guards that aren’t very good,” Walton said. “If you’re going to go small, you have no margin of error. If you have Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Shaquille O’Neal, it’s easy to be a point guard. You just dribble it up and throw it in. If you have the frontcourt non-finishers that the Knicks have, you better have Rod Strickland, Tim Hardaway, Gary Payton (or) Jason Kidd back there.”

Ward and Childs have gotten accustomed to harsh words directed at them by the media and many of the Knicks’ faithful.

“Everyone likes to criticize the point guards, and I don’t mind people criticizing us,” Ward said. “We do what we need to do to help this team win, and we haven’t gotten here with four guys on the floor. So everyone is willing and able to do their job, and our job is to defend and get balls to the guys and knock down shots when we have them.”

The play of Ward and Childs has taken the “point” out of point guard. They’ve combined for just 38 points in two games. The Knicks, under their leadership, have shot less than 36 percent for the series.

“It’s not just the point guards, it’s everyone,” Ward said. “It’s a team game. We’ve had shots that we’ve missed. It’s just a matter of making shots, and we will.”

Ward has started both games and has been marginally more effective, hitting on 5-of-9 shots, including two of the Knicks’ three 3- pointers. Childs has played more minutes (52 to 47) but has missed 13 of 16 shots.

“The Knicks’ problems are about who has a game and who doesn’t,” Walton said. “(Latrell) Sprewell - can’t go left, doesn’t have a 3-point shot, horrific shot selection. Marcus Camby - gifted athletically, challenged skillwise. He’s been thrown on the trash heap, just like the Lakers and the Blazers. Chris Childs has played so poorly, I’ve heard people say, ‘Hey, where’s Charlie Ward?’ How sad is that?”

The Spurs’ counterpart, Avery Johnson, isn’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard - 14 points and 13 assists in two games - but he doesn’t need to with San Antonio’s sizable frontcourt advantage.

Childs said the Knicks’ offensive struggles wouldn’t be as severe if they got into the offense faster. That’s his job.

“What we’re not doing successfully is getting the ball up the court a lot quicker to get in our offense a lot easier,” Childs said. “We’re taking too much time to get to the offensive sets and, with 10 seconds, 12 seconds on the shot clock, they’re a very good defensive team.”

By Arthur Garcia, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-22, By Buck Harvey

新的感觉？不过是失败，不过是常态

这些被称为失败。就是你的球队得分没有对手多。如果你难以想起该如何应对这些事，这里有一些提醒。

首先，想想大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)，看看交易截止日是否已经过去。

熟悉的感觉回来了吗？如果没有，这将启动引擎：质疑格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)。

现在很清楚，波波维奇应该一直让安东尼奥·丹尼尔斯(Antonio Daniels)上场，而且如果彼得·霍尔特(Peter Holt)今天早些时候解雇波波维奇，戴夫·考恩斯(Dave Cowens)可以接手剩下的系列赛。

所以，这就是在创纪录的连续十二场胜利之后，首场季后赛失利的一种应对方式。另一种方式是深吸一口气，意识到周一晚上发生的事情本应该早些时候发生过几次。在客场，面对一个手感火热的射手，裁判判罚对他们不利，马刺队只是完成了常态。

毕竟，有充分的理由解释为什么没有一支NBA球队能够在季后赛的最后三轮中横扫对手。

尼克斯队理应获得这场胜利。他们在主场的表现，就像湖人队和开拓者队应该却没有做到的那样。马刺队像任何其他人一样对这些横扫感到惊讶，因为他们完全期望打出两场势均力敌的系列赛。

但洛杉矶或波特兰都没有像尼克斯队那样在防守上如此狂热，也没有像尼克斯队那样使用艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)。如果说从第一场比赛开始就一直存在一个趋势，那就是查理·沃德(Charlie Ward)和克里斯·柴尔德斯(Chris Childs)从跳球开始就一直用身体对抗AJ。马刺队的进攻感受到了这一点。

马刺队也从未遇到过像艾伦·休斯顿(Allan Houston)这样的单人进攻。马刺队派了五个人防守他，部分原因是他们不得不这样做，因为犯规麻烦。当休斯顿没有背身单打或正面接球时，他就在24秒钟的比赛时间结束时投进三分球。

这些事都会发生，因为并非所有的奇迹都发生在纪念日那天在阿拉莫穹顶。而认为贾伦·杰克逊(Jaren Jackson)将在季后赛的征程中永远是乔丹，而不会像周一那样一分未得，就是不记得四月之前的事情。

至于蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)在第四节得分挂零：做好准备，因为在他职业生涯结束之前，他至少还会这样做一次。

马刺队欣然接受了失败。波波维奇、罗宾逊和邓肯都称赞了尼克斯队。但在这层外衣之下，存在着这样一个想法，那就是裁判在这一天没有给他们机会。

不知何故，马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie)无法对休斯顿进行防守，就像雷吉·米勒(Reggie Miller)在尼克斯与步行者队的系列赛中无法防守一样。不知何故，跳投型尼克斯队比内线进攻型的马刺队获得了8次罚球机会。而且不知何故，每当马刺队快要追上比分时，就会出现一些问题。

替补席上讽刺的笑容说明了一切。NBA不想延长系列赛吗？

NBA非常希望看到更长的系列赛，但在3月萨克拉门托也会出现奇特的判罚。这也是常态的一部分。比赛的势头往往随着裁判组的变化而变化，但裁判也会配合更具侵略性、更活跃的球队。在这一晚上，那就是尼克斯队。

然后，马刺队犯了一些错误，这些错误他们无法归咎于其他人。他们在第四节开始时显得慌乱，几乎丢掉了一个边线球，然后又丢掉了下一个。在那一节的半场，在拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson)投进三分球之后，AJ错过了一个传给罗宾逊的空中球，而这正是马刺队需要反击的时候。这总结了他们全场20次失误的夜晚。

“我不知道今晚该怎么称呼这场比赛，”罗宾逊赛后说，仿佛他也需要一些关于失败的提醒。但随后，罗宾逊补充了一些自第二场对阵森林狼队的比赛以来不常出现的话。

“我们输球了，我们很生气，”罗宾逊说。“我们不喜欢输球。而且我们总是在输球之后有很好的反弹。”

所以你还记得输球后如何反应吗？重要的是马刺队是否记得。

点击查看原文：New feeling? Just a loss, just the norm

New feeling? Just a loss, just the norm

These are called losses. It’s when your team doesn’t score as many points as the other team. And if it’s hard to remember how to react to these things, here are a few reminders.

Begin by wondering about David Robinson, and if the trade deadline already has passed.

Is that familiar feeling coming back? If not, this will start the engine: Second-guess Gregg Popovich.

It’s clear, now, Popovich should have been playing Antonio Daniels all along and, if Peter Holt would fire Popovich early enough today, Dave Cowens could take over for the rest of the series.

So that’s one way to take the first playoff loss after a record dozen. Another is to take a deep breath and realize what happened Monday night should have already happened a few times already. On the road, against a hot shooter, with a few calls going against them, the Spurs merely accomplished the norm.

After all, there’s a reason no NBA team has ever swept the final three rounds of the playoffs.

The Knicks deserved every bit of this. They came out the way the Lakers and Blazers should have at home and didn’t. The Spurs were as surprised as anyone by those sweeps, because they fully expected to be in two, tight series.

But neither Los Angeles nor Portland were as frenetic on defense, and neither played Avery Johnson as the Knicks do. If there is one trend that has been there from the first game, it is Charlie Ward and Chris Childs physically riding AJ from the opening tip. The Spurs’ offense feels it.

The Spurs also never ran into a one-man offense such as Allan Houston. The Spurs threw five guys at him, partly because they had to because of foul trouble. When Houston wasn’t posting up or squaring up, he was tossing in a trey at the 24-second clock buzzer.

These things happen, since not every miracle is on Memorial Day in the Alamodome. And to think Jaren Jackson would be Jordan forever on the playoff road - as opposed to going scoreless Monday - is not to remember anything before April.

As for Tim Duncan doing his own scoreless stint in the fourth period: Be prepared, because he’ll do that at least one more time before his career is over.

The Spurs took their loss nicely. Popovich, Robinson and Duncan all climbed to the podium and praised the Knicks. But beneath this veneer is the idea that, for a day, the refs didn’t give them a chance.

Somehow Mario Elie couldn’t put a hand on Houston, just as Reggie Miller couldn’t in the Knicks-Pacers series. Somehow the jump-shooting Knicks went to the free-throw line eight more times than the inside-shooting Spurs. And somehow, every time the Spurs pulled close, something went wrong.

The sarcastic smiles on the bench said it. Didn’t the NBA want to extend the series?

The NBA would love to see a longer series, but odd officiating happens in Sacramento in March, too. It’s also part of the norm. Momentum often swings with the referee crew, but refs also go along with the more aggressive, active team. On this night, that was the Knicks.

Then there were mistakes the Spurs couldn’t blame on anyone else. They looked rattled to start the fourth quarter, almost losing one inbounds pass and then losing the next. And midway in that final period, after Larry Johnson threw in a trey, AJ missed a lob to Robinson precisely when the Spurs needed to counter. That summed up a night of 20 turnovers.

“I don’t know what you call this tonight,” said Robinson afterward, as if he, too, needed a few reminders about what a loss is. But then Robinson added something else that hadn’t come up much since Game 2 against the Timberwolves.

“We take it personal when we lose,” said Robinson. “We don’t like it. And we always respond well after we do.”

So do you remember how to react after a loss? What counts is whether the Spurs do.

By Buck Harvey, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-22, By Arthur Garcia

尼克斯三巨头爆发，成功扳回一城

在输掉第二场比赛后，尼克斯主教练杰夫·范甘迪(Jeff Van Gundy)表示，球队需要从三位核心球员——艾伦·休斯顿(Allan Houston)、拉特雷尔·斯普雷维尔(Latrell Sprewell)和拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson)身上获得更高的效率。周一晚上，在NBA总决赛第三场比赛中，范甘迪做到了。

纽约的这三位核心球员合计贡献了74分，尼克斯以89-81战胜圣安东尼奥，在麦迪逊广场花园赢得了胜利。这场胜利也让纽约的系列赛重新燃起希望，将马刺队的领先优势缩小至2-1，这场七场四胜制的比赛将继续进行，第四场比赛将在周三晚上举行。

休斯顿全场24投10中，砍下34分，罚球12罚全中。他反复地将球投进花园球场篮网，击碎了马刺队的进攻势头。

“这场系列赛，我们基本上要依靠拉里、拉特雷尔和艾伦，以及状态最好的球员，”范甘迪说道。“我认为艾伦今晚打得非常出色，他展现了在关键时刻投进关键球的能力。”

休斯顿的一记关键球帮助球队打破了第三节后期58平的僵局。在科特·托马斯(Kurt Thomas)奋力扑倒在地抢到篮板球后，他在时间即将耗尽的情况下投进一记绝望的三分球。尼克斯自始至终都没有落后，从那时起就一直领先。

“科特出色地完成了他的任务，抢到了一个关键的进攻篮板，一个拼搏的球，然后传球给我，我投进了一个三分球，”休斯顿说道。“有时当你不断努力，坚持拼搏的时候，就会发生这样的事情。”

当休斯顿凭借精准的跳投给马刺队造成杀伤时，斯普雷维尔的运动能力同样有效。他贡献了24分，其中包括快攻上篮和突破后用短距离跳投得分。

“这两位球员的侵略性大多数时候都非常高，”范甘迪谈到斯普雷维尔和休斯顿时说道。“我认为我们在他们被夹击的时候，今晚的球运转更加流畅了。”

斯普雷维尔和休斯顿还迫使马刺队的后卫马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie)和贾伦·杰克逊(Jaren Jackson)在首节比赛中犯下犯规。马刺队被迫采取小个阵容，安东尼奥·丹尼尔斯(Antonio Daniels)和史蒂夫·科尔(Steve Kerr)的出场时间比平时更多。

“更好的执行力确实帮助了我们，”休斯顿说道。“这反过来也让对手球员陷入犯规麻烦，这对我们非常有利。”

约翰逊在比赛开始前表示，他的右膝疼痛比在圣安东尼奥时好多了，他打出了本系列赛最好的比赛。他贡献了16分，比前两场比赛的10分有了明显的提升。

“他伤得很严重，”范甘迪说道。“我认为他下定了决心要持球突破。他投进了一记重要的三分球。”

这记三分球帮助尼克斯将领先优势扩大到8分（76-68），当时比赛还剩7分42秒。约翰逊还帮助限制了蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)在第四节比赛中没有得分。

“邓肯是NBA中最优秀的球员，”范甘迪说道。“你试图打出精彩的防守，我认为拉里做到了。”范甘迪说道。“与此同时，我认为邓肯错过了一些他通常可以投进的球。这是两者共同作用的结果。”

尼克斯还实现了范甘迪的另一个目标：获得罚球机会。马刺队在圣安东尼奥的罚球次数比尼克斯多35次，但在第三场比赛中，尼克斯获得了更多罚球机会。纽约罚球30中23，而圣安东尼奥罚球22中18。

“很明显，我们今晚获得了罚球机会，这是我们需要的，”范甘迪说道。“我认为我们非常积极地尝试去到我们想要的位置。”

点击查看原文：Knicks get job done with trio's emergence

Knicks get job done with trio’s emergence

After losing Game 2, Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said his team needed to get more efficiency from their main three guys - Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell and Larry Johnson. Monday night in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Van Gundy got it.

New York’s top three combined for 74 points, as the Knicks scored a 89-81 victory over San Antonio before 19,763 at Madison Square Garden. The win also made it a series again for New York, cutting the Spurs lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven. Game 4 is here Wednesday night.

Houston erupted for 34 points on 10-of-24 from the field and a perfect 12-of-12 from the free-throw line. His repeatedly shot daggers through the Garden nets and into the Spurs charge.

“We going to go basically in this series through Larry and Latrell and Allan and whoever has it rolling,” Van Gundy said. “I thought Allan had it rolling really well tonight. Allan has shown an ability to make critical shots.”

One of Houston’s critical shots broke a 58-all tie late in the third period. He nailed a desperation three-pointer as the shot clock expired after Kurt Thomas dove to the floor to pick up the loose ball. The Knicks, who never trailed in the game, led from that point on.

“Kurt does his job and gets a great offensive rebound, a hustle play, then kicks it to me for a three,” Houston said. “And that’s what happens sometimes when you keep digging in there and continue to work.”

While Houston was hurting the Spurs with dead-eye jumpers, Sprewell’s athleticism was equally effective. His 24 points featured run-outs on the break and short jumpers after beating his man off the dribble.

“Those two guys, for the most part their aggressiveness has been high,” Van Gundy said of Sprewell and Houston. “We thought what we did, though, when they got doubled, I thought the ball moved freer tonight.”

Sprewell and Houston also got Spurs guards Mario Elie and Jaren Jackson into foul trouble in the first period. The Spurs were forced to go small with Antonio Daniels and Steve Kerr playing more minutes than normal.

“Better execution really helped,” Houston said. “That in turn got guys into fall trouble and it really helped us.”

Johnson, who coming into the game said his sore right knee was much better than in San Antonio, played his best game of the series. His 16 points bettered his production of 10 points in the first two games.

“He’s hurting very badly,” Van Gundy said. “And I think he made a commitment to put the ball on the floor and drive. He hit a big three.”

That trey pushed the Knicks lead back up to eight (76-68) with 7:42 left in the fourth. And Johnson helped hold Tim Duncan scoreless in the fourth.

“Duncan’s the best player in the NBA,” Van Gundy said. “You try to play great defense and I think Larry did,” Van Gundy said. “At the same time, I think Duncan missed some shots that he normally could make. It was a combination of both.”

The Knicks also accomplished another Van Gundy objective: get to the line. The Spurs had 35 more foul shots in San Antonio, but in Game 3, it was Knicks with seven more freebies. New York made 23 of 30, compared to 18 of 22 for San Antonio.

“Obviously we got to the free-throw line tonight which we needed to do,” Van Gundy said. “And I think we were very aggressive trying to get to the spots we wanted on the floor tonight.”

By Arthur Garcia, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-22, By Bonnie Pfister

圣安东尼奥的五彩斑斓，不只是蓝领 - 体育评论员努力描绘圣安东尼奥的形象

6月6日，圣安东尼奥马刺队横扫波特兰，进军NBA总决赛，一家电视台的体育评论员称圣安东尼奥为“蓝领小镇”。

什么？

当地人感到困惑。

“我们很想成为一个蓝领小镇，”经济发展基金会主席马里奥·埃尔南德斯(Mario Hernandez)笑着说，“这是我们的目标之一。”

蓝领的评价，虽然从技术上讲不准确，但也引发了更广泛的疑问。成为蓝领意味着什么？这是好事还是贬低？

从纯粹的经济角度来看，圣安东尼奥的经济基础从未在蓝领通常所指的重工业部门。相反，当地经济的支柱几代以来一直都穿着卡其色的制服。

由于城里有五个军事基地，围绕着为空军和陆军提供商品和服务的就业机会不断增长。与墨西哥的毗邻也促进了跨境贸易。

最近，军队规模缩减，而医药和生物科学研究却激增。作为人口最多的州中最受欢迎的旅游城市之一，服务业的就业机会不断增加。

但尽管许多与旅游业相关的职位持有者的衣领可能是白色的，但这并不一定意味着他们带回了更好的薪水。你是根据衣领的颜色来判断一个人，还是根据他的薪水？

根据1997年德克萨斯州劳动力委员会的统计，大圣安东尼奥地区酒店职员的平均年收入不到15000美元。在空调凉爽的电话营销办公室工作的职员的工资水平也差不多。

另一方面，建筑工人的年平均收入约为21000美元，虽然不算高，但至少比酒店职员的平均收入高出25%。

根据美国劳工统计局1996年的报告，圣安东尼奥的平均工资约为24640美元，比全国平均水平低24%。

然而，美国人口普查局最新的数据显示，在473000人的劳动力中，四分之三的人从事着可能被认为是白领的工作：专业、技术、行政、销售或服务工作。

约22%的总人口是传统的蓝领工人，从事生产、维修或机器操作工作。

另一个问题是，蓝领/白领的划分是指你生产什么，还是指你如何生产。

在奥尔莫斯公园为草坪修剪的日工会弄脏自己的手。但如果他也是一名工头，负责安排和管理其他工人呢？可以把他看作蓝领，因为这是他提供的服务的性质，也可以把他看作白领，因为他是一名管理者。

感知取决于观察者，这让人不禁要问，播音员在将圣安东尼奥称为蓝领小镇时到底指的是什么。

NBC的工作人员表示，体育评论员鲍勃·科斯塔斯(Bob Costas)和道格·柯林斯(Doug Collins)根本没有试图对圣安东尼奥人进行评判。他们声称对谁（如果有的话）使用了“蓝领”一词记忆模糊。

上周无法联系到柯林斯进行评论。但一位资深体育记者表示，他过去曾听到柯林斯亲切地用这个词来形容圣安东尼奥的球迷，赞赏他们对比赛的热情，而不是概括他们从事的工作类型。

在接受上周采访时，以朴实风格著称的科斯塔斯否认发表了如此“笼统的声明”。他表示担心成为“代表不了解一座城市及其所有内涵的网络心态的替罪羊”。

“我可能说的是，这里不是一个公司人群。当你看到这些比赛的场边球迷时，他们看起来像是普通的普通球迷。他们不是名人。他们不是穿着西装的公司类型。”

统计数据支持了他的说法。马刺队官员报告称，阿拉莫穹顶球场的65%的座位是卖给个人的，而35%是卖给公司的。这与NBA其他球队的销售趋势完全相反。

事实上，对于一个外地人来说，科斯塔斯准确地描述了当地人为何如此疯狂的原因。

科斯塔斯说，与纽约不同的是，纽约有多支主要联盟球队，分别进行橄榄球、棒球、篮球和曲棍球比赛，“马刺队是这里唯一一支主要联盟球队。这赋予了它完全不同的基调。马刺队代表着圣安东尼奥的某种独特的东西。”

NBC不愿承认或解释“蓝领”一词，这表明他们对它赋予的地位或缺乏地位感到不舒服。很难确定，但不知何故，说话者和听众都知道，一根神经被触动了。

在礼貌的谈话中，一些圣安东尼奥人表示，他们被称作蓝领感到“受辱”。

当被追问时，大多数人回避将它描述为侮辱。相反，他们说，它只是没有描绘出完整的画面。

难道在许多圣安东尼奥人心中，蓝领等同于“低级”吗？

纽约州立大学分校经济学教授霍华德·博特维尼克(Howard Botwinick)表示，圣安东尼奥的争论突出了美国人在谈论阶级问题时的不适。

“最初，白领工作承诺帮助我们摆脱制造业，转向更具挑战性的工作，这些工作有更高的薪酬，需要更多的教育，并给予更多的自主权，”博特维尼克说。

但他说，这些工作，比如在空调房里的打字池里的工作，往往和装配线上的工作一样报酬低，一样无聊。

“白领，与其说是向上流动的阶梯，不如说是工薪阶层的另一个说法，而我们这个国家一直在试图避免这个说法，”博特维尼克说。

“也许你回家后不需要清理指甲缝里的油脂，但大多数白领工作并没有那么不同。”

点击查看原文：Collar S.A. multihued, not just blue - Sportscasters struggling to paint an S.A. identity

Collar S.A. multihued, not just blue - Sportscasters struggling to paint an S.A. identity

On June 6, when the San Antonio Spurs finished their sweep of Portland for a trip to the NBA Finals, a network sportscaster referred to San Antonio as a “blue-collar town.”

Say what?

Locals were perplexed.

“We’d love to be a blue-collar town,” Economic Development Foundation President Mario Hernandez said with a laugh. “That’s one of our goals.”

The blue-collar comment, while technically incorrect, also raises broader questions. What does it mean to be blue collar? Is it a good thing, or a putdown?

From a purely economic point of view, San Antonio’s base has never been in the heavy manufacturing sector that blue collar usually implies. Instead, the backbone of the local economy has for generations been clothed in khaki.

With five military bases in town, jobs have grown up around supplying goods and services to the Air Force and Army. Proximity to Mexico has also fostered cross-border trade.

More recently, the military has downsized, while medicine and bioscience research has surged. And as the most popular tourist city in one of the most populous states, jobs in the service sector are multiplying.

But while the collars of many tourism-related jobholders may be white, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bringing home the better paycheck. Do you judge a person by the color of his collar, or the content of his paycheck?

The average hotel clerk in the Greater San Antonio area takes home less than $15,000 a year, according to Texas Workforce Commission statistics for 1997. Jobs in the air-conditioned cool of telemarketing offices pull down about the same wage.

A construction worker, on the other hand, can average about $21,000 annually - not princely, but at least 25 percent higher than the average hotel clerk.

San Antonio’s average wage is about $24,640, 24 percent below the national average, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report for 1996.

Yet, the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures show that three-quarters of the work force of 473,000 people held what may be considered white-collar jobs: those in professional, technical, administrative, sales or service jobs.

About 22 percent of the total are traditional blue-collar workers, in production, repair or machine operations.

Another question is whether the blue-collar/white-collar divide refers to what you produce, or how you produce it.

A day laborer mowing lawns in Olmos Park gets his hands dirty. But what if he’s also a crew supervisor, who schedules and manages other workers? One could view him as blue-collar, because that’s the nature of the service he provides, or as white collar, because he’s a manager.

Perceptions rest in the eye and ear of the beholder, which leads one to wonder what exactly the broadcasters meant when they referred to San Antonio as a blue-collar town.

NBC staffers say sportscasters Bob Costas and Doug Collins weren’t trying to judge San Antonians at all. They claim amnesia as to who - if anyone - used the term “blue-collar.”

Collins couldn’t be reached for comment last week. But a veteran sportswriter says he’s in the past heard Collins use the phrase affectionately to describe San Antonio fans, referring with admiration to their enthusiasm for the game, rather than summing up what kinds of jobs they hold.

In an interview last week, Costas, noted for his down-to-earth style, denied making such a “sweeping statement.” He expressed concern about being “the straw man representing the network mentality that doesn’t understand a town and what it’s all about.”

'“What I may have said is this is not a corporate crowd. When you look at the fans who sit courtside at these games, they appear to be regular rank-and-file fans. They’re not celebrities. They’re not corporate types in suits.”

Statistics back him up. Spurs officials report that 65 percent of the seats in the Alamodome are sold to individuals, compared to the 35 percent purchased by corporations. That’s the exact opposite of sales trends in the rest of the NBA.

In fact, for an out-of-towner, Costas describes with precision the reason why the locals have gone loco.

Unlike New York, where there are several major league teams playing football, baseball, basketball and hockey, Costas said “the Spurs are the only major league franchise here. That gives it an entirely different tone. The Spurs represent something in San Antonio that’s close to unique.”

NBC’s reticence to own up to or explain the “blue-collar” term suggests they’re not comfortable with what status, or lack of status, it confers. It’s difficult to pin down, but somehow both speaker and listener know a nerve has been plucked.

In polite conversations, some San Antonians say they felt “insulted” by being called blue-collar.

When pressed, most backed away from describing it as an insult. Rather, they say, it just doesn’t paint the whole picture.

Could it be that in the minds of many San Antonians, blue collar is synonymous with “low class?”

Howard Botwinick, an economics professor at a branch of the State University of New York, said the debate in San Antonio underscores Americans’ discomfort in talking about class.

“Originally, white-collar jobs promised to help us move away from manufacturing and into more challenging jobs that had higher pay, required more education and gave more autonomy,” Botwinick said.

But those jobs, such as those in an air-conditioned typing pool, often prove to be just as poorly paid and boring as those on the assembly line, he added.

“White collar, rather than just a step toward upward mobility, is really just another word for working class, which we in this country have tried to avoid,” Botwinick said.

“Maybe you don’t have to clean the grease from under your fingernails when you come home, but most white-collar jobs are not that different.”

By Bonnie Pfister, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-22, By Tim Price

斯特恩：不会为球馆提供补贴

与拥有帮助球队融资新建球馆政策的美国橄榄球联盟 (NFL) 不同，NBA 总裁大卫·斯特恩(David Stern) 表示，联盟不会帮助球队融资新建球馆。

这包括马刺队，他们已经毫不掩饰地表达了他们在圣安东尼奥需要一个新球馆。

“NBA 目前没有计划为球馆建设提供补贴，”斯特恩在周一马刺队与纽约尼克斯队 NBA 总决赛第三场比赛开始前的新闻发布会上说。

“关于中型球馆，”斯特恩说，“这成为一个社区的问题。我所知道的每一个处理过这个问题的社区都找到了某种公私合营的方式。

“这种模式对我们来说非常有效。我们没有看到在圣安东尼奥改变它的理由。”

斯特恩听起来好像他拥有与东北学区一样的灵活性，东北学区拒绝了马刺队关于参与为拟建在龙角石场地的球馆进行增量税收融资计划的请求。

但马刺队主席彼得·霍尔特(Peter Holt) 对斯特恩的否决并不感到意外。他说，当 NFL 谈论提供财政援助时——最高可达洛杉矶超过 2.5 亿美元的球馆项目债务的 50%——他脑海中从未出现过 NBA 帮助马刺队融资球馆的计划。

“我想我们曾在 NBA 管理委员会会议上讨论过这个问题，当时 NFL 开始谈论此事，”霍尔特周一在麦迪逊花园广场说。“这种情况与 NFL 非常不同。我认为没有必要 (需要 NBA 的财政援助)。”

霍尔特没有使用威胁将球队出售给另一个投资集团——一个不受限制必须将马刺队留在圣安东尼奥的投资集团——如果该城市未能批准为新球馆提供公共资金的威胁。

他曾经说过，在蒂姆·邓肯 (Tim Duncan) 的合同于 1999-2000 赛季结束后到期时，马刺不可能续约留下他，但那是本赛季 NBA 停摆之前。那场劳资纠纷以新的集体谈判协议结束，协议中规定了球员的最高薪资，这似乎使关于续约邓肯的困境变得无关紧要，因为没有其他球队可以支付比马刺队更高的薪水给邓肯。

但邓肯的经纪人隆·巴比 (Lon Babby) 可能不会在球馆问题解决之前进行合同谈判。尽管邓肯公开表示希望留在圣安东尼奥这样的小型 NBA 市场，但巴比说，邓肯可能不会签字，直到对新球馆和球队的训练设施做出决定。

当被问及他对圣安东尼奥为新球馆提供某种公共资金的信心程度时，斯特恩没有发表评论。但对于一个比阿拉莫穹顶更小的球馆还没有以某种方式获得融资，他确实显得有些恼火。

“我不想回避这个问题：NBA 球队是 (由部分公共资金资助的球馆的) 受益者，”斯特恩说。“但这是所有主要城市都有的。

“而且不仅仅是 NBA 城市。纳什维尔、孟菲斯和新奥尔良都建造了一流的球馆。

“对于这个城市来说，问题是他们是否希望弗里曼体育馆成为进入新千年的中型球馆。如果不是，他们可以效仿美国所有主要城市的路线。”

斯特恩没有说他是否是在用“新千年”和弗里曼体育馆——一个建于 50 年前用于牛仔竞技的球馆——这两个词在同一句子中暗讽圣安东尼奥。

霍尔特说，他没有感觉到斯特恩对马刺队无法制定球馆计划感到沮丧。

“他以前经历过，”马刺队主席说。

NFL 旨在帮助球队建设新球馆的政策最近引起关注，因为联盟希望在洛杉矶设立一支扩张球队。但洛杉矶的任何拟议的拥有者集团都没有获得为新球馆支付资金的计划，因此联盟延长了一项政策，该政策实际上可以追溯到 80 年代，当时迈阿密海豚队的老板乔·罗比 (Joe Robbie) 努力建造一个新球馆。

据 NFL 发言人格雷格·艾耶洛 (Greg Aiello) 称，联盟允许其拥有者通过通常归属客队的比赛门票收入的一部分，为球馆建设成本提供 34% 到 50% 的资金。

在 NFL，客队在主队从收入中扣除 15% 用于支付费用后，可以获得 40% 的门票收入。

但根据 NBA 传播集团高级副总裁布莱恩·麦克因泰尔 (Brian McIntyre) 的说法，在常规赛中，NBA 球队没有可比的收入池。

“如果季后赛系列赛进行到第五场比赛到第七场比赛，客队会得到一部分收益，”麦克因泰尔说。“但这几乎不值一提。”

NFL 总裁保罗·塔格利阿布 (Paul Tagliabue) 今年在联盟会议上一直坚持他的立场，即球队需要偿还客队为球馆建设预付的款项。这可以通过在新球馆投入运营后，从更高价格的包厢销售中收取溢价来实现。

圣安东尼奥商人雷德·麦克科姆斯 (Red McCombs) 已经调查了这种融资方式。麦克科姆斯拥有明尼苏达维京人队，他对球队在去年他收购球队之前签订的球馆租赁协议感到不满。麦克科姆斯正在试图重新谈判租赁协议，但他也讨论了为维京人队建造一个新球馆的长期目标。

NFL 今年已经批准了丹佛、费城和马萨诸塞州福克斯波罗 (新英格兰球队所在地) 的球馆贷款。球馆预付款通常与经投票批准的公共资金、公司冠名权和球队资金相结合。

“我想我们会参与任何可用的资金，”麦克科姆斯说，承认他也会接受在全民公决中批准的税收资金。

麦克科姆斯也是马刺队的前老板。即使没有 NBA 的帮助，他认为马刺队也会获得一个新的球馆，这个球馆至少会部分由公共资金支付。

“我认为圣安东尼奥对一个新球馆会有很多支持，”他说。“我们两三年前就需要它，我们很幸运，主要的租户是马刺队，他们会占用很多场次。”

点击查看原文：Stern: no arena subsidy

Stern: no arena subsidy

Unlike the National Football League - which has a policy designed to help its franchises finance new stadiums - NBA commissioner David Stern said the league won’t assist its franchises in financing new arenas.

That includes the Spurs, who have made no bones about their need for a new place to play in San Antonio.

“The NBA does not have any plans right now to subsidize the building of arenas,” Stern said in a news conference Monday prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Spurs and New York Knicks.

“As it relates to a mid-sized arena,” Stern said, "that becomes an issue for a community. And every community that I am aware of that has addressed it has come up with some sort of private-public partnership.

“That model has worked very well for us. We don’t see any reason to change it in the case of San Antonio.”

Stern sounded as if he has all the flexibility of the North East School District, which turned down the Spurs’ request for participation in a tax-increment financing plan for an arena that would have been built at the Longhorn Quarry site.

But Spurs chairman Peter Holt wasn’t surprised by Stern’s thumbs-down. He said when the NFL talked about providing financial help - up to half of the debt placement for a stadium project exceeding $250 million in Los Angeles - the light never went off in his head for an NBA-assisted arena financing plan for the Spurs.

“I think we talked about it a little bit at the NBA Board of Governors’ meeting when the NFL started talking about it,” Holt said Monday at Madison Square Garden. “This situation is quite a bit different from the NFL. I don’t think there’s any need (for NBA financial assistance).”

Holt has not used the threat of selling the team to another investment group - one not bound to keeping the Spurs in San Antonio - if the city fails to approve public funding for a new arena.

He had once said that it would be impossible to re-sign Tim Duncan when his contract expires after the 1999-2000, but that was before this season’s NBA lockout. That labor dispute ended in a new collective bargaining agreement with maximum player salaries, which would seem to make the dilemma over re-signing Duncan moot because no other team can pay Duncan more than the Spurs could.

But Duncan’s agent Lon Babby likely won’t proceed with contract talks until the arena issue has been settled. Though Duncan has stated publicly that he wants to stay in a smaller NBA market like San Antonio, Babby has said Duncan might not sign until a decision is made on a new arena and a practice facility for the team.

Stern didn’t comment when asked about his faith level for some sort of public funding materializing for a new arena in San Antonio. But he did sound somewhat exasperated that a new arena smaller than the Alamodome hasn’t been financed in some fashion.

“I don’t want to hide from it: NBA teams are the beneficiaries (of arenas funded in some part by public funds),” Stern said. "But it’s something all major cities have.

"And it’s not just NBA cities. Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans have built first-class arenas.

“The question for the city is if they want the Freeman Coliseum to be the mid-sized arena going into the new millennium. If not, they can follow the route of every major city in America.”

Stern didn’t say if he was taking a dig at San Antonio by mentioning the words “new millennium” and Freeman Coliseum - a 50- year-old arena built for a rodeo - in the same sentence.

Holt said he hasn’t sensed any frustration from Stern that the Spurs have been unable to formulate an arena plan.

“He’s been through this before,” the Spurs chairman said.

The NFL policy designed to assist franchises in building new stadiums has gained notice recently because the league wants to place an expansion franchise in Los Angeles. But no proposed ownership group in L.A. has secured a plan to pay for a new stadium, so the league has extended a policy that actually dates back to the '80s when former Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie endeavored to build a new stadium.

According to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, the league allows its owners to finance 34 to 50 percent of the stadium cost through a portion of game admission receipts that usually goes to the visiting teams.

In the NFL, visiting teams get 40 percent of the gate revenues after the home team has taken a 15 percent cut off the top to cover expenses.

But according to Brian McIntyre, senior vice president of the NBA Communications Group, there’s no comparable revenue pool available for its teams in the regular season.

“If the playoff series go to a Game 5 through a Game 7, the visiting teams get a piece of the action,” McIntyre said. “But it hardly equates to much.”

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has been consistent in league meetings this year in his position that teams pay back the money the visiting teams advanced to them for stadium construction. It’s done by collecting premiums on higher- priced club seat sales once the new stadiums are operating.

San Antonio businessman Red McCombs has investigated that financing option. McCombs owns the Minnesota Vikings, and he’s not pleased with the stadium lease the team had in place before he bought the franchise last year. McCombs is trying to renegotiate the lease, but he also has discussed a long-term goal of building a new stadium for the Vikings.

The NFL this year has approved stadium loans in Denver, Philadelphia and Foxboro, Mass. (home of the New England franchise). The stadium advances typically are combined with voter-approved public money, corporate naming rights and money from the franchises.

“I suppose we’d participate in whatever’s available,” McCombs said, admitting he’d also accept tax money approved in a public referendum.

McCombs also is a former owner of the Spurs. Even without the NBA’s help, he thinks the Spurs will get a new arena paid for - at least in part - by public money.

“I think there will be a lot of support in San Antonio for a new arena,” he said. “We needed it two or three years ago, and we’re fortunate that the major tenant would be the Spurs and that they would take a number of dates.”

By Tim Price, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-22, By Associated Press

斯特恩捍卫NBA本赛季的“瑕疵”

大卫·斯特恩(David Stern) 坚定地为收视率低迷、受停摆影响的NBA赛季辩护，甚至在宣布将成立一个委员会建议改进NBA比赛质量的同时。

“能够拥有一个赛季，真是一件好事，”这位联盟总裁周一在纽约举行的年度NBA总决赛新闻发布会上说。“我们认为球迷们会欣赏集体谈判协议的达成，以及像圣安东尼奥这样的联盟最小市场球队仍然有机会继续竞争的事实。”

斯特恩面临着一系列关于联盟困境的问题——总决赛的电视收视率大幅下降，进攻停滞和低得分比赛的趋势，更年轻的球员进入联盟以及停摆带来的影响。

这场新闻发布会在纽约尼克斯队和圣安东尼奥马刺队总决赛第三场比赛开始前几个小时举行。

“很明显，世界上最有名的人，甚至可以说是世界上最有名的运动员迈克尔·乔丹(Michael Jordan) 缺席了，”斯特恩说。“但我认为，我们正在眼前见证着那些将会被人们所熟知的球队的形成……所以联盟的状态让我们对未来非常乐观。”

这个由16名成员组成的委员会，由教练、前球员、球队高管和老板组成，将在今天召开会议，讨论下赛季的规则变更。

1999赛季的得分明显下降，只有萨克拉门托国王队场均得分超过100分。这延续了十年来低得分比赛的趋势。

一位来自西班牙的记者问道，圣安东尼奥队在第二场比赛中以80-67的比分获胜，并不吸引人，他想知道他同胞是否值得凌晨3点起床观看比赛。

- 霍金斯承认：在周一获得NBA体育精神奖之前，赫西·霍金斯(Hersey Hawkins) 向联盟总裁大卫·斯特恩承认了一件事。

“在这一年里，我曾经几次试图得到技术犯规，但他们就是不给我，”西雅图超音速队后卫霍金斯说。“裁判们只是走开了。”

霍金斯最终获得了联盟的第四个体育精神奖，此前获得该奖项的球员分别是乔·杜马斯(Joe Dumars)、特雷尔·布兰登(Terrell Brandon) 和艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)。

“你仍然可以打好比赛，支持你的队友，仍然实现你的目标，仍然让自己成为联盟中最优秀的球员之一，”霍金斯说。

他在31名媒体成员组成的评审团中获得了118票中的70票。费城76人队的埃里克·斯诺(Eric Snow) 以23票排名第二，明尼苏达森林狼队的凯文·加内特(Kevin Garnett) 以18票排名第三，多伦多猛龙队的菜鸟文斯·卡特(Vince Carter) 获得了7票。

斯特恩称赞霍金斯“无论是在球场上还是场下，他的表现都非常出色。我们很自豪能有他加入NBA。”

周日，NBA对拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson) 和尼克斯队处以罚款，原因是这位前锋在强制性的媒体采访环节中对联盟官员和记者发表了粗俗的言论。尽管霍金斯没有直接谈论约翰逊的行为，但他对NBA体育精神状况有很多话要说。

“自从我进入联盟以来，哦，是的，它肯定变得更糟了，”霍金斯说。“当你赚更多的钱时，它总是会变得更糟。情况就是这样。”

- 奥克利可能离开猛龙队：多伦多太阳报报道称，猛龙队自由球员大前锋查尔斯·奥克利(Charles Oakley) “倾向于”加入洛杉矶湖人队。

“我认为他一定会成为湖人球员，”一位消息人士告诉太阳报。

奥克利的商业顾问比利·戴蒙德(Billy Diamond) 表示，奥克利“很幸运。他的决定将会是一件令人愉快的决定，而不是一个压力很大的决定。他一生中都不需要再工作了。”

大前锋是湖人队的弱点，执行副总裁杰里·韦斯特(Jerry West) 喜欢奥克利。尽管他在上赛季的表现平平（场均7.0分、5.8个篮板），但猛龙队的官员称赞他改变了多伦多的球队氛围，并推动球队取得了最佳的赛季成绩。

点击查看原文：Stern defends NBA's tainted season

Stern defends NBA’s tainted season

David Stern defiantly defended his low-rated finals and lockout- tainted season, even while announcing that a panel will recommend changes to improve the quality of NBA games.

“It was nice to have a season,” the commissioner said Monday at his annual NBA Finals news conference in New York. “We think the fans appreciated both the settlement of the collective bargaining negotiations and the fact that teams like San Antonio - the league’s smallest market - have an opportunity to continue to compete.”

Stern faced a stream of questions about the league’s troubles - the huge drop in TV ratings for the finals, the trend toward stagnant offenses and low-scoring games, players entering the league at a younger age and the fallout from the lockout.

The news conference was held several hours before the start of Game 3 of the finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs.

“Obviously, there is an absence of the world’s most famous person, no less that world’s most famous athlete, Michael Jordan,” Stern said. “But I think we’re seeing the creation in front of our eyes of the kinds of teams … that are going to get known. So the state of the league is one that finds us very optimistic about the future.”

The 16-member committee, composed of coaches, former players, team executives and owners, will meet today to discuss rules changes for next season.

The 1999 season was marked by a significant drop in scoring, with only one team, the Sacramento Kings, averaging 100 points a game. This continued a decadelong trend toward a lower- scoring games.

One questioner, a journalist from Spain, pointed to San Antonio’s unappealing 80-67 victory in Game 2 and wondered whether his countrymen should have bothered to wake up at 3 a.m. to watch the game.

- Hawkins fesses up: Before receiving the NBA’s sportsmanship award Monday, Hersey Hawkins had a confession for commissioner David Stern.

“There were a couple of times in the year where I actually tried to get technicals, but they wouldn’t give it to me,” said Hawkins, the Seattle SuperSonics guard. “The refs would just walk away.”

Hawkins ended up walking away with the league’s fourth sportsmanship award, following Joe Dumars, Terrell Brandon and Avery Johnson.

“You can still play this game and be supportive of your teammates and still accomplish your goals and still put yourself in a position where you are considered one of the best players in the league,” Hawkins said.

He received 70 of 118 votes by a panel of 31 media members. Eric Snow of Philadelphia was second with 23 votes, Kevin Garnett of Minnesota was third with 18 votes and rookie Vince Carter of Toronto received seven votes.

Stern praised Hawkins as “somebody who has conducted himself both on and off the court in an exemplary fashion. We are proud to have him in the National Basketball Association.”

Sunday, the NBA fined Larry Johnson and the Knicks in the wake of the forward’s profane tirade directed at a league official and reporters who were trying to interview him during a mandatory media session. Though Hawkins didn’t address Johnson’s behavior directly, he had a lot to say about the state of sportsmanship in the NBA.

“Since I came into the league, oh yeah, definitely it has gotten worse,” Hawkins said. “It always gets worse when you’re making a lot more money. That’s been the case.”

- Oakley may leave Raptors: The Toronto Sun is reporting that Raptor power forward Charles Oakley, a free agent, “is leaning toward” joining the Los Angeles Lakers.

“There’s no question in my mind that he’ll be a Laker,” a source told the Sun.

Oakley’s business adviser, Billy Diamond, said Oakley “is blessed. His decision will be a pleasure decision, not a pressure decision. He doesn’t have to work another day in his life.”

Power forward is a Laker weakness, and Executive Vice President Jerry West likes Oakley. Despite his modest numbers last season (7.0 points, 5.8 rebounds), Raptors officials praised him for changing attitudes in Toronto and spurring the team to its best finish.

By Associated Press, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Glenn Rogers

约翰逊：马刺必须保持进攻

马刺队的后场不会让犯规问题削弱他们在今晚麦迪逊广场花园的侵略性。

恰恰相反，他们将召唤一种入侵心态。

“我们不能不保持侵略性，”后卫艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)说，“我们必须冲出来，把他们压倒。尼克斯总是很具有侵略性，这会导致对方陷入犯规麻烦。”

约翰逊也不喜欢在周一晚上第三场比赛中对哨子的抱怨。

“我们一直在抱怨，”他说，“我们被吹了技术犯规。我们在第一节迷失了自我。我告诉你，这场系列赛的赢家将是最具侵略性的球队。”

尽管约翰逊拿到了三次犯规，但他还是成功地留在场上。但是，尼克斯混乱而迅猛的防守迫使他出现了六次失误，而只有四次助攻，这对他来说很不寻常。

“我们有很多失误，当然，很多是我的错，”约翰逊说，“我们不喜欢输球。我和妻子一起乘坐出租车回家，她一句话也没从我口中听到。今天不会是美好的一天。”

马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie)和贾伦·杰克逊(Jaren Jackson)就没那么幸运了。埃利在比赛开始两分钟内就被罚下了，他拿到了两次犯规和一次技术犯规。杰克逊替补上场，很快就被吹了两个哨子。

这打乱了圣安东尼奥通常神圣不可侵犯的轮换，给了史蒂夫·科尔(Steve Kerr)更多的上场时间，也让安东尼奥·丹尼尔斯(Antonio Daniels)在总决赛中亮相。

“那可能是我们在季后赛中最糟糕的第一节，”埃利说。

的确如此。这导致了马刺队12连胜的终结，这是他们自第二场对阵明尼苏达的阿拉莫穹顶比赛以来的第一场失利，也是他们第一场客场失利。

如何防守艾伦·休斯顿(Allan Houston)？“试着让他在防守人的手面前投篮，”埃利说，“当你晚上知道自己要出手20到25次时，那一定很棒。但我一上来就被罚下了。”

“但我们会做出一些小的调整。我们仍然会保持自己的风格，”他说，“我的防守方式和以前没有区别，但那些判罚太敏感了。

“这是总决赛，他们应该让我们打球，”艾弗里谈到裁判对比赛的干扰时说，“我们需要改变的是我们的罚球次数（22次）和失误次数（20次）。他们的小个子球员比我们的大个子球员罚球更多……这说明了一些问题。”

大个子球员蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)和大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)罚了21次球。但这并不怪罗宾逊……他罚了17次。

小个子球员休斯顿和拉特雷尔·斯普雷维尔(Latrell Sprewell)罚了22次球。他们在进攻中分别得到24分和34分。

埃利没有他平常的笑容和笑声。他面容严肃，周一他一直在为马刺队和自己的命运而忧心忡忡。

“我已经来纽约九年了，”这位和蔼可亲的家伙说，他指的是他在这里打球的快乐。“但我能做什么呢？我被吹了一些有争议的判罚。”

“裁判的判罚可能有点变化，”杰克逊说，“然后，我们必须做出一些小的调整。最重要的是我们必须一开始就保持强烈的比赛状态，而我们没有做到这一点。

“尼克斯队在这轮系列赛中个子矮小，但这与他们的精神、渴望或竞争力无关，”杰克逊说，“他们打得非常强硬的防守。”

丹尼尔斯可能让尼克斯队大吃一惊，他在16分钟的上场时间里投进了两个三分球和一个中距离跳投。

“我不认为他们忘了我会投篮，”他说，“可能更多的是他们更愿意让我持球，而不是让球传给大卫或蒂姆。”

点击查看原文：Johnson: Spurs must stay on attack

Johnson: Spurs must stay on attack

The Spurs’ backcourt won’t let foul problems cut down on their aggression at Madison Square Garden tonight.

Just the opposite. An invasion mentality is being summoned.

“We cannot be non-aggressive,” said guard Avery Johnson. “We have to come out and run over people. The Knicks are always aggressive and that gets the other guy in foul trouble.”

Johnson also didn’t like the whining about the whistles during Game 3 Monday night.

“We were crying about that,” he said. “We got techs. We got out of ourselves in the first quarter. I’ll tell you, the winner of this series will be the most aggressive team.”

Johnson managed to stay in the game despite picking up three fouls. But the chaotic, flurrying Knick defense helped force him into an uncharacteristic six turnovers with just four assists.

“We had a lot of turnovers and, naturally, a lot of that was my fault,” Johnson said. “We hate to lose. I rode back in a cab with my wife and she didn’t get a word out of me. It’s not going to be a good day.”

Mario Elie and Jaren Jackson were less fortunate. Elie went to the pine within two minutes of the game with two fouls and a technical. Jackson came on and was tagged with two quick whistles.

That jumbled the normally sacrosanct San Antonio rotation and gave more minutes to Steve Kerr and introduced Antonio Daniels to the Finals.

“That was probably the worst first quarter we have had in the playoffs,” said Elie.

Indeed. It led to a break in the Spurs’ 12-game winning streak, their first loss since Game 2 at the Alamodome against Minnesota and their first road loss.

How do you guard Allan Houston? “Try to make him shoot over a hand,” said Elie. “It must be nice when you know you’re going to get 20-25 shots a night. But I got taken out of the game right away.”

“But we’ll just make minor adjustments. We’re still going to be ourselves out there,” he said. "I wasn’t playing defense any differently than I had been, but there were those touchy-feely calls.

“This is the Finals and they should just let us play,” Avery said of the refs’ interruptions of the action. “What we have to change is our number of free throws (22) and turnovers (20). Their little guys got to the line more than our big guys … that tells you something.”

The big guys, Tim Duncan and David Robinson, shot 21 free throws. But that was no fault of Robinson’s … he had 17.

The little guys, Houston and Latrell Sprewell, went to the line 22 times. They scored 24 and 34 points, respectively, in their attacking games.

Elie was not his smiling, laughing self. He wore a longer face and did some brooding over the Spurs’ and his own fate Monday.

“I’ve been coming to New York for nine years,” said the amiable fellow, referring to his joy of playing well here. “But, what can I do? I got some questionable calls.”

“There may have been a little change in the officiating,” Jackson said. "Then, we have to make little adjustments. The main thing is we have to start off intense and we didn’t do that.

“The Knicks are undersized in this series but that has nothing to do with heart or desire or competitiveness,” Jackson said. “They play a very strong defense.”

Daniels may have taken the Knicks by surprise when he hit two three-pointers and a mid- range jumper during his 16 minutes of action.

“I don’t think they forgot I could shoot,” he said. “It probably was more of their preferring me to having the ball than having it go into David or Tim.”

By Glenn Rogers, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Jerry Briggs

尼克斯希望给阿拉莫城的游行计划浇点冷水

纽约尼克斯队周二对圣安东尼奥市计划无论马刺队在NBA总决赛中的结果如何都要为他们举行游行感到有些好笑。

一位纽约球员向市政府官员提出一个问题：如果尼克斯队夺冠，他们穿着派对帽出现在河滨漫步，会不会很尴尬？

“我们有邀请函吗？”纽约后卫克里斯·柴尔德(Chris Childs)问道。

在过去几周，圣安东尼奥市政府官员一直在筹划在市中心为马刺队举行一场游行，无论他们是否最终夺冠。

当一位市政府官员在周二的《快报》上确认了这项计划后，马刺队和尼克斯队在麦迪逊广场花园的下午媒体见面会上对此做出了各种反应。

马刺队对城市的关注心存感激，但他们还是对宣布的时间表示了一些疑虑。

“没有人告诉我这件事，”马刺队后卫马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie)说，“我以为赢得系列赛需要打四场比赛。天哪，这是他们的决定。我控制不了。你能怎么办呢？”

尼克斯队在周一的比赛中以89比81战胜对手，重新回到了争冠的行列。这场胜利使今晚在这里进行的第四场比赛变得更加有趣，也确保了周五晚上在这里进行第五场比赛。

如果尼克斯队再次获胜，他们将把系列赛拖到周日在圣安东尼奥进行的第六场比赛。这在马刺队在阿拉莫多姆以两位数的优势赢得了前两场比赛后，被认为是不太可能发生的。

针对游行准备工作，马刺队的替补中锋威尔·珀杜(Will Perdue)叹了口气，说市政府工作人员“有点操之过急”，在激烈的冠军争夺战中讨论这件事。

“就像把车放在马前面一样，”珀杜说，“我认为这（是一个城市的标志）表明了大家对正在发生的事情感到兴奋，你们知道，真的参与进来了。

“我理解他们必须为此做好准备。但与此同时，（马刺队会赢）并不是板上钉钉的事。”

尼克斯队前锋马库斯·坎比(Marcus Camby)在全国各地的人们建议马刺队会横扫尼克斯队时，感到很生气。现在他说，游行的讨论让他更加渴望为冠军而战。

“这绝对增加了动力，”坎比说，“我的意思是，我们已经看到了他们在赢了这两场比赛后是如何狂欢的。我的意思是，我只能告诉他们，比赛还远没有结束。这是一场漫长的系列赛。”

另一方面，柴尔德并没有把城市的筹备工作当作对尼克斯队的真正号召。

“我的意思是，我们只是因为能打进NBA总决赛而感到激动，”柴尔德说，“球迷可以想说什么就说什么。但球员必须站在（球场）中间才能完成比赛。”

尼克斯队替补中锋克里斯·达德利(Chris Dudley)表示，在纽约举行冠军游行比在圣安东尼奥举行更有趣。

“我认为如果我们赢了，我会更喜欢我们的游行，而不是去参加他们的游行，”他说。

点击查看原文：Knicks hoping to rain on Alamo City's parade plans

Knicks hoping to rain on Alamo City’s parade plans

The New York Knicks had some fun Tuesday with news that the city of San Antonio plans to throw a parade for the Spurs regardless of the outcome of the NBA Finals.

One New York player had a question for city officials: If the Knicks win the title, would it be awkward if they showed up in party hats on the River Walk?

“Are we invited?” New York guard Chris Childs asked.

For the last few weeks, San Antonio city officials have planned a downtown parade in honor of the Spurs, regardless of whether they go on to win the championship.

When a city official confirmed the plans to the Express-News in Tuesday’s editions, the news was met with a variety of responses from the Spurs and Knicks at the afternoon media session in Madison Square Garden.

Grateful for the attention from the city, the Spurs nevertheless expressed some misgivings about the timing of the announcement.

“Nobody told me about it,” Spurs guard Mario Elie said. “I thought it took four games to win a series. Man, that’s on them. I can’t control that. What are you going to do?”

The Knicks climbed back into contention in the championship series with an 89-81 victory Monday night. The win set up an interesting matchup in Game 4 here tonight and also assured that a Game 5 would be played here Friday night.

If the Knicks win again, they will force a Game 6 Sunday in San Antonio, which was viewed as an unlikely possibility after the Spurs won the first two contests at the Alamodome by double-figure margins.

In reaction to the parade preparations, Spurs reserve center Will Perdue sighed and said the city staffers are “getting a little ahead of themselves” by discussing it in the middle of a hotly contested title series.

“It’s like putting the cart in front of the horse,” Perdue said. "I think it’s (a sign of a city) that’s excited at what’s going on, you know, really getting involved.

“I understand they’ve got to plan for it. At the same time, it’s not a foregone conclusion (that the Spurs will win).”

Knicks forward Marcus Camby took it personally when people around the country suggested that the Spurs would win in a sweep. Now he said the parade talk makes him want to compete harder for the championship.

“It definitely adds motivation,” Camby said. “I mean, we’ve seen how they were partying down there after the two wins. I mean, all I can tell them is, it’s far from over. It’s a long series.”

Childs, on the other hand, didn’t take the city’s planning efforts as any real call to arms for the Knicks.

“I mean, we’re inspired just to be in the NBA Finals,” Childs said. “The fans can say whatever they want to say. But the players got to step in between (the lines) to get it done.”

Knicks reserve center Chris Dudley said a championship parade in New York would be more fun than one in San Antonio.

“I think I will enjoy our parade, rather than go to theirs, if we win,” he said.

By Jerry Briggs, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Johnny Ludden

马刺的怪诞日 - 在首次失利后，圣安东尼奥发现自己身处一片陌生的领地

周二醒来，马刺队发现他们的鸡蛋有点凉了，天空也有点太灰暗了，格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)教练也不再那么迷人了。

这通常是输球后的第二天早上会发生的事情。所以请原谅每个人都喜欢的可爱的马刺队的暴躁，他们仍在试图重新适应这种感觉。

“我和我妻子一起坐出租车回来，她一句话也没跟我说，”埃弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)说，“这不会是美好的一天。我们讨厌失败。不仅仅是我。我们都讨厌失败。这不是一种好的感觉。

“这对我们来说是奇怪的一天。”

奇怪的是，在周一晚上之前，马刺队已经取得了 12 连胜，40 天不败的战绩。他们在季后赛中还没有在客场输过球，并且在横扫了洛杉矶湖人队和波特兰开拓者队之后，一些人预计他们在 NBA 总决赛前两场比赛中击败纽约尼克斯队后，会一路过关斩将，夺得总冠军。

“现实点，”大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)说。马刺队的两场胜利并不能保证他们横扫对手，就像尼克斯队在第三场比赛中的胜利并不能保证他们在今晚于麦迪逊广场花园再次交锋时再次获胜一样。

“说实话，我认为这根本不是一个新的系列赛，”罗宾逊说，“我们预料到他们会反击。当你在客场作战时，尤其是在季后赛中，你只想让自己处于能够赢得比赛的位置。

“如果你在系列赛中就想着要横扫所有人，那你就是傻瓜。”

这可能更多的是对他们过度炒作的球迷的控诉，而不是对马刺队本身的控诉。自 2 月底在客场输给西雅图超音速队和在阿拉莫穹顶球馆输给犹他爵士队之后，马刺队还没有遭遇过背靠背的失利。约翰逊说，除了 20 次失误之外，他们并不认为自己在周一的比赛中打得有多么糟糕。

“我们的感觉是一样的，”蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)说，“这还没有失控，也没有被控制。现在的情况是，任何一方都有可能获胜。

“但我们对我们正在做的事情非常有信心……我们输掉了一场比赛，但我们并没有陷入困境。我们没有因为输球而感到难过。我们没有为输球而哭泣。”

然而，马刺队确实对第三场比赛的判罚感到不满。他们中的一些人甚至在比赛中开玩笑地指着 NBA 总裁大卫·斯特恩(David Stern)，声称存在某种阴谋。马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie)因为犯规麻烦只打了 26 分钟。他的替补贾伦·杰克逊(Jaren Jackson)也发现自己陷入了同样的困境。他们两人都因为阿兰·休斯顿(Allan Houston)而获得了坐在板凳上的时间，休斯顿在马刺队身上砍下了 34 分，其中 12 分来自罚球线。

“我将会是和以前一样积极的球员，”埃利说，“我不能让这些吹毛求疵的犯规困扰我。我必须像前两场比赛一样防守阿兰。”

周一的比赛与马刺队在西部半决赛第三场对阵波特兰开拓者队的比赛情况类似。唯一的区别？马刺队克服了他们的犯规麻烦。当被问及是否愿意对裁判的判罚发表评论时，波波维奇摇了摇头，假装拉上了自己的嘴巴拉链。

波波维奇在球队的录像分析会上也没有提起裁判，据约翰逊说，那可不是什么爱情盛宴。

“当我们赢球的时候，波波很残忍，”约翰逊说，“所以你可以想象……当我们输球的时候，他就像个疯子。”

马刺队的进攻肯定有问题。纽约的后卫经常假装对邓肯和罗宾逊进行双人包夹，让他们不确定马刺队的射手是否真的处于空位。

在西部半决赛最后两场比赛中如此有效的球的转移在周一的比赛中瓦解了。结果，进攻停滞不前，约翰逊、埃利、杰克逊和肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)加起来只得到 23 分，这是他们在季后赛中的最低得分。即使邓肯和罗宾逊合砍 45 分，这也远远不够。

“我们只是不正常，”约翰逊说，“我们看起来像德克萨斯州的另一支球队。我们不能像我们在 I-10 公路上的同行那样打球。”

如果说他们火箭式的进攻还需要改进的话，那么马刺队在防守端需要改进的地方就更少了。他们希望在休斯顿和拉特雷尔·斯普雷维尔(Latrell Sprewell)接到球之前，让他们远离篮筐，但即使两人在周一的比赛中合砍 58 分，尼克斯队也只投进了 78 球中的 31 球。

“……我们不要得意忘形，”纽约尼克斯队主教练杰夫·范甘迪(Jeff Van Gundy)说，“我们的投篮命中率仍然仅有 39%。这可不是什么不可阻挡的力量。”

埃利奥特说，马刺队也不应该高估自己的实力。

“除了我们，每个人都在谈论横扫，”埃利奥特说。

至于那些在圣安东尼奥支持马刺队的球迷呢？

埃利奥特说：“他们可能正在烧毁自己的房子。”

点击查看原文：Strange days for Spurs - S.A. finds itself in unfamiliar territory after finally losing

Strange days for Spurs - S.A. finds itself in unfamiliar territory after finally losing

The Spurs woke up Tuesday and found their eggs a little cold, the sky a little too gray and Coach Gregg Popovich not nearly as charming.

This is what normally happens the morning after a loss. So pardon everyone’s favorite loveable Spurs for their crankiness, but they’re still trying to get re-acclimated to the feeling.

“I rode back in a cab with my wife, and she didn’t get a word out of me,” Avery Johnson said. "It’s not going to be a good day. We hate to lose. It’s not just me. We all hate to lose. It’s not a good feeling.

“This is a strange day for us.”

Strange in that, prior to Monday night, the Spurs were riding a 12- game, 40-day unbeaten streak. They had yet to lose on the road in the playoffs and, having already swept the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers, were expected by some to whisk their way to a championship after clubbing New York in the first two games of the NBA Finals.

Get real, David Robinson said. The Spurs’ two victories guaranteed a sweep as much as the Knicks’ Game 3 win guarantees them another when the teams meet again tonight at Madison Square Garden.

“I don’t think it’s a new series at all, to be honest with you,” Robinson said. "We expected them to fight back. When you go on the road, especially the playoffs, you just want to put yourself in position to win the game.

“If you’re going through a series thinking you’re going to sweep everybody, you’re fools.”

That may be more of an indictment of their over-hyped fans than the Spurs themselves. The Spurs have not dropped back-to-back games since losing to Seattle on the road and to Utah at the Alamodome at the end of February. And with the exception of their 20 turnovers, Johnson said they do not believe they played all that poorly Monday.

“We feel the same,” Tim Duncan said. "It’s not out of control and it’s not in control. It’s right where it can swing either way.

“But we’re very confident with what we’re doing. … We’ve lost a game, but we’re not in a hole. We don’t feel bad about the loss. We’re not crying about the loss.”

The Spurs, however, did gripe about the officiating in Game 3. Some of them even jokingly pointed to NBA commissioner David Stern during the game, alleging some sort of conspiracy. Mario Elie played only 26 minutes because of foul trouble. His backup, Jaren Jackson, also found himself in the same predicament. Both earned their bench time courtesy of Allan Houston, who lit up the Spurs for 34 points, 12 of which came from the free-throw line.

“I’m going to be the same aggressive guy I’ve been,” Elie said. “I can’t let the ticky-tack fouls bother me. I have to play Al the same way I played him in the first two games.”

Monday was similar to the Spurs’ situation in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals against Portland. The only difference? The Spurs overcame their foul trouble. Asked if he would like to comment on the officiating, Popovich shook his head no and pretended to zip up his lips.

Popovich also did not bring up the refs during the team’s film session, which, according to Johnson, wasn’t exactly a lovefest.

“Pop’s brutal when we win,” Johnson said. “So you can only imagine … he’s a maniac when we lose.”

There was certainly fault to be found with the Spurs’ offense. New York’s guards often faked double- teaming Duncan and Robinson, making them unsure whether the Spurs’ shooters were really open.

The ball movement that was so effective in the last two games of the conference semifinals disintegrated Monday. As a result, the offense stagnated and Johnson, Elie, Jackson and Sean Elliott combined for only 23 points, their lowest total of the playoffs. Even with 45 points from Duncan and Robinson, that was hardly enough.

“We just weren’t normal,” Johnson said. “We looked like another team in Texas. We can’t play like our I-10 counterparts.”

If their Rockets-style offense needs work, the Spurs found fewer things to tinker with on defense. They would like to extend Houston and Latrell Sprewell farther from the basket before they receive the ball, but even with the two combining for 58 points Monday, the Knicks still only made 31 of 78 shots.

“… Let’s not go overboard,” New York coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “We still shot 39 percent. That’s not a juggernaut right there.”

The Spurs, Elliott said, also should not overestimate their strength.

“Everybody was talking sweep but us,” Elliott said.

As for the fans back in San Antonio who did?

Said Elliott: “They’re probably burning their houses.”

By Johnny Ludden, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23

AJ 登上《体育画报》封面

6 月 28 日出版的《体育画报》杂志封面以“地板上的战争”为标题，预告了马刺队与尼克斯队的 NBA 总决赛对决。

纽约前锋马库斯·坎比(Marcus Camby) 在第三场比赛中封盖了马刺队控球后卫艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson) 的上篮。

这是马刺队球员在过去两个月内第二次登上《体育画报》封面。前锋蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan) 在 5 月 31 日出版的杂志封面上，被展示为在西部半决赛中压制洛杉矶湖人队。

点击查看原文：AJ makes SI

AJ makes SI

The cover of the June 28 edition of Sports Illustrated magazine touts the NBA Finals matchup with the Spurs and Knicks under the headline: ‘War on the Floor.’

New York forward Marcus Camby is featured blocking a layup attempt by Spurs point guard Avery Johnson during Game 3.

It marks the second time in the last two months for a Spurs player to grace the SI cover. Forward Tim Duncan was shown manhandling the Los Angeles Lakers during the Western Conference semifinals on the front of the May 31 issue.

via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By From Staff Reports

马刺-尼克斯战报

笔记

主场球迷: 老将马刺后卫马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie)回到了家乡，尽管尼克斯球迷在第三场比赛中对他进行了粗俗的喊叫，他还是被感动了。

埃利在下半场被球迷不断地用“埃利不行！埃利不行！”的欢呼声包围着，当时圣安东尼奥正试图反超尼克斯的领先优势。

“我喜欢这样，”埃利说。“我很高兴纽约市的人注意到我。我喜欢这一点，我从中汲取力量。麦迪逊花园球馆的球迷很棒，这里是一个特殊的地方。”

印第安纳后卫雷吉·米勒(Reggie Miller)多年来也受到了类似的待遇，尤其是在他投进了几次戏剧性的投篮，带领球队逆转战胜尼克斯之后。

“我知道他们也对雷吉做了同样的事情，”埃利笑着说。“如果我和雷吉·米勒处于同一级别，我一定很棒。”

艰难开局: 马刺控球后卫艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)说，圣安东尼奥在第一节的低迷开局为球队在接下来的比赛中挣扎定下了基调。

“我不喜欢我们的第一节，”约翰逊说。“我们对判罚感到不满，还得到了技术犯规。我们在比赛早些时候很不正常。我们在下半场逐渐稳定下来，这是一个好兆头。但我们偏离了我们通常的比赛方式。”

运动不足: 埃利说，圣安东尼奥在第三场比赛中的进攻困境是由于缺乏运动性造成的。

“我觉得我们需要让大卫(罗宾逊)和蒂姆(邓肯)动起来，”埃利说。“我觉得我们又回到了赛季初的做法，只是试图把球传给他们，让他们在内线强攻。尼克斯是一支强硬的球队，我们的内线球员受到了很大的冲击。当他们运动起来而不是站着不动的时候，他们会更好。”

约翰逊将球队的移动与休斯敦火箭队进行了比较，火箭队以控球和等待查尔斯·巴克利(Charles Barkley)在低位，以及哈基姆·奥拉朱旺(Hakeem Olajuwon)在高位站位而闻名。

“我们站得很久，”约翰逊说。“我们看起来像另一支来自德克萨斯的球队。我们不能这样打球。我们不能像我们I-10公路上的对手那样打球。我们必须动起来，打挡拆。”

火热的休斯敦: 纽约后卫艾伦·休斯顿(Allan Houston)在新秀赛季效力底特律时，与肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)做过队友。埃利对休斯顿在过去几年中的进步印象深刻。

“他是一个典型的菜鸟，”埃利说。“在底特律，由于林赛·亨特(Lindsey Hunter)的期望，他有点被忽略了。我认为他进步很大。他的比赛水平提高了很多。”

与埃利奥特一样，休斯顿也因其举止而被指责为“软弱”的球员。

“他的性格很安静，”埃利奥特说。“他不是一个X世代的球员。如果你不是一个X世代的球员，你就会被认为是软弱的。但软弱的球员不会在总决赛中得到34分。”

受伤的奇尔兹: 纽约后卫克里斯·奇尔兹(Chris Childs)说，在周一从比赛中回家后，他度过了一个糟糕的夜晚。奇尔兹在第一节结束时左腿内侧副韧带受伤。

“(周一晚上)很糟糕，因为我一点都没睡，”奇尔兹说。“我感到失望和沮丧，(伤病)发生了。但我仍然会出现在赛场上。”

奇尔兹周二没有参加训练，他说他不清楚伤病发生的时间。

爆发: 在周二的训练之前，马刺队观看第三场比赛的录像并不容易。

“波波(马刺主教练格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich))在我们赢球的时候都很严厉，所以你可以想象他在我们输球的时候有多疯狂，”约翰逊说。“你真的没有机会休息一下。”

苦涩的滋味: 周一的失利终结了圣安东尼奥的12连胜。马刺队的上次失利是在5月11日季后赛第一轮对阵明尼苏达的比赛中，当时距离现在已经过去了41天。

“这是一种奇怪的感觉，留下了难闻的味道，”约翰逊说。“当我们输球时，食物不好吃，我的孩子也不那么有趣，一切都不一样了。我们必须让一切恢复正常。”

妙语: 罗宾逊和约翰逊周二都被评选为“最佳采访”阵容。

约翰逊获得了第三多的选票(37票)，仅次于查尔斯·巴克利(61票)和杰森·威廉姆斯(42票)。罗宾逊获得了13票。

史蒂夫·科尔(Steve Kerr)以9票获得第二阵容。邓肯获得了1票。波波维奇没有获得任何票数。

充分利用时间: 安东尼奥·丹尼尔斯(Antonio Daniels)在第三场比赛中成为了马刺队最稳定的射手。

丹尼尔斯在头两场比赛中总共只打了4分钟，在马里奥·埃利和贾伦·杰克逊(Jaren Jackson)在第一节都犯了犯规后，他被派上了场。

丹尼尔斯与约翰逊一起打后卫。他投进了一个困难的底线跳投，并且投进了两记三分球，第二记三分球是在第一节还剩0.6秒的时候投进的。

“每次我上场，我都在努力为其他人创造机会，”丹尼尔斯说。“这是我的职责。如果我有机会，我必须充分利用它。”

丹尼尔斯没有抱怨他在季后赛中减少的上场时间。

“我完全理解波波的想法，”丹尼尔斯说。“史蒂夫(科尔)以前来过这里。史蒂夫为芝加哥投进过关键球，拥有NBA总决赛的经验。我认为这样做不会错。至于我？我来自一支19胜63负的球队(温哥华)，他们甚至没有考虑季后赛。”

不要给第二次机会: NBC评论员比尔·沃尔顿(Bill Walton)从自己的经验中知道尼克斯队正在面临什么。在1977年的总决赛中，沃尔顿领衔的波特兰开拓者队从0-2落后的劣势中反弹，击败了费城76人队。

他也知道领先并且有人追回来是什么感觉，尽管这不是像总决赛那样正式的场合。

在他职业生涯接近尾声时，沃尔顿在一个夏天在自己的家乡圣地亚哥与拉里·伯德(Larry Bird)一起训练。两人在训练结束时会进行一对一的比赛，沃尔顿仍然记得那个夏天最后一场比赛。

“我们打到11分，我以10比1领先，”沃尔顿说。

在得到第10分之后，沃尔顿没有在中场拿球，而是决定给伯德一个机会，让他带球。

“我说，‘拉里，你大老远跑来这里。你带着你的家人，而我却在我的球场上把你打得落花流水，我打算把球给你，给你一个机会，’”沃尔顿说。“那个家伙在我的面前连续投进了10个跳投。我犯规，抱摔，还铲球。他后退到中场，投进了制胜球。”

点击查看原文：Spurs-Knicks Report

Spurs-Knicks Report

Notes Home crowd: Veteran Spurs guard Mario Elie was touched by his return home, even if Knicks fans singled him out for profane chants during Game 3.

Elie was serenaded with cheers of “Elie sucks! Elie sucks!” throughout the second half as San Antonio unsuccessfully attempted to overcome a Knicks lead.

“I love that,” Elie said. “I’m glad people in New York City notice me. I like that and I feed off that. The Garden crowd is great, and it’s a special place to play.”

Indiana guard Reggie Miller has received similar treatment throughout the years, particularly after a couple of dramatic shots to cap comeback victories against the Knicks.

“I know they do Reggie the same way,” Elie said, laughing. “I must be good if I’m in the same class as Reggie Miller.”

Tough start: San Antonio’s sputtering start in the first quarter set the tone for the team’s struggles during the rest of the game, Spurs point guard Avery Johnson said.

“I didn’t like our first quarter,” Johnson said. “We were crying about calls and we got technicals. We weren’t normal early on. We settled in later in the half, which was good. But we got out of how we normally play early in the game.”

Motion commotion: San Antonio’s offensive woes in Game 3 were the result of a lack of motion, according to Elie.

“I feel we need to get David (Robinson) and Tim (Duncan) on the move,” Elie said. “I feel like we went back to what we were doing early in the season, just trying to pound it inside to them. The Knicks are a physical team, and our big guys took a pounding out there. They are better when they are moving and not standing still.”

Johnson compared his team’s movement to the Houston Rockets, who are notorious for holding the ball and waiting for Charles Barkley to set up in the blocks and Hakeem Olajuwon in the high post.

“We stood around a lot,” Johnson said. “We looked like another team from Texas. We can’t play like that. We can’t play like our I-10 counterparts. We’ve got to move and pick-and-roll.”

Hot Houston: New York guard Allan Houston was an early teammate of Sean Elliott’s during Houston’s rookie season with Detroit. Elliott has been impressed by Houston’s evolution in the last several years.

“He was a typical rookie,” Elliott said. “He was kind of swept under the rug at Detroit because of the expectations of Lindsey Hunter. I think he’s come a long way. His game has come around a lot.”

Like Elliott, Houston has been accused of being a “soft” player because of his demeanor.

“His personality is quiet,” Elliott said. “He’s not a Generation X player. If you’re not a Gen X player, you’re considered soft. But soft guys don’t go out and score 34 points in the Finals.”

Hurt Childs: New York guard Chris Childs said he had a bad night after returning home from Monday’s game. Childs sprained the medial collateral capsule in his left leg late in the first quarter.

“(Monday night) was bad because I didn’t sleep,” Childs said. “Not a wink. I was disappointed and upset that (the injury) had to happen. But I’ll be out there.”

Childs, who did not practice Tuesday, said he did not know when the injury occurred.

Popping off: Reviewing tapes of Game 3 wasn’t particularly easy for the Spurs before Tuesday’s practice.

“Pop (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) is brutal when (we) win, so you can only imagine he’s a maniac when (we) lose,” Johnson said. “You don’t really get a break with him.”

Bitter taste: Monday’s loss snapped San Antonio’s 12-game winning streak. The Spurs’ most recent defeat came on May 11 to Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs - a stretch of 41 days.

“It was a funny feeling and left a nasty taste in (our) mouth,” Johnson said. “When we lose, the food doesn’t taste good, my kids aren’t as funny, and everything isn’t the same. We’ve got to get things back to normal.”

Good quote: Robinson and Johnson were both named to the All-Interview team Tuesday.

Johnson received the third-most votes (37), only trailing Charles Barkley (61) and Jayson Williams (42). Robinson received 13 votes.

Steve Kerr made the second team with nine votes. Duncan received one vote. Popovich didn’t receive any.

Making use of his time: Antonio Daniels turned out to be the Spurs’ most consistent shooter in Game 3.

Daniels, who had played a total of four minutes in the first two games, was pressed into action when Mario Elie and Jaren Jackson both ran into foul trouble in the first quarter.

Daniels played off guard alongside Johnson. He made a difficult baseline jumper and canned a pair of three- pointers, the second with six-tenths of a second left in the first quarter.

“Every time I come in, I’m trying to make plays for other people,” Daniels said. “That’s my role. If the opportunity is there for me, I have to make the best of it.”

Daniels did not complain about his reduced minutes in the playoffs.

“I completely understand Pop’s thinking,” Daniels said. “Steve (Kerr) has been here before. Steve has hit big shots for Chicago and has NBA Finals experience. I don’t think you can go wrong doing that. Me? I’m coming from a 19-63 team (Vancouver) who didn’t even look at the playoffs.”

Don’t give a second chance: NBC analyst Bill Walton knows from experience what the Knicks are facing. In the 1977 Finals, Walton’s Portland Trail Blazers rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers.

He also knows what it’s like to be ahead and having someone come back, though not in a setting as formal as the Finals.

Near the end of his career, Walton spent time one summer working out with Larry Bird in Walton’s hometown of San Diego. The two finished their sessions with one-and- one games, and Walton still remembers the final game that summer.

“We’re playing to 11, and I had him 10-1,” Walton said.

Instead of taking the ball out at half-court after scoring the 10th point, Walton decided to give Bird a break and let him bring it in.

“I said, ‘Larry, you came all the way out here. You brought your family and here I am kicking you all over my court, I’m going to give you the ball, give you a chance,’” Walton said. “That son-of-a-gun ran off 10 straight jumpers in my face. I was fouling, hacking and tackling him. Fading back to halfcourt, he made the game-winner.” - From Staff Reports

By From Staff Reports, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Russell Gold and Carmina Danini

马刺队场外表现也令人印象深刻

1993 年，美国国家篮球协会巨星查尔斯·巴克利(Charles Barkley) 在一则电视广告中告诉全世界：“我不是榜样。”

自此，职业篮球运动员便不负众望，因持有毒品、招妓和其他令人不齿的、更不用说违法的行为，被逮捕的次数越来越多。

而在此期间，马刺队的中锋大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson) 被视为联盟的道德反面力量——一个穿着 17 号鞋子的、虔诚的道德典范。随着球队围绕着他建立起来，其他马刺球员也获得了“好人”的声誉。

他们现在在总决赛中迎战纽约尼克斯队，并以 2 比 1 的比分领先，处于七场四胜制系列赛中。尼克斯队由前锋拉特里尔·斯普雷维尔(Latrell Sprewell) 带领，他以在还是金州勇士队球员时在训练中勒住教练的脖子而闻名。

为了寻找对比，媒体机构将总决赛变成了一个关于正直的马刺队和狂野的尼克斯队的对决。一家外地报纸最近的一篇报道的标题是“善与恶？”

但将马刺队与尼克斯队的系列赛简单地归结为“好孩子与坏孩子”的对抗，是一种极大的简化。

1998 年 9 月，白宫国家毒品控制政策办公室主任巴里·麦卡弗里(Barry McCaffrey) 在一篇观点文章中，对尼克斯队的查理·沃德(Charlie Ward) 和马刺队的戴维·罗宾逊(David Robinson) 表示赞扬。麦卡弗里写道，这两位球员都在试图改变联盟对大麻使用态度宽容的形象。

沃德“强烈反对毒品”，而罗宾逊“帮助为孩子们组织了反毒品项目”，麦卡弗里说道。

大学毕业率将马刺队远远地置于联盟其他球队之上。国家学者和体育联盟的项目负责人汤姆·科瓦尔斯基(Tom Kowalski) 表示，不到 40% 的 NBA 球员完成了本科学位。该项目旨在鼓励职业球员重返校园。

但超过 70% 的马刺球员——14 人中的 10 人——已经完成了大学学业，包括蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)，他放弃了高达 900 万美元的新秀年合同，以便在 1997 年从维克森林大学毕业。

“如果你看看联盟的总体平均水平以及我们近年来越来越多地招募低年级球员的选秀模式，”科瓦尔斯基说，“那么马刺队拥有如此多的大学毕业生“是非比寻常的”。

但尼克斯队也拥有高于平均水平的大学毕业生数量。

在某一方面，马刺队和尼克斯队都符合他们的形象。

马刺队发言人汤姆·詹姆斯(Tom James) 表示，在本赛季，没有一名马刺球员受到联盟的罚款或停赛。

尼克斯队的违规记录很长。帕特里克·尤因(Patrick Ewing) 因与印第安纳步行者队的球员发生冲突而被停赛。克里斯·柴尔兹(Chris Childs) 因被罚出场后没有及时离开球场而被罚款。库尔特·托马斯(Kurt Thomas) 因在与洛杉矶湖人队比赛中发生的场内争执而被罚款。

尽管巴克利可能否认这一点，但当地的年轻人将马刺队视为榜样。

道格拉斯小学的老师钱德拉·戴(Chandra Day) 说：“我所有的孩子都非常崇拜那些家伙。”“大卫·罗宾逊去年来过我们的学生这里。在他们眼中，他是一个真正的英雄。”

罗宾逊和艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson) 除了慈善事业外，还以他们温文尔雅的举止和宗教生活方式而闻名。

1997 年 9 月，大卫·罗宾逊和他的妻子瓦莱丽(Valerie) 捐赠了 500 万美元，用于建立卡弗学院(Carver Academy)，这是一所与城市东区卡弗中心(Carver Center) 相邻的学校。

圣安东尼奥住房援助组织的执行董事艾米·哈特曼(Amy Hartman) 表示：“无论他们输赢，他们都是优秀的人，他们在团队中发挥作用并协同工作，他们为我们的年轻人树立了良好的价值观。”

本文由特约撰稿人妮可·福伊(Nicole Foy) 协助完成

点击查看原文：Spurs' record off the court is impressive, too

Spurs’ record off the court is impressive, too

National Basketball Association star Charles Barkley told the world in a 1993 television commercial: “I am not a role model.”

And ever since, professional basketball players have lived up to this standard by getting arrested in growing numbers for drug possession, soliciting prostitutes and other unsavory - not to mention illegal - behavior.

All the while, Spurs center David Robinson has been regarded as the league’s moral counterweight - a church-going paragon of virtue in size 17 shoes. As the team was built around him, other Spurs also got a reputation as good guys.

They now face the New York Knicks in the Finals and lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. The Knicks are powered by forward Latrell Sprewell, best known for choking his coach during practice while still a Golden State Warrior.

In search of contrasts, media organizations turned the finals into a battle between the wholesome Spurs and the untamed Knicks. One out-of-town newspaper headlined a recent story “Good vs. Evil?”

But any reduction of the Spurs- Knicks series to choir boys vs. bad boys is a vast oversimplification.

In a September 1998 opinion article, Barry McCaffrey, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, singled out the Knicks’ Charlie Ward and the Spurs’ David Robinson for praise. Both players, McCaffrey wrote, are trying to change the game’s image as being soft on marijuana use.

Ward “has spoken out strongly against drugs” and Robinson has “helped organize anti-drug programs for kids,” McCaffrey stated.

College graduation rates place the Spurs several heads above the rest of the league. Fewer than 40 percent of NBA players have completed their undergraduate degree, said Tom Kowalski, director of a program at the National Consortium of Academics and Sports designed to encourage professional players to go back to school.

But a little more than 70 percent of the Spurs - 10 of 14 players - have finished college, including Tim Duncan, who turned his back on a rookie year contract worth as much as $9 million in order to graduate from Wake Forest University in 1997.

“If you look at the overall league average and recent drafting patterns when we’ve gone for more and more underclass players,” Kowalski said, then the Spurs having so many college graduates “is exceptional.”

But the Knicks, too, have an above average number of college graduates.

The Spurs and Knicks live up to their images in one respect.

Not a single Spurs player received a fine or was suspended by the NBA this season, team spokesman Tom James said.

The Knicks’ rap sheet is long. Patrick Ewing was suspended for fighting with an Indiana Pacers player. Chris Childs was fined for failing to leave the court in a timely manner after being ejected. Kurt Thomas was fined for an on- court altercation during a game with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Even though Barkley might deny it, local youths see the Spurs as role models.

“All my kids do look up to a lot of those guys,” said Chandra Day, a teacher at Douglass Elementary School. “David Robinson came to our students last year. He is a real hero in their eyes.”

Robinson and Avery Johnson are as well-known for their soft-spoken manners and religious lifestyles as their philanthropy.

In September 1997, David Robinson and his wife, Valerie, gave $5 million to establish the Carver Academy, a school adjoining the Carver Center on the city’s East Side.

“Whether they are winning or losing, they are fine men who function and work as a team and they model good values for our young people,” said Amy Hartman, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio.

Staff Writer Nicole Foy contributed to this story.

By Russell Gold and Carmina Danini, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Nicole Foy and Roy Bragg

得克萨斯人心系圣安东尼奥

乔·阿姆斯特朗(Joe Armstrong)在位于曼哈顿的出版公司里的语音信箱，用热情洋溢的“Howdy”来迎接来电者。

阿姆斯特朗，一位来自阿比林的杂志主管，穿着Justin靴子去上班。他的办公室里装饰着得克萨斯纪念品。

他知道，如果圣安东尼奥马刺队能够在周二和周三的比赛中获胜，赢得球队历史上首个NBA总冠军，这对这座圣城来说意味着什么。马刺队正在努力从周一以81比89输给纽约尼克斯队的比赛中恢复过来。

“如果尼克斯队获胜，对这座城市来说意义就不大了，”他在周二说。“我告诉这里的所有朋友，‘你们知道冠军对圣安东尼奥意味着什么吗？’马刺队值得拥有它……因为圣安东尼奥会比纽约人更珍惜它。”

尽管输掉了周一的那场比赛，但马刺队以及在纽约喜爱他们的德克萨斯侨民们表示，现在说尼克斯队已经获胜还为时过早。但周二的空气中有一种复苏的感觉。

“卷土重来”是纽约邮报的头条新闻。“重燃希望！”是每日新闻的标题，旁边配有一张尼克斯球员兼德克萨斯本地人拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson)庆祝的照片。

“说实话，我认为（情况并没有改变），”马刺队中锋大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)说。“我们预计他们会反击。”

他补充说：“如果你在整个系列赛中都认为自己会横扫所有对手，那你就太傻了。”

“我们的感觉和（输球之前）一样，”全明星前锋蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)同意道。“局面并不失控，也不受控制。它就处于可以向任何一方倾斜的平衡状态。”

对于马刺队来说，这只是一场篮球比赛，只是一项工作。但对于阿姆斯特朗和其他德克萨斯人来说，这远远不止这些。

阿姆斯特朗是Capital Publishing的高级副总裁，该公司出版《Worth》杂志和其他几家杂志。他于1973年在纽约开始了他的职业生涯，当时他加入了一家规模小但发展迅速的反主流文化杂志——《滚石》。

这位1965年毕业于圣三一大学的校友，通过把他在俯瞰曼哈顿天际线的角落办公室打造成一个德克萨斯风格的圣地，让他的得克萨斯记忆永存。

在他办公桌旁，一个阿拉莫的陶瓷复制品旁边放着一个赫里福德公牛雕像。附近还摆着一个“不要惹得克萨斯”的标志。而其他纽约高管可能会有高雅的艺术品，但阿姆斯特朗却挂了一面用看起来像栅栏柱木材装饰的质朴的得克萨斯州旗，以及一幅描绘纽约地铁隧道通往一个草地牧场的画，那里有牛群在吃草，风车在转动。

“1972年的一天，我在这里醒来，意识到我不会回到德克萨斯，”他回忆说。“所以现在我每天都穿靴子，提醒自己每天早上醒来时，我是一个德克萨斯人，而不是一个纽约人。”

阿姆斯特朗周二在四季酒店午餐时甚至遇到了马刺队主席彼得·霍尔特(Peter Holt)。

“他太有风度了，”阿姆斯特朗说。“纽约教练可能会说，‘我们要去痛扁他们。’而霍尔特只是礼貌地说，‘我们真的希望我们能赢。’所以我告诉他我有多么支持马刺队，我希望他们能赢得总冠军。”

圣安东尼奥本地人马克·加西亚(Marc Garcia)，一位摄影助理，说尼克斯队获胜后他遭到了不少嘲笑，但他仍然很有信心。

“马刺队相信自己，”他说。“他们终于输了一场比赛，所以现在他们可以摆脱困境，努力打球。”

另一位滞留在纽约的圣安东尼奥本地人幸运地找到了三州地区唯一一家仇恨尼克斯队的雇主。

伊丽莎白·特雷维诺(Elizabeth Trevino)是西南德克萨斯州立大学的五月毕业生，她在广播和MSNBC主持人唐·伊姆斯(Don Imus)那里找到了一份为期三个月的实习工作。伊姆斯经常在广播中抨击尼克斯队。

特雷维诺在马刺队横扫波特兰开拓者队的当晚身处圣安东尼奥，她记得全城弥漫着温暖而模糊的感觉。几天后，她在新泽西州的公寓里，看到尼克斯队击败印第安纳步行者队，赢得了总决赛的资格。

“当时，就像有2000辆汽车的警报器同时响起，人们在街上跑来跑去，尖叫，”她说。“这吓坏我了。感觉更像是暴乱。”

特雷维诺预测马刺队今晚和周五会获胜，但另一位圣安东尼奥本地人却有不同的看法。

《名利场》杂志特约作家玛丽·布伦纳(Marie Brenner)在阿拉莫高地高中与市长霍华德·皮克(Howard Peak)同届毕业，她说她支持尼克斯队。1967年她离开圣安东尼奥时，那里还没有NBA球队。

“尼克斯队是我生命的一部分——我意识的一部分，”她说。

她喜欢尼克斯队，没错，但她也很喜欢德克萨斯。布伦纳的祖父创办了Solo Serve公司，她说当地一家小报（之前一直抨击这座城市）打电话让她写一篇客座文章，描述圣安东尼奥。但布伦纳拒绝了，不仅因为她对尼克斯队的忠诚，还因为她对该报不公平地描绘圣安东尼奥感到恼火。

“纽约的小报们在这里疯了，”她说。“他们把圣安东尼奥河称为沼泽，太卑鄙了。我可以忍受很多，但当他们这样攻击我们时，就太过分了。”

点击查看原文：Fans have hearts in Texas

Fans have hearts in Texas

Joe Armstrong’s voice mail at his Manhattan publishing company greets callers with a hearty “Howdy.”

Armstrong, an Abilene native and magazine executive, wears Justin boots to work. His office is decorated with Texas memorabilia.

And he knows what it’ll mean for the Alamo City if the San Antonio Spurs, trying to bounce back from Monday’s 89-81 loss to the New York Knicks, can win Games 4 and 5 and earn the team’s first NBA championship.

“If the Knicks win, it just wouldn’t mean that much to this town,” he said Tuesday. “I tell all my friends here, ‘Do you know that a championship would mean the world to San Antonio?’ The Spurs deserve it … because San Antonio would appreciate it a heck of a lot more than they would up here.”

Despite Monday’s game, the Spurs - and the Texas expatriates in New York who love them - say it’s too early for the Knicks to hope for a white flag. But there was a sense of resurrection in the air Tuesday.

“Back In It” blared the New York Post front page headline. “Alive!” screamed the Daily News, accompanied by a picture of Knicks player and native Texan Larry Johnson celebrating.

“I don’t think (the situation has changed) at all, to be honest with you,” Spurs center David Robinson said. “We expected them to fight back.”

He added: “If you’re going through a series thinking you’re going to sweep everybody, you’re a fool.”

“We feel the same (as we did before the loss),” All-Star forward Tim Duncan agreed. “It’s not out of control and it’s not in control. It’s right there where it can swing either way.”

For the Spurs, this is just basketball and it’s just business. For Armstrong and other Texans, it goes way beyond that.

Armstrong, senior vice president of Capital Publishing, which puts out Worth magazine and several others, began his career in New York in 1973 with a small but growing counterculture magazine called Rolling Stone.

A 1965 Trinity University graduate, he has kept his memories of Texas vivid by transforming his corner office overlooking the Manhattan skyline into a virtual shrine to all things Texan.

Next to a ceramic replica of the Alamo near his desk sits a Hereford bull figurine. A “Don’t Mess with Texas” sign is displayed nearby. And where other New York executives might have highbrow art, Armstrong has hung a rustic Texas flag framed with what looks like fence-post wood, and a painting of a New York subway tunnel exiting to a grassy pasture where cattle graze and windmills turn.

“I woke up here one day in 1972 and realized I wasn’t going back to Texas,” he recalled. “So now I wear boots every day to remind myself first thing in the morning I’m a Texan - not a New Yorker.”

Armstrong even ran into Spurs chairman Peter Holt at lunch at the Four Seasons hotel Tuesday.

“He was such a class act,” Armstrong said. “Where a New York coach would have said, ‘We’re going to kick their butts,’ Holt just nicely said, ‘We really hope we win.’ So I told him how much I was cheering the Spurs on and wanted them to win it all.”

San Antonio native Marc Garcia, a photographer’s assistant, said he took some ribbing after the Knicks win, but he remains confident.

“The Spurs believe in themselves,” he said. “They lost a game finally, so now they can get beyond that and just play hard.”

Another stranded San Antonio native lucked into working for the only Knicks-hating employer in the tri-state area.

Elizabeth Trevino, a May graduate of Southwest Texas State University, landed a three-month internship working for radio and MSNBC personality Don Imus, who regularly bashes the Knicks on the air.

Trevino was in San Antonio on the night the Spurs swept the Portland Trail Blazers and remembers the warm, fuzzy feeling all over town. She was in her New Jersey apartment a few nights later when the Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers to earn their Finals slot.

“There were, like, 2,000 car alarms going off and people running up and down the streets screaming,” she said. “It scared me. It was more like a riot.”

Trevino predicts a Spurs victory tonight and Friday, but another San Antonio native sees it differently.

Vanity Fair magazine writer-at- large Marie Brenner, who graduated in the same class as Mayor Howard Peak at Alamo Heights High School, said her loyalty is with the Knicks. San Antonio had no NBA team when she left town in 1967.

“The Knicks are a part of my life - a part of the fabric of my consciousness,” she said.

She likes the Knicks, yes, but she likes Texas, too. Brenner, whose grandfather founded Solo Serve, said a local tabloid - which previously had bashed the city - called and asked her to write a guest piece characterizing San Antonio. But Brenner declined, not only because of her allegiance to the Knicks, but because she was annoyed over the publication’s unfair portrayal of the Alamo City.

“The tabloids in New York go crazy up here,” she said. “That was a low blow when they called the San Antonio River a swamp. I can take a lot, but when they attack us like that, it’s ridiculous.”

By Nicole Foy and Roy Bragg, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Tim Griffin

关键数据

银黑军团

蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)在周一晚上的第四节里颗粒无收，4投不中，还出现了3次失误。这是自季后赛第三场对阵波特兰的比赛以来，他首次在单节比赛中一分未得，当时他因犯规麻烦而陷入困境。尽管如此，邓肯在本轮系列赛中依然是马刺队的得分王（场均26分）和篮板王（场均14.3个）。

大卫·罗宾逊(David Robinson)在第三场比赛中贡献了赛季季后赛新高的25分，罚球13中，罚球次数达到17次。

肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)在对阵尼克斯的比赛中的场均得分（8分）是他今年季后赛所有轮次的最低值。他的投篮命中率（37%）、罚球命中率（20%）和三分球命中率（27.3%）也是他1999年季后赛的最低值。

马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie)在周一比赛的开场两分钟内就领到两次犯规，最终出现赛季新高的5次犯规。埃利在他整个NBA生涯中只被罚下过10次，在今年季后赛开始之前，他的场均犯规次数是2.03次。

艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)在周一晚上的总决赛中取得了个人最高的10分。约翰逊的6次失误是他本轮季后赛中最高的，也追平了他5月1日对阵波特兰时的常规赛最高值。

贾伦·杰克逊(Jaren Jackson)继续受到轻微投篮低迷的困扰，本轮系列赛的命中率为33.3%，最近两场比赛的命中率仅为12.5%。他在最近两场比赛中的三分球产量是他自对阵明尼苏达的第二场和第三场比赛以来最低的两场比赛的产量。

安东尼奥·丹尼尔斯(Antonio Daniels)在第三场比赛中得到8分，这是他在季后赛中的个人最高分，也是他自4月14日对阵明尼苏达的比赛中得到10分以来的最高分——在那之后他连续25场常规赛和季后赛的得分都低于10分。

史蒂夫·科尔(Steve Kerr)在第三场比赛中上场14分钟，得到5分。在季后赛前12投不中，包括6记三分球之后，科尔在接下来的六场季后赛中反弹，投篮命中率达到43.8%，三分球命中率达到42.9%。

马利克·罗斯(Malik Rose)在第三场比赛中比以往任何时候都更加活跃地抢篮板（10分钟内抢到6个篮板）。罗斯的投篮继续低迷；在马刺队最近的六场季后赛中，他15投2中（命中率13.3%）。

其他球员

艾伦·休斯顿(Allan Houston)在第三场比赛中爆发，得到34分，追平了他的季后赛最高分，这也是他在1999年季后赛中第三次单场得分至少达到30分。休斯顿对阵马刺队的罚球命中率为100%，18罚全中。在他至少得到6次罚球机会的季后赛比赛中，尼克斯队的战绩为7胜1负。

马库斯·坎比(Marcus Camby)在他的首发赛季中遇到了犯规麻烦。他只有5分和4个篮板，这是自从帕特里克·尤因(Patrick Ewing)的跟腱受伤之后，他的角色发生改变以来的最低数据。

尽管膝盖疼痛，拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson)在第二场和第三场比赛中连续两场打满43分钟。这是他本赛季在单场比赛中打的时间最长的一次。

拉特雷尔·斯普雷维尔(Latrell Sprewell)在最近的两场比赛中得到50分，这是他自亚特兰大系列赛的前两场比赛中得到62分以来的最佳两场比赛表现。

克里斯·达德利(Chris Dudley)在最近六场比赛中终于命中了他的第一个进球。他的进球让他的连续14次投篮不中纪录宣告结束。

科特·托马斯(Kurt Thomas)在17分钟内贡献了全队最高的10个篮板。他的篮板效率（68分钟内抢到33个篮板）是NBA总决赛所有球员中最高的。

查理·沃德(Charlie Ward)的进攻表现不佳（2分，2次助攻），但他展现了强大的防守能力。沃德的抢断次数追平了他在季后赛中的最高值，达到4次，最近两场比赛的场均抢断次数为3.5次。

团队表现

不包括防守犯规，马刺队在第三场比赛中被吹了3次技术犯规，这是他们在季后赛中的最高值。这也是格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)教练在季后赛中第一次被吹技术犯规，原因是在第一节比赛结束前，埃利奥特的3分球被取消。圣安东尼奥唯一一场技术犯规次数超过对手的比赛是第二场对阵明尼苏达的比赛——他们唯一一场季后赛失利。

圣安东尼奥将季后赛投篮命中率至少达到40%的连续场次延长至11场。马刺队在常规赛期间最长的投篮命中率超过40%的连续场次为9场，他们曾两次达到这个成绩。

马刺队在第三场比赛中出现了季后赛球队新高的20次失误。他们在常规赛中共有7次失误超过20次，包括前四场比赛中的三场。

纽约在进攻篮板方面的优势为35-19，并且在本轮系列赛的每场比赛中都超过了马刺队。马刺队在他们之前的12场季后赛中，有7场赢得了进攻篮板的争夺。

圣安东尼奥在最近的7场季后赛中，得分都低于94分，这是球队历史上最长的连胜纪录。

尼克斯队连续三场投篮命中率低于40%，这是他们在常规赛或季后赛中第一次出现这种情况，也是他们在对阵圣安东尼奥的系列赛中的前三场比赛。

纽约队在第三场比赛中更成功地将球带入篮下，获得了全系列赛最高的30次罚球机会。他们在东部决赛对阵印第安纳的比赛中，有四场罚球次数至少达到30次。

点击查看原文：Nuts & bolts

Nuts & bolts

MEN IN SILVER & BLACK Tim Duncan was shut out in the fourth quarter Monday night with four misses and three turnovers. It was the first quarter in which he had been blanked since Game 3 against Portland, a game where he was mired in foul trouble. Still, Duncan continues to lead the Spurs in scoring (26 points per game) and rebounds (14.3 per game) in the New York series.

David Robinson notched season playoff highs with 25 points, 13 free throws and 17 free-throw attempts in Game 3.

Sean Elliott’s scoring average against the Knicks (eight points per game) is his lowest in any playoff round this year. His shooting from the floor (37 percent), foul shooting (20 percent) and three-point shooting (27.3 percent) are also 1999 personal playoff lows.

Mario Elie was removed from Monday’s game after picking up two fouls in the first two minutes and wound up with a season-high five fouls. Elie has been disqualified from only 10 games in his NBA career and averaged 2.03 fouls per game before this year’s playoffs.

Avery Johnson had his largest scoring output in the Finals on Monday night with 10 points. Johnson’s six turnovers were his most of the playoffs and matched his regular-season high, set May 1 against Portland.

Jaren Jackson continues to be troubled by a mild shooting slump, hitting 33.3 percent for the series and 12.5 percent in his last two games. His three-point output in the last two games is his lowest two-game production since Games 2 and 3 against Minnesota.

Antonio Daniels had eight points in Game 3, a personal best in the playoffs and his biggest effort since scoring 10 points against Minnesota on April 14 - a span of 25 regular-season and playoff games.

Steve Kerr logged 14 minutes and five points in Game 3. After misfiring on his first 12 shots of the postseason, including six three-pointers, Kerr rebounded to hit 43.8 percent from the field and 42.9 percent of his threes in the last six playoff games.

Malik Rose was more active on the boards in Game 3 (six rebounds in 10 minutes) than at any other time against New York. Rose’s shooting continues to suffer; he’s canned 2 of 15 shots (13.3 percent) in the Spurs’ last six playoff games.

THE OTHER GUYS

Allan Houston’s 34-point outburst in Game 3 matched his playoff high and marked the third time in the '99 postseason he has scored at least 30. Houston has hit all 18 of his free-throw attempts against the Spurs. In playoff games in which he gets at least six foul shots, New York is 7-1.

Marcus Camby had foul trouble in his first start of the season. His totals of five points and four rebounds were the lowest since his role was altered because of Patrick Ewing’s Achilles’ injury.

Despite playing with a painful knee injury, Larry Johnson recorded back-to-back, 43-minute efforts in Games 2 and 3. Those are the most minutes he has played in a game this season.

Latrell Sprewell has scored 50 points in the last two games - his best two-game effort since scoring 62 in the first two games of the Atlanta series.

Chris Dudley notched his first field goal in his last six games. His hoop Monday snapped a string of 14 straight missed field-goal attempts.

Kurt Thomas provided a team-high 10 rebounds in 17 minutes. His rebound-per-minute ratio (33 rebounds in 68 minutes) is the highest of any player in the NBA Finals.

Charlie Ward struggled offensively (two points, two assists), but provided a ball-hawking presence at the point. Ward matched his playoff high with four steals and is averaging 3.5 steals in his last two games.

THE TEAM GAME

Not including illegal-defense calls, the Spurs were whistled for three technicals in Game 3, a playoff high. It also marked Coach Gregg Popovich’s first postseason technical, which came when Elliott’s three-pointer was wiped out late in the first quarter. The only other game in which San Antonio had more technicals than its opponent was Game 2 against Minnesota - the Spurs’ only other playoff loss.

San Antonio stretched its streak of hitting at least 40 percent of its shots to 11 straight playoff games. The Spurs’ longest streak of more than 40-percent shooting during the regular season was nine games, which they accomplished twice.

The Spurs committed a team playoff-high 20 turnovers in Game 3. The Spurs topped 20 turnovers seven times during the regular season - including three of the first four games.

New York has a 35-19 edge in offensive rebounds and has topped the Spurs in that category in every game of the series. The Spurs won the battle on the offensive glass in seven of their 12 previous playoff games.

San Antonio has been limited to 94 points or less in seven straight playoff games - the longest streak in franchise history.

The Knicks have been held to less than 40-percent shooting for three games in a row - the first three games of the San Antonio series - for the first time during the regular season or playoffs.

New York was much more successful taking the ball to the hoop in Game 3, earning a series- high 30 foul shots. The Knicks had at least 30 free-throw attempts against Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals on four occasions. -Tim Griffin

By Tim Griffin, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Tim Price

疲劳或将影响纽约未来的走向

现在比赛进入了最关键的阶段。NBA总决赛中不再有比赛之间的两天休息时间。

比赛开球后开始，休息一天后再继续。

在这系列比赛中，纽约尼克斯队的三位关键球员，艾伦·休斯顿(Allan Houston)、拉特雷尔·斯普雷维尔(Latrell Sprewell)和拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson)或许比其他任何球员都更容易受到疲劳的影响。尽管圣安东尼奥马刺队的蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)在这系列比赛中上场时间最长，但有人认为纽约队的这三位球员更容易受到疲劳的影响。

“我们拭目以待吧，”马刺队后卫贾伦·杰克逊(Jaren Jackson)说道，“也许疲劳会对他们造成影响。

“我知道他们会尽力享受比赛。他们的教练让他们在场上更加积极地持球进攻。他们绝对是球队的第一选择。”

休斯顿和斯普雷维尔是场上最活跃的进攻球员，他们经常从满场飞奔，为尼克斯队创造得分机会。尽管约翰逊的膝盖依然存在问题，但他表示在第三场比赛之前，他的膝盖状况有所好转。

此外，休斯顿和斯普雷维尔在第三场比赛中合计得到58分，帮助纽约队取得胜利，他们现在成为了对手的重点盯防对象。要让休斯顿和斯普雷维尔在进攻端变得不那么有效，最有效的方式之一就是让他们在防守端承担更多责任。

“这会有所帮助，”马刺队前锋肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)说道，“这样他们回到进攻端时，体力就不会那么充沛。”

休斯顿显然并没有感到疲惫。疲劳通常会在罚球线上显现出来，而休斯顿罚球18罚全中。

一些马刺队球员认为，休斯顿在罚球命中后，会对自己的其他进攻更有信心。

“你看到球三次或四次穿网而过，即使你没有在球场上的其他地方投篮，也会感觉自己很火热，”马刺队后卫史蒂夫·科尔(Steve Kerr)说道。

虽然休斯顿和斯普雷维尔得分如入无人之境，但马刺队并没有找到有效的应对之策。艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)、马里奥·埃利(Mario Elie)、杰克逊、埃利奥特、科尔，甚至手感火热的安东尼奥·丹尼尔斯(Antonio Daniels)，合计只得到36分。

邓肯平均每场出场时间为45分钟，第三场比赛他出战了48分钟中的47分钟。

但邓肯不像休斯顿和斯普雷维尔那样需要频繁地跑动。斯普雷维尔场均出场时间为44分钟，休斯顿场均出场时间接近44分钟。

拉里·约翰逊的膝盖扭伤依然影响着他的速度，过去两场比赛他分别出战了43分钟。

尼克斯队主教练杰夫·范甘迪(Jeff Van Gundy)用一个词来形容这种负荷：艰苦。

“因为我们需要他们的进攻，”他说道，“他们将会打很多时间。”

至少休斯顿和斯普雷维尔应该能够应对这种负荷。他们都只有28岁。

与这两支球队中几乎所有其他重要的球员不同，斯普雷维尔并没有因为缩短的赛程而经历一个艰苦的赛季。

2月份，斯普雷维尔右脚跟骨折，他缺席了13场比赛，并在3月6日复出。

“他和休斯顿昨晚看起来并不疲惫，”科尔说道。

“这是赛季的最后阶段，之后就没有比赛了，”斯普雷维尔说道。“我们状态很好。比赛之间我们能够得到休息。我认为我们能够继续下去。”

在第三场比赛之后，他们将会迫使马刺队继续战斗下去。

点击查看原文：Fatigue may factor into N.Y.'s future

Fatigue may factor into N.Y.'s future

Now the grind begins. There are no more two-day breaks between games in the NBA Finals.

It’s tip it off and play, take a day off and do it all over again the next day.

And no one in this series may be more at risk for fatigue than the three all-or-nothing players for the Knicks. Although Spurs forward Tim Duncan has been on the floor more than anyone in this series, an argument can be made that New York’s Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell and Larry Johnson could get the worst of the fatigue factor.

“We’ll see,” Spurs guard Jaren Jackson said. "Maybe it will have an effect on them.

“I know they’re gonna have fun trying. Their coaches let them be aggressive with the ball. They get a lot of touches. They’re definitely option one.”

Houston and Sprewell are the most active offensive players on the floor, often running baseline to baseline to make things happen for the Knicks. Johnson still has a suspect knee, though he says it was better before Game 3.

Plus, after Houston and Sprewell made this a series by combining for 58 points in New York’s Game 3 victory, they’ve now got targets on their jerseys. One of the best ways to make Houston and Sprewell less effective on the offensive end is to give them more to do on the defensive end.

“That would help,” said Spurs forward Sean Elliott, “so when they come back down on offense they’re not too fresh.”

Houston obviously isn’t winded. Fatigue often shows up at the free- throw line, and Houston’s made 18 of 18 from the stripe.

Some Spurs think Houston gains confidence in the rest of his game after making free throws.

“You see that ball go through the hoop three or four times, and you feel like you’re hot even though you haven’t taken a shot out on the rest of the floor,” Spurs guard Steve Kerr said.

While Houston and Sprewell scored at will, the Spurs didn’t counter with much of an answer. Avery Johnson, Mario Elie, Jackson, Elliott, Kerr - even the hot- shooting Antonio Daniels - combined for 36 points.

Duncan has been on the floor an average of 45 minutes per game. He played 47 of 48 minutes in Game 3.

But Duncan isn’t the up-and-down-the-floor player that Houston and Sprewell are. Sprewell is averaging 44 minutes a game, and Houston is averaging almost 44 minutes a game.

Larry Johnson, still slowed somewhat by a sprained knee, has played 43 minutes each of the past two games.

Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy has a word for that work load: tough.

“Because we need their offense,” he said, “they’re going to play heavy minutes.”

Houston and Sprewell, at least, should be able to handle it. Both are 28 years old.

And unlike almost every other impact player on these two teams, Sprewell hasn’t had an arduous season because of the shortened schedule.

Sprewell fractured his right heel in February. He missed 13 games and came back on March 6.

“He and Houston didn’t look tired last night,” Kerr said.

“This is the end of the season - there aren’t any games left after this,” Sprewell said. “We’re in great shape. We get our rest between the games. I don’t see why we can’t keep going.”

After Game 3, they’ll force the Spurs to keep going, too.

By Tim Price, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23

他们怎么说

劳拉·维克西(Laura Vecsey)，西雅图邮报-情报员：我们之前见过这种情况。小镇居民来到大城市，结果被彻底打败。

是史蒂夫·汪达(Stevie Wonder)，而不是比利·乔尔(Billy Joel)，给了我们史上最伟大的纽约州心态的颂歌：

纽约，就像蒂姆·邓肯(Tim Duncan)想象的那样。摩天大楼应有尽有。

就在几天前，马刺队的两座人型摩天大楼——邓肯和戴维·罗宾逊(David Robinson)——高不可攀，无人能敌。

但在周一晚上的NBA总决赛第三场比赛中，来自德克萨斯州南部的双子塔在强大的阻力面前显得手足无措。

并不是尼克斯队（暂时）从马刺队头上摘下了王冠，而是这里，主场。在麦迪逊广场花园——“麦迪逊广场花园”，正如一位狂热的、嗓门大的纽约人所说。

“我知道外面会很疯狂，”尼克斯队中锋马库斯·坎比(Marcus Camby)在尼克斯队以89-81获胜的周一晚上说道。

“我只想全力以赴。”

能量……好像纽约已经不需要更多了。

没错，是邓肯在第三节结束到第四节开始的三分钟内连续出现三次失误。三次犯规：一次三秒违例，一次进攻犯规，一次走步，让这位温柔的巨人看起来很年轻，在花园的腹地里感到谦卑。

“我们充满了激情，”尼克斯队主教练杰夫·范甘迪(Jeff Van Gundy)说。

马克·惠克(Mark Whicker)，橙县纪事报: 41天没有输球。圣安东尼奥马刺队喜欢这种趋势。

“这种感觉很奇妙，”艾弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)在尼克斯队以89-81战胜马刺队，从他们手中夺走奖杯后几分钟说道。“我不记得我们上次输球是什么时候了。”

他还认为这种感觉很好，这可能是你在纽约待了三天后产生的围城心态的副作用。逼我，踩我的脚后跟，再按喇叭。马刺队在整个春天都沉浸在圣安东尼奥的民意爱戴中，变得软弱了。他们说过赢得NBA总冠军不应该是那么容易的，但直到现在他们才相信这一点。

“这就是它应该有的样子，”约翰逊说。“有人把你击倒，你就想办法站起来，重回正轨。输球不好，但为了什么东西而战很好。”

在阿拉莫穹顶进行的前两场热身赛让每个人都忘记了尼克斯队可以多么咄咄逼人。他们在第四节压制了蒂姆·邓肯，并将圣安东尼奥队身高不达7尺的球员的得分限制在了36分。当马刺队在第三节解放了邓肯，将比分追平至58-58时，科特·托马斯(Kurt Thomas)奋力抢下拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson)的失误，将球传给了艾伦·休斯顿(Allan Houston)，他的三分球让麦迪逊广场花园再次沸腾。此后，尼克斯队不可动摇。

但这座城市不应该指望更多。如果说有什么不同的话，第三场比赛表明了尼克斯队要获胜需要多完美地组合这些因素。

休斯顿，一位在现实生活中表现出色的得分后卫，必须成为杰里·韦斯特(Jerry West)。周一晚上，他在45分钟内得到34分，对此毫无压力。“每次上场我都尽力做到势不可挡，”他说。

点击查看原文：WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

LAURA VECSEY, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: We have seen this kind of thing before. Small-town folks coming north to the big city just to get totally smoked.

It was Stevie Wonder, not Billy Joel, who gave us the all-time great New York state of mind anthem:

New York, just like Tim Duncan pictured it. Skyscrapers and everything.

It used to be, just a few days ago, that the Spurs’ human skyscrapers - Duncan and David Robinson - were too high to knock down, too tall to be messed with.

But Monday night, in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the twin towers from south Texas were messed up and helpless in the face of overwhelming obstacles.

It wasn’t so much the Knicks who (temporarily) knocked the crown off the Spurs’ head; it was just being here. Home. At the Garden - “Marcus Square Garden,” as one rabid, leather-lunged Noo Yawker proclaimed.

“I know it’s going to be crazy out there,” Knicks center Marcus Camby said in the face of the Knicks’ 89-81 win Monday night.

“I just want to go in and give it all my energy.”

Energy … as if New York needed any more of the stuff.

Yes, that was Duncan who committed three consecutive turnovers from the end of the third quarter and into the fourth. A three-second violation, an offensive foul and a walk left this gentle giant looking young and humbled in the belly of the Garden.

“We came out with a lot of emotion,” Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said.

MARK WHICKER, The Orange County Register: Forty-one days between losses. The San Antonio Spurs like the trend.

“This is a funny feeling,” Avery Johnson decided, a few minutes after the Knicks pried a couple of San Antonio fingers off the trophy with an 89-81 victory in Game 3 Monday night. “I don’t remember the last time we lost.”

He also decided it was a good feeling, which may be a side effect of the siege mentality you can develop after three days in New York. Push me, clip my heels, honk at me again. The Spurs had been softened by a civic love-in that has lasted all spring in San Antonio. They had said winning the NBA championship was not supposed to be that easy, but only now do they believe it.

“This is the way it’s supposed to be,” Johnson said. “Somebody knocks you down and you figure it out and you get back on track. It’s not good to lose, but it’s good to have to fight for something.”

The first two scrimmages in the Alamodome made everyone forget how argumentative the Knicks can be. They squelched Tim Duncan in the fourth quarter and held San Antonio’s non-7-footers to 36 points. When the Spurs got Duncan loose in the third quarter and tied New York 58-58, Kurt Thomas sprawled to recover Larry Johnson’s miss and flung it out to Allan Houston, whose three-pointer returned the roar to Madison Square Garden. The Knicks were unshakeable thereafter.

But the city should not count on much more. If anything, Game 3 showed just how perfectly the dominoes have to fall for the Knicks to win.

Houston, a solid 2-guard in real life, has to become Jerry West. He had no problem with it Monday, scoring 34 in 45 minutes. “I try to be unstoppable every time I’m out there,” he said.

via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Arthur Garcia

尼克斯的信心或将扭转系列赛

别再想着扳平比分了，拉特雷尔·斯普雷维尔(Latrell Sprewell)已经开始谈论如何取得领先。好吧，也许他并不特别自夸，但周一晚上在 NBA 总决赛第三场比赛中以 89-81 的比分获胜，给纽约人注入了新的活力。

尼克斯可以在今晚麦迪逊广场花园的比赛中获胜，将七场四胜制的系列赛比分扳成 2:2。

“我们对赢得那一场胜利感觉很好，”斯普雷维尔在周二训练前说。“教练（杰夫·范甘迪(Jeff Van Gundy)）谈到了赢得那一场胜利。现在我们必须在（今晚）做同样的事情来扳平比分。希望我们可以在周五取得领先。”

这并不完全是乔·纳马思(Joe Namath)的风格，但纽约更衣室里的士气已经高涨。在圣安东尼奥输掉了前两场比赛后，尼克斯表示他们认为自己能够击败马刺。现在他们知道自己可以做到。

“这让我们知道，我们终于可以与这些家伙竞争了，”斯普雷维尔说，他在第三场比赛中得到 24 分。“他们不再谈论横扫了。我们已经跨越了那个障碍。”

啊，横扫的谈论。马刺以 4-0 的比分横扫纽约的谈论并没有让尼克斯感到高兴，他们在第三场比赛前的两天里一直在听这些谈论。

“即使是在第二场比赛的最后几分钟，当你听到（阿拉莫穹顶(Alamodome)）的观众喊着‘横扫’时，这也会让你感到不安，”艾伦·休斯顿(Allan Houston)说，他在周一得到全场最高的 34 分。“当你试图完成比赛时，你不会在球场上过多地考虑它，但在比赛之前，你晚上睡觉时，这确实会激励你。”

但一个巨大的障碍仍然存在。在 NBA 历史上，只有两支球队在输掉前两场比赛后反弹并赢得了总决赛。至少尼克斯迈出了第一步。

“我认为在昨天的比赛之后，我们确实获得了一点信心，”休斯顿说。“我们能做的就是尽力发挥，努力创造机会。我们有才华横溢的个人球员，但关键是我们如何作为一个整体打出精彩的比赛。这将是我们前进的动力。”

在第三场比赛中，尼克斯依靠休斯顿、斯普雷维尔和拉里·约翰逊(Larry Johnson)。这三人合计得到 74 分，每个球员都打出了本系列赛的最佳表现。但尼克斯终于从替补阵容中得到了及时的贡献。

马库斯·坎比(Marcus Camby)，尽管只打了 16 分钟就犯规离场，但他为纽约首发阵容带来了全新的面貌。坎比还在第四节打进了几个关键的球，每次都迫使马刺叫了暂停。在第四节开始不到一分钟，他在休斯顿投篮不中后抢到一个篮板，并单手补篮得分；在比赛还剩 2 分 18 秒时，他投进了一个后仰跳投，将纽约的领先优势扩大到 8 分。

“我们仍然知道我们还没有打出最好的比赛，”坎比说。“我们的系列赛投篮命中率不到 40%。我们还在寻找能站出来的球员。”

科特·托马斯(Kurt Thomas)在总决赛中打出了他的第二场精彩表现。他在 17 分钟的比赛时间里抢下 10 个篮板，其中包括 5 个进攻篮板，并在坎比下场时减轻了前场的负担。

点击查看原文：Knicks' confidence may push series

Knicks’ confidence may push series

Forget just evening up the series, Latrell Sprewell is talking about taking the lead. Well, maybe he’s not being particularly boastful, but Monday night’s 89-81 victory in Game 3 of the NBA Finals shot new life into the New Yorkers.

The Knicks can tie the best-of-seven series at two wins apiece with a victory tonight at Madison Square Garden.

“We feel good about getting that one win,” Sprewell said Tuesday before practice. “Coach (Jeff Van Gundy) talked about getting that one win. Now we have to do the same things (tonight) to even up the series. And, hopefully, we can take the lead Friday.”

It isn’t exactly the stuff of Joe Namath, but the spirits are up in New York’s locker room. After losing the first two games in San Antonio, the Knicks said they thought they could beat the Spurs. Now they know they can.

“It lets us know that, finally, we can compete with these guys,” said Sprewell, who scored 24 in Game 3. “They’re not talking about sweep anymore. We’ve cleared that hurdle.”

Ah, the sweep talk. Talk of the Spurs wiping out New York 4-0 didn’t endear itself to the Knicks, who heard it for two days leading up to Game 3.

“Even in the closing minutes of the second game, when you hear the (Alamodome) crowd yelling ‘Sweep,’ even that gets under your skin,” said Allan Houston, who poured in a game-high 34 Monday. “And you don’t think about it on the court so much when you’re trying to get the job done, but before the game, you’re sleeping at night, it does motivate you.”

But a big hurdle still remains. Only two teams in the history of the NBA have rebounded to win the Finals after dropping the first two games. The Knicks, at least, took the first step.

“After last night’s game, I think we did gain a little bit of confidence,” Houston said. “All we can do is go out and do our best and try to make plays. We have talented individual players, but the key is how we can play great as a unit. And that’s what’s going to carry us.”

The Knicks were carried in Game 3 by Houston, Sprewell and Larry Johnson. The trio combined for 74 points as each player had his best game of the series. But the Knicks finally received timely contributions from their supporting cast.

Marcus Camby, despite fouling out in only 16 minutes, gave New York a new look in the starting lineup. Camby also scored a couple of huge baskets in the fourth period, each leading to a Spurs timeout. He had a one-handed follow jam after a Houston miss less than a minute into the quarter and a fall-away jumper with 2:18 left that pushed New York’s advantage to eight.

“We still know we haven’t played our best game,” Camby said. “We’re shooting under 40 percent for the series. We’re still looking for guys to step up.”

Kurt Thomas came through with his second strong game in the Finals. He pulled down 10 boards, including five on the offensive end, in 17 minutes and relieved some of the frontline burden in Camby’s absence.

By Arthur Garcia, via San Antonio Express-News

[这也将成为过去]

1999-06-23, By Buck Harvey

Look who’s talking: Dark side of Texas

The NBA fined Larry Johnson for not talking on Sunday, so he got back at it Tuesday. He talked.

“We have a lot of rebellious slaves on our team,” said Johnson.

David Stern will have to consult with advisers, but, right now, he doesn’t think this is the marketing campaign he has been searching for.

Johnson didn’t stop there. He then provided everyone with his motto, as adapted from his college coach, Jerry Tarkanian. “Pardon my language,” said Johnson, “but (bleep) the world.”

Notebooks could barely keep up with LJ’s fan-friendly, post-lockout NBA. It’s the confusion of someone who grew up in South Dallas having never met his father, and who has multi-illegitimate children with multi-women. It’s the contradiction within someone who donated about $1 million to help build a rec center in his old neighborhood, but who threatened a pregnant girlfriend through an old teammate.

And it’s the anger in someone that allows him to give up six inches and one knee to Tim Duncan, and survive.

It shouldn’t be enough, not if the refs notice that Johnson likes to ram his considerable mass into Duncan’s legs. And for all the emotion in Madison Square Garden on Monday, the Spurs should counter tonight like a team that hasn’t lost consecutive games since February. The Spurs said the right things again Tuesday, but they burn inside.

Still, the Spurs burn normal fuel. Johnson burns something noxious. Once “Grandmama” in the Converse ads, he’s become a grand pain.

He explained Tuesday that he would literally cry in high school when someone said something bad about him - until he learned not to care what anyone thought. That philosophy became easier after he signed the NBA’s original crazy contract.

A guaranteed $84 million freed him to be a jerk. One example: At the World Championships in 1994, beating Puerto Rico 83-29, Johnson scored and took a moment to loudly curse in the face of his opponent.

None of it is as sad as the story Sports Illustrated reported last year. Then Johnson allegedly asked a former UNLV teammate, Stacey Augmon, to bully one of Johnson’s pregnant girlfriends into an abortion.

By comparison, Sunday was light. Then Johnson kept shooting jumpers instead of cooperating in the interview session. A female league official tried to persuade him to do otherwise. Johnson cursed her. To make his position clear, he also cursed a male league official.

And they say New Yorkers are rude. That cost Johnson $25,000 in fines. Naturally, the fan-friendly, post-lockout players association says it will appeal.

Johnson began Tuesday’s session just as reluctantly. He leaned back in the stands and gave one-word answers. Then the “rebellious slaves” idea came to him, and he explained it this way: “We don’t go with the mainstream.”

Latrell Sprewell has proven that, as have Chris Dudley’s free throws. But Johnson meant other things. These Knicks, he says, remind him of his college days with Tark and Augmon.

“I’d die for everyone on that team,” he said.

He’s always been that way. From Vegas to Charlotte to the Knicks. Allan Bristow once said he wouldn’t trade Johnson for anyone, not David Robinson, when they were in Charlotte together. Jeff Van Gundy feels the same for this us-against-the-world rage.

And if he wins few friends for it outside his locker room, there’s no telling the magic he provides inside. Maybe, tonight, that’s the only reason the Knicks have a chance.

By Buck Harvey, via San Antonio Express-News