GAME 53 vs Atlanta, Game Thread

I was surprised the Spurs moved Brent Barry, but I guess he's banged up. Don't think they wouldn't love to have a cheap guy like Garcia who's not afraid to take the big shot.

My only concern with Garcia is not paying him too much when his time is due. Too much for me would be more than $3-4 million a year. Of course, that's a ways away and things could change between now and then. In the meantime, I'll just relish some more of those sweet shots. The dude can stroke it.

Maybe more like the difference between small market and big market teams.  In smaller markets (especially single team towns like Portland and Sac or towns where your bball team in the least of your major league franchises like Indy) maybe issues get magnified.  Especially when they're not winning.  

Look at how Portland has embraced the Blazers since they've basically replaced that entire team, it's not much (if any) whiter...the guys are just better players (and citizens) and the city is falling in love with them again.  

But you and I have different life experiences and perspectives, so I can't say you're wrong.  Things just look different from where I live as a fan.        

I read an interesting profile of Caron Butler recently (prolly from a TrueHoop link).  Here's a guy (like Juan Dixon) who's lived the roughest of rough when they were younger but seem to have outgrown it.  My issues are with the dudes who escaped horrible upbringings yet want to perpetuate what they've escaped by continuing to relive that lifestyle but have the means to live better and safer lives. And I've never understood fans who ridiculed Peja as a soft white Euro player if they've ever read a couple of articles regarding his youth.  Bombs, guns, and racism in his home country forcing his family to relocate and lose everything.  A seriously ill brother.  Maybe he wasn't clutch, but I'd guess he wasn't soft to have made it as far as he did.  

My worthless two cents.  

I really can't stand it when people bash the importance of role players.  It shows a complete misunderstanding of the game and leads to teams like the Nuggets, Houston, ect, that have no good, smart role players and will never win a championship.  Look at any of the championship teams in the history of the game, and you will always find a plethora of smart role players (which always include at least one 3-point specialist).  Every single one of those Bulls teams had such players, from John Paxson and Steve Kerr, and of course Grant, ect (if my memory was better I could name 15 more).  And just because these teams had plenty of such players does not mean there are plenty out there - many teams in the league have none or don't use or value the ones they have properly.  Just look at the impact an "interchangeable" player such as Kyle Karver has had on the Jazz.  Role players like Cisco are the difference between championship teams and pretenders.  So RECOGNIZE.

Derek Fisher
Larry Bird
Steve Nash
Dirk Nowitzki
Tim Duncan
Blahblahblah...

Tell me that Mitch averaging 21/3.9/3.5 Scoring 40+ in The All-Star game as MVP and playing on the Olympic Team  while playing in a major city wouldn't have made him a MAJOR commodity?

I was speaking previous to the 'golden years' my bad.

San Antonio CITY is no larger than Sacramento. San Antonio is the 2nd largest city in Texas and 7th largest in America. There are 1.3 MILLION in San Antonio CITY. There's about 1.3 in Sacramento COUNTY.

We sucked because we couldn't get anyone to COME HERE.