Is there a new city rivalry?

[Jonathan Haigh <jhaigh@landdesign.com>]

This guy doesn't seem to like Bob Ryan very much......

Is he trying to start something with Bostonians?????

__FROM THE SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS____________________________________
Harvey: Why worry? How to enjoy Dunc 'n Dave 

                   You wake up sweating like Michael Jordan at the
free-throw line. Was it a dream? Or does Tim Duncan really face a
two-year military obligation? 

                   You wipe your brow, then worry about the summer of
2000. Duncan hasn't even been drafted yet, much less signed, and you
wonder if the Spurs can re-sign him. 

                   Then there's something far more troubling. Thirty-
six hours have now passed since Duncan joined David Robinson and no one
has come up with a nickname for them. 

                   Twin Towers? Used. Dunc 'n Dave? Sounds like a
doughnut shop. The Swimmer and the Sax? Mayyybe. 

                   Five months before they hit the floor, you worry
about everything - combinations, strategy, whether Mad Max left anything
illegal in the locker room. Duncan is too good to be true, so something
must be wrong. How can anything so blessed cause this much
                   anxiety? 

                   A remedy: Enjoy the dumb luck by smartly listening to
a distinctive sound coming from the east. It's funny enough to relax
anyone. 

                   If Sunday's lottery proved anything, it's that the
conspiracy theories are just that. Theories. Some fans and media fully
believed the lottery would be rigged. Curiously, a few in the Spurs'
offices thought the same. 

                   A fix never made much sense. The NBA wants a draw in
Boston, all right, just as it wants one in L.A., New York and Chicago.
But would the league risk everything for that? 

                   Still, what surrounds this lottery is the atmosphere
that creates such theories. NBC, for example, played up ``the revival''
of the Celtics on Sunday. Maybe that angle made a lot of sense, since
Boston had the best odds and Rick Pitino had just signed on. 
                   But here's a guess: Had New York or Boston won Duncan
with Robinson already on the roster, far more would have been made of
this nationally. As it was, The Fabulous Sports Babe said Monday Duncan
will ``go to the Spurs and never be heard from again.'' 

                   It's th. In 1987, when the Spurs won the right to
draft Robinson, the Lakers and Celtics were convinced the Spurs would
never sign him. The league was equally suspect the next summer when Red
McCombs courted Larry Brown. 

                   The same sound doesn't come from Denver or Golden
State. Those franchises wanted Duncan, too, but they never saw it as a
birthright. And it's the same attitude that makes Pitino think he can
offer some draft picks and take Duncan from country rubes. 

                   One of the leading Boston voices is Bob Ryan of the
Boston Globe. He's respected. But something he said last summer on
ESPN's ``Sports Reporters'' summed up his view. The MVP chances of the
Padres' Ken Caminiti, Ryan said, were hindered because ``nobody sees
him.'' 

                   A few million in Southern California don't qualify as
nobody, and the same goes for those who occasionally watch the National
League. Caminiti obviously errs by not parading near the beloved Red
Sox. 

                   No wonder Ryan wrote in Monday's editions, ``I am
declaring this to be `Feel Sorry for Us Today' in Boston. I am granting
us full license to spend this day wallowing in self-pity, bemoaning the
fates, cursing the pingpong balls and gloating over the fact that
General Santa Anna wiped out everyone of those cursed Texans on that
glorious day back in 1836.'' 

                   Funny stuff. This is, too: You should feel sorry for
them. Pitino will try to resurrect the legends with Tony Battie, if he
isn't already trying to return to his old Kentucky home. 

                   So breathe deep. As New England gnashes its teeth,
could any sound be more relaxing?
______________________________________________________________________

Let's keep an eye on these guys:

http://www.express-news.net