re:The Spurs

[opi@unesco.org]

I never thought of the Spurs this way, but they are actually a pretty
old team even as defending champions go, with ten players with 9 or more
years in the NBA.

Of their top seven players in minutes played this season, only Tim
Duncan is under the age of 31 (Chucky Brown). The backcourt of Avery
Johnson, Mario Elie, Steve Kerr and Terry Porter ranges from
34-years-old (Kerr) to 36-year-old (Porter and Elie). Mr Robinson is 34.
Chucky Brown's backup, Jerome Kersey, is 37. When he returns next year,
Sean Elliot will be 32.

Will Boston have the youthful energy and enough "Celtics Pride" to
defend their house (6-1) on Wednesday against the defending champs? Hard
to say.

The Spurs are holding opponents this year to an unheard of .394FG%. Last
night against Philly, the 76ers "held" Duncan and Robinson to just 12
blocks, 28 rebounds and 45 points. The Philly centers, Theo Ratliff and
Todd MacCulloch, came through with 2-15 shooting and 7 points and 10
boards in 48 minutes.

Joe

Interestingly, the defensive superstar Paul Pressey (the Adrian Griffin
of the 80s) now works as an assistant coach for Gregg Popovich. Also, I
was checking out (mainly from morbid curiosity) the homepage of Celt's
mascot "Lucky the Leprechaun" at NBA.COM. It claims he scored a perfect
1600 on his SATs (a US college entrance exam). Lucky lists among his
heroes Eddie Haskell from "Leave it to Beaver" and his favorite magazine
as the SI Swimsuit edition. He's a freaking weirdo, I say.

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