Category: San Antonio Spurs Blog

Here’s ESPN.com on Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, who marches to the beat of his own drum, as the expression goes:

Gregg Popovich, famously curt and sarcastic, revealed one of the secrets to the San Antonio Spurs’ success in a moment of candid reflection Tuesday, saying empowering his players to communicate on the court as he does during timeouts is key to getting them to make the right decisions throughout a game.

Popovich, speaking to media before a typically efficient 122-101 rout of the host Cleveland Cavaliers, said he often mines the “competitiveness and the character of the player” in shaping them into confident, productive components of the Spurs’ offense.

“Sometimes in timeouts I’ll say, ‘I’ve got nothing for you. What do you want me to do? We just turned it over six times. Everybody’s holding the ball. What else do you want me to do here? Figure it out,’ ” Popovich said, according to the San Antonio Express-News, not long before the Spurs used 14 3-pointers and a season-high 39 assists to dispatch the Cavs. “And I’ll get up and walk away. Because it’s true. There’s nothing else I can do for them. I can give them some bulls—, and act like I’m a coach or something, but it’s on them.”

Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel with quotes from LeBron James and Shane Battier of the Miami Heat on the San Antonio Spurs. The two teams face each other on Thursday, for the first time since last season’s NBA Finals:

James, in fact, scoffed at the notion of the Spurs growing too old.

“I never buy into that,” he said. “I’ve always been asked about that. I’ve bought into the Celtics team with Ray [Allen] and K.G. [Kevin Garnett] and all those guys, they were talking about they were too old and they were in the Finals again, so I never bought into it.”

And there the Spurs are, again near the top of the West, San Antonio again potentially the Heat’s final destination of the season.

“They’re awesome, they’re awesome,” forward Shane Battier said. “The fact they’ve done it so long and everyone is just waiting for them to fall off, and they haven’t. Not that they care about what everyone else thinks. But it’s awesome, it’s awesome.”

Here’s the San Antonio Express-News with some good news for the Spurs:

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said All-Star point guard Tony Parker is expected to be back by Sunday’s game against Dallas after skipping the past five games resting his ailing body.

The Spurs play Charlotte at home on Friday before hosting the rival Mavericks. Parker’s return will give the Spurs a full roster for the first time since their home loss to New York on Jan. 2, in which time they’re 15-9.

“We’re getting closer to the normal lineup,” Popovich said.

Here’s the San Antonio Express-News with an update on the Spurs, who hope to get some help back soon in the form of Kawhi Leonard:

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Kawhi Leonard’s immediate return to action remains questionable after the third-year small forward participated fully in practice on Monday.

Leonard has missed the past 14 games with a broken bone in his right (shooting) hand, during which the Spurs are 8-6.

“Kawhi did everything (Monday),” Popovich said. “We’ll just see how he comes out, the pain tolerance. I think he feels some here and there, but we’ll see how he feels in a little while and tomorrow morning.”

The Spurs play Detroit on Wednesday, Charlotte on Friday and Dallas on Sunday.

Here’s the San Antonio Express-News reporting on veteran Spurs star Tim Duncan, who still has no set plans as to when he will end his legendary NBA career and retire:

The rumor propagated by former Nuggets coach George Karl that Tim Duncan has made up his mind to retire at season’s end was shot down by the Spurs captain after he helped the Spurs score a 113-103 win over the Clippers at Staples Center on Tuesday night.

Citing “whispers” and phone calls, including from San Antonio, about Duncan’s plans, Karl told ESPN on Tuesday he had heard of Duncan’s plan to exercise his player option to walk away from the final season of his three-year deal with the Spurs and retire after this season.

“I’d like to know who he talked to,” Duncan said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do so I don’t know how he knows what I’m going to do.”

Here’s Realtor.com reporting on former NBA star Mike Finley, who is trying to sell a house in Texas:

After selling off an “NBA Showtime” arcade game and other assorted artifacts from his playing career at his Dallas residence in October, the retired shooting guard has slashed the price of his house in San Antonio.

The former Mavericks and Spurs great had hoped to bank as much as $1.5 million when began shopping the half-acre property in 2011. Since then, however, Finley has shaved nearly $400,000 off his original ask — including a February adjustment of nearly $200,000 — bringing the current listing price to $1.099 million.

Of the amenities found inside Finley’s 5,421-square-foot spread, none stand out more than his in-house movie theater, which looks primed for a marathon reel of his career highlights. Other luxuries within the four-bedroom, four-bathroom include various living rooms, a game room, a large kitchen and a master suite with walk-in closets.

The San Antonio Spurs today announced that they have signed guard Shannon Brown to a 10-day contract. At the same time the Spurs released Othyus Jeffers from his 10-day contract.

Brown, 6-4/210, most recently played for the Phoenix Suns from 2011-13. In two seasons with the Suns he appeared in 118 games, averaging 10.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 23.7 minutes per game.

The seven-year NBA veteran has also played for the L.A. Lakers (2009-11), Charlotte (2008-09), Chicago (2007-08) and Cleveland (2006-08). For his career Brown has appeared in 374 games, averaging 8.1 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 18.7 minutes. The Illinois native was originally drafted by the Cavaliers with 25th pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.

In addition to his NBA career, Brown has spent time in the NBA Development League with the Iowa Energy (2008), Rio Grande Valley Vipers (2008) and the Albuquerque Thunderbirds (2007).

Collegiately, Brown played three seasons at Michigan State University (2003-06), appearing in 97 career games, averaging 12.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 28.0 minutes.

Brown will wear No.1 for the Spurs