Jun
12
I THINK JAY MARIOTTI HAS A CRUSH ON TONY PARKER AND THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS!
Filed Under Chicago Bulls
Stop the Presses! Jay Mariotti Actually Wrote Something Stupid in One of His Sport’s Columns!
Well, it wouldn’t be a week, make that a day, in which Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times didn’t foretell the end of civilization. In today’s paper, he wrote how it was an absolute shame that the San Antonio Spurs don’t get the credit they deserve in this modern world consumed with controversy, The Sopranoes finale, and the Lebron hype (granted that this comes from a guy who spews hype from his lips every day for a half-hour on ESPN’s sufferable Around the Horn).
It seems that Mariotti was really taken by the Spurs’ dominant performance last night, and this was the typical Mariotti column to produce. Praise the team while being critical of everything else in the world (side note: it’s funny how Mariotti hasn’t written a basketball column in the paper since the Bulls were eliminated from the playoffs some three-plus weeks ago; in that time, he’s been ripping the fumbling White Sox every day and sticking his nose at Manager Ozzie Guillen, whom he has a less than cordial relationship).
If you’re not familiar with Mariotti’s columns, I would first like to say how lucky you are. Having subscribed to the now absolutely terrible Sun-Times for years, I’ve learned how Mariotti operates. He’s the hyprocrital preacher who is constantly predicting gloom and doom while using his column as a pulpit to unfairly take pot shots at athletes. He often goes over the line while his columns rarely lack any originality and are rather clear attempts to just say something controversial.
That’s how Mariotti has made his living for years. And now after watching Game Two of the NBA Finals, it’s Mariotti, the voice of reason, who must let the world know how we’re screwing up in not appreciating this Spurs team.
According to Mariotti, the Spurs play the game the right way and are an absolute joy to watch. He glazes over how this year’s inevitable San Antonio title is tainted by Robert Horry’s cheap shot of Phoenix’s Steve Nash in the second round and how that play changed the series as key Suns’ players Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were unjustly suspended by the NBA for a rule that is being enforced against its original intentions.
He talks how the Spurs do have a villain in Bruce Bowen, but once again shows his lack of basketball knowledge. If you knew anything about the game of basketball, Jay, you would know how a player like Bowen is a hack. He would not be in the league if he didn’t rely on his dirty defense and overall cheapness. Any fan of quality basketball would realize that Bowen is a guy that no one outside San Antonio would ever root for.
Jay further qualifies himself as an imbecile with his comment about the beautiful style of the Spurs. Sure, they were clicking last night, but each of the Spurs’ four Finals’ appearances have featured very ugly games in the low eighties. San Antonio may be fundamentally sound but they grind out games in a manner which is not fun to watch (no wonder no one is tuning into this series and why people haven’t cared less about the Spurs’ previous championships over the eighth-seed New York Knicks in 1999, the terrible New Jersey Nets in 2003, and the defending champion Detroit Pistons in 2005).
As he typically does, Mariotti then contradicts himself by saying that the Spurs have a player in Parker that the world should love and praise because he gets to go home to Eva Longoria. What a stupid comment, Jay! I thought you said the world is too much hype and thus teams like the Spurs are not appreciated.
Up until this year, Parker has been a very erratic player in the NBA Finals. He didn’t even finish out San Antonio’s clinchers in 2003 and 2005 (Speedy Claxton and Brent Barry took his place). Regardless of that, Parker was named one of the 100 Sexiest Men in People magazine because of his relationship with Longoria. This was all before Parker had done anything noteworthy in his career (the Spurs had not yet beaten the Nets in 2003).
Talk about being overhyped. My sister doesn’t watch basketball and knows who Tony Parker is. Give me a break. Parker is certainly not a household name because of his “transcendent” basketball skills.
While Parker is playing at a top level now and deserves praise, I’m not a big fan of the kid nor will I ever be. He’s a sissy, which would be apparent if a team ever played him physical instead of giving him uncontested lay ups all the time. While Parker uses his quickness to get his points, when will a team learn that you can still body this kid and foul him hard without being dirty?
Mariotti then writes how the Spurs’ winning four championships in nine years is such an impressive feat, whereas I say it isn’t considering the quality of play in the league, whom the Spurs have beaten, and what they have done in “defending” their titles. This statement comes from Mariotti, who watched the Bulls win six titles in eight years. Sometimes, Jay doesn’t think when he writes (make that 99 percent of the time).
Of San Antonio’s soon-to-be four title teams, only the 2005 championship was impressive. The Spurs beat a very solid Detroit team (which had been coming off a title the previous year) in a tough, seven game series. With that said, the Spurs beat a Knicks team in 1999 that was not only an eighth seed but was also without Patrick Ewing.
In 2003, the Spurs beat the Nets, a team which I’ve always said that if they were in the West Conference at the time would have been equivalent to the Phoenix Suns with Jason Kidd (in other words, a fourth or fifth seed gone by no later than the second round). And now the Spurs are beating up on Cavs’ team that is absolutely atrocious and essentially a one-man team with a bunch of filler.
While Jay and others want to exalt the Spurs as a dynasty, I say that they still won’t be one, even if they win this series. To me, a dynasty team is able to defend its title, which the Spurs haven’t done. Here’s an interesting fact. The Spurs haven’t gotten past the second round in any of the three years that they’ve “attempted” to defend their title.
They lost to the Suns in the first round in 2000 and then fell to the Lakers and the Mavs in the second round in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Thus far this decade, the Lakers are the only dynasty in the NBA as their three straight titles demonstrate (and I hate Los Angeles but will give them credit). Duncan and the Spurs did dethrone the Lakers in 2003 but were absolutely dominated by Shaq and Kobe when Los Angeles was rolling.
Last but not least, Mariotti does get one thing right in his column. He does acknowledge the greatness of Gregg Popovich and Duncan. Popovich is one of the best coaches to ever have coached in the NBA and is a Hall-of-Famer. The fact that he has won with these less-than-impressive Spurs’ team is a testament to his great coaching skills.
As for Duncan, he is the most skilled power forward to ever play the game. He can do it all. With that said, he’s hard to root for and appreciate. I don’t know if Mariotti has ever watched Duncan, but he’s is a “diva” and a jerk on the court. He cries to the refs when he doesn’t get calls (even though the Spurs are as physical as a team gets) and is a brooding big man.
So here’s what I say to Jay. Take these “great” Spurs’ teams and put them up against Shaq’s Lakers, MJ’s Bulls, Hakeem’s Rockets, Isaiah’s Pistons, Magic’s Lakers, Bird’s Celtics, and Dr. J’s 76ers, and see what you get. The “stupendous” Spurs lose to every one of these teams. It’s not even close.
I refuse to link to Mariotti’s column about the Spurs, but if you want to go see it, go to the Sun-Times website, click on the sports section, look for Mariotti’s name and the June 11th date, and find the column entitled crap. And if you especially dislike Mariotti like I do, check out this great blog, “Jay the Joke,” which was created by the brother of a former journalism classmate of mine at the University of Illinois.
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