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Yang"},{"term":"Yaa Gyasi"},{"term":"Yago Colàs"},{"term":"Yamashita"},{"term":"Yearbooks"},{"term":"You Can't Eat the Basketball"},{"term":"You Tube"},{"term":"Yuri Herrera"},{"term":"Zack de la Rocha"},{"term":"Zidane"},{"term":"Zooey Deschanel"},{"term":"a-10"},{"term":"al gore"},{"term":"and 1"},{"term":"anniversary"},{"term":"apologies for making life into a biology dissection"},{"term":"archives"},{"term":"around the power 6"},{"term":"autotune"},{"term":"bad move"},{"term":"bad movie"},{"term":"bad-jerseys"},{"term":"badges"},{"term":"ballers"},{"term":"balls mahoney"},{"term":"bandages"},{"term":"barry bonds"},{"term":"beer"},{"term":"beer wenches"},{"term":"being human"},{"term":"bet"},{"term":"big three"},{"term":"bill and gary"},{"term":"blasphemy"},{"term":"blizzards"},{"term":"blocked shot"},{"term":"blow-outs"},{"term":"board games"},{"term":"brits"},{"term":"broken leg"},{"term":"bubble"},{"term":"card collectors"},{"term":"cause and effect"},{"term":"cedric benson"},{"term":"celebrities"},{"term":"champagne bukakke"},{"term":"chandler parsons"},{"term":"cheats"},{"term":"concerts"},{"term":"conference breakdown"},{"term":"conference usa"},{"term":"contractions"},{"term":"cops"},{"term":"corny"},{"term":"curses"},{"term":"damn cold"},{"term":"damns"},{"term":"demon spawn"},{"term":"derek dooleys pants"},{"term":"divorce"},{"term":"drugs"},{"term":"dust devils"},{"term":"e"},{"term":"ecw"},{"term":"embarrasing"},{"term":"entertainment"},{"term":"entirely too long"},{"term":"epic fail"},{"term":"etc"},{"term":"every rapper you ever heard of"},{"term":"extortion"},{"term":"family"},{"term":"fantasy sports"},{"term":"fed ex field."},{"term":"flipped cars"},{"term":"floyd mayweather"},{"term":"gambling"},{"term":"game of the week"},{"term":"geography buff"},{"term":"girls' field hockey"},{"term":"glass shower"},{"term":"goggles"},{"term":"great friends"},{"term":"happy new year"},{"term":"haynesworth"},{"term":"high school football"},{"term":"hillarity"},{"term":"hillary clinton"},{"term":"history"},{"term":"homerism abound"},{"term":"horse racing"},{"term":"huge contract"},{"term":"human tetris"},{"term":"icons"},{"term":"in theaters now"},{"term":"infinity"},{"term":"inventions"},{"term":"jail-birds"},{"term":"jevon kearse"},{"term":"john broderick"},{"term":"ketchup"},{"term":"kicks"},{"term":"lasers"},{"term":"liars"},{"term":"light speed"},{"term":"lil sis"},{"term":"macots"},{"term":"mad hatter"},{"term":"making it rain"},{"term":"man of the match"},{"term":"managers"},{"term":"mariah carey"},{"term":"message board"},{"term":"mid majors"},{"term":"midsummer classic"},{"term":"mike martz"},{"term":"milestones"},{"term":"money"},{"term":"mug shots"},{"term":"must ... kill... dane... cook"},{"term":"my bad"},{"term":"my eyes hurt"},{"term":"ncaa football 2009"},{"term":"ncaa tournament"},{"term":"no style"},{"term":"nonsense"},{"term":"norfolk"},{"term":"now appearing"},{"term":"nsfw"},{"term":"off topic"},{"term":"offer"},{"term":"oh happy day"},{"term":"okie noodling"},{"term":"old dominion"},{"term":"one"},{"term":"overkill"},{"term":"ozzie guillen"},{"term":"party time"},{"term":"plays"},{"term":"podcast"},{"term":"poetically incorrect"},{"term":"preseason"},{"term":"previews"},{"term":"pummeled"},{"term":"question of the week"},{"term":"question of the year"},{"term":"radio"},{"term":"rain delays"},{"term":"rainmaker"},{"term":"ramblings"},{"term":"rant"},{"term":"reebok suits"},{"term":"rickrolled"},{"term":"rise of Florida"},{"term":"risk"},{"term":"role models"},{"term":"ruined memories"},{"term":"running"},{"term":"salaries"},{"term":"sam beckett"},{"term":"science"},{"term":"scores don't matter"},{"term":"shame"},{"term":"shamed"},{"term":"sick blocks"},{"term":"silly"},{"term":"snow shoveling"},{"term":"spiders"},{"term":"sports"},{"term":"sportscenter"},{"term":"stand-up"},{"term":"statistics"},{"term":"steam rolled"},{"term":"steeple chase"},{"term":"student revisions"},{"term":"summer 09"},{"term":"tainted dreams"},{"term":"take me out to the ballgame"},{"term":"team capsules"},{"term":"terrible trades"},{"term":"terry tate"},{"term":"the Internet"},{"term":"the riddler"},{"term":"thunderball"},{"term":"toilets"},{"term":"towson"},{"term":"track and field"},{"term":"tragedy"},{"term":"transition"},{"term":"travis henry"},{"term":"trent richardson"},{"term":"tribe"},{"term":"type writers"},{"term":"ugly"},{"term":"unions"},{"term":"weather reports"},{"term":"wgn"},{"term":"what a dick"},{"term":"what if"},{"term":"will be back soon"},{"term":"willie randolph"},{"term":"wolves"},{"term":"woo woo"},{"term":"wood selig"},{"term":"your job is your credit"},{"term":"Àlvaro Enrigue"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The Lawn Chair Boys"},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":"The Lawn Chair Boys are a collective group of Virginia-bred sports fans with varying interests, viewpoints, biases, style and team affiliations. You will find original pieces with original art, humor, literary spins, mid-90s hip-hop references, a love of all things Ron Artest and much much more."},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/posts\/default"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/-\/Manu+Ginobili?alt=json-in-script\u0026max-results=10"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/search\/label\/Manu%20Ginobili"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/18154553815666186170"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"http://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"8"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"10"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338464331588642586.post-1485753187916955751"},"published":{"$t":"2012-06-06T18:34:00.001-04:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2012-09-09T22:55:26.853-04:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Bryan Harvey"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Father's Day"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"James Harden"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Kevin Durant"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Manu Ginobili"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"mythology"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Oklahoma City Thunder"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Russell Westbrook"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"San Antonio Spurs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Tim Duncan"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Tony Parker"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Western Conference Finals"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Game Six of the Thunder and Spurs: Zeus Goes One on One with Cronos"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-RN5cJIUVjVE\/T8_VVDQjYpI\/AAAAAAAABsM\/iyUJi50Y4Z4\/s1600\/zeus-father-4.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"268\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-RN5cJIUVjVE\/T8_VVDQjYpI\/AAAAAAAABsM\/iyUJi50Y4Z4\/s400\/zeus-father-4.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EI\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003En any driveway or gym, the human eye is a keen observer. Youth bears witness to technique and instinct without even knowing: dribbling, shooting, pump faking, jabstepping, slashing. The slashing is key. And with every successful drive to the basket, a young athlete learns that not only can he do what his father does but he can do it quicker--precision be damned--gashing his way through an invisible veil, making the realization of the moment feel as effortless as a bulldozer burning through spiderweb. Driveways are full of big gaping holes between the past and the present.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI can still remember the first time I beat my father at basketball. He was broader in the shoulder than I. Taller too. And even when I drove past him, the risk of him blocking my shot from behind was still there, and not until I mastered the bankshot did I discover the proper angles for dissecting his old age, forcing him to come out and play me--only then could I blow by him without fear or hesitation. No game is played quite the same as the one in which you beat your father. It is a game played with hate and love and sweat pouring out from a place of yearning and dripping into something on the verge of understanding. For me, it was a game that felt like learning to run, like taking flight, like learning how to kill, and that's the part of the game so difficult to discuss or admit. When you beat a brother or a peer, more battles are always on the horizon--the duel feels eternal--but a game against one's father is wrecked with finality that most boys do not, and cannot, understand.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhen I beat my father for the first time, I think I yelled and started to raise my hands before something in me tightened and pulled the rest of my excitement back into my lungs before it could leave my lips. The orange globe of a ball rolled slowly across the gray driveway and there he was, hands on his hips, sweating, with his shoulders more hunched than usual, and yelling no longer felt appropriate. When we walked into the garage towards the refrigerator, he put his hand on my shoulder, but for the first time I thought how I could easily do the same for him. As we sipped neon liquid from plastic bottles, I did not know what to say--how does one truly talk trash to their dad? And he told me I played well and also that he would get me next time. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-dRBtouf4PV4\/T8_WDjm88eI\/AAAAAAAABsU\/ld-0BUfXov4\/s1600\/manu-parker-duncan.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"277\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-dRBtouf4PV4\/T8_WDjm88eI\/AAAAAAAABsU\/ld-0BUfXov4\/s400\/manu-parker-duncan.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EW\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003Eith the exception of Russell Westbrook's block of Danny Green's practice attempt in Game Five, this OKC Thunder series with the San Antonio Spurs reminds me a great deal of playing basketball against my father. Games One and Two saw San Antonio out think and out maneuver the Thunder. The Spurs spaced the floor as well as America's breadbasket and Tony Parker's pick and roll swept over the lane like a tornado. The Thunder looked helpless, and many of us, myself included, were ready to proclaim a disaster of epic proportions. Then Scott Brooks told his young team to start hacking Tiago Splitter at the end of Game Two's third quarter, and the game slowed down.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EElegance and beauty were mauled into something more akin to pedestrian sidewalk crossings and awkward silences. For a team as young and athletic as the Thunder, it was as if they had found themselves at the dinner table in midst of an adult conversation and the only weapon at their disposal was mockery rather than respect and understanding. If either team must resort to butchery, before the series started one would have thought it would be San Antonio. After all, Gregg Popovich was the biggest proponent of the 'Hack a Shaq' philosophy. But what I missed--what most of us missed--was that in ruining the graceful ballet that was the Spurs' offense in Game Two, the Thunder were not bending their heads in frustration but in academic study. They were indelibly soaking up what it meant to be the offspring of the Spurs, and in Games Three, Four, and Five, their defensive rotations, offensive spacing, and decision making with the ball became as scientific and miraculous as the collision between sperm and egg--or as volatile as Cronos vomiting up Olympians. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-Z6ITOx0JXPM\/T8_WKjusHiI\/AAAAAAAABsc\/ohvr9otjdR4\/s1600\/durant-westbrook-harden.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"225\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-Z6ITOx0JXPM\/T8_WKjusHiI\/AAAAAAAABsc\/ohvr9otjdR4\/s400\/durant-westbrook-harden.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EY\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003Eouth often learns through mimicry and plagiarism, which means what youthful genius produces is often only as good as what it consumes. Sports writers and journalists have often cited that Oklahoma City was built by R.C. Buford disciple Sam Presti, but until the last three games of this series, the Thunder have always played and acted more as an offshoot of the Lakers or even the Heat.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETheir inoculation to the NBA Playoffs came two years ago against Los Angeles and changed the course of OKC's narrative as begrudgingly as a river's, when people began to view them less as a continuation of the Spurs small market (organizational) success and more as the successors to Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol's offensive playmaking and dynamic scoring. This shift was embodied most by the budding rivalry between Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant, as well as the fact that the debate over OKC's true alpha dog was a whispered prelude to the disputed claims between the Miami Heat's LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. The connection with the Heat was made even greater when both teams were japed time and again in last year's Playoffs by the team chemistry and sophistication of the Dallas Mavericks. This season then appeared to be more of the same (they led the League in turnovers) until the Thunder quit behaving as restless motors in a Taco Bell parking lot and began to quietly observe and steal the wizardry of San Antonio's style and composure, only the Thunder are much quicker and more athletic than their mentors, leaving Manu Ginobili to play bumper cars with Serge Ibaka on the break and Tony Parker to flop like a fish out of water holding his jaw in silence. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003ET\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003Ehe Thunder may have at times behaved as prodigals, falling into disputes of ego and hubris over who should take the last shot, but their 2012 excursion from tornado alley to the Alamo has been as short and familiar and self-defining as a cracked driveway, a rusted hoop, and an out of bounds as thorny as any rosebush; and the only question left appears to be what does a 23-year-old Kevin Durant say to a 36-year-old Tim Duncan--because what causes a son not to celebrate too loudly and an old man to keep believing is the unspoken truth that each man's margin of victory has always been as wide and unjust as the space between generations, unmeasurable and incomparable.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EEnjoy the exuberance of the Thunder now because one day they will have sons of their own whose sole purpose in life will be to usurp them.\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003EPost\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/1485753187916955751\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2012\/06\/game-six-of-thunder-and-spurs-zeus-goes.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/1485753187916955751"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/1485753187916955751"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2012\/06\/game-six-of-thunder-and-spurs-zeus-goes.html","title":"Game Six of the Thunder and Spurs: Zeus Goes One on One with Cronos"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05841282055513560945"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-RN5cJIUVjVE\/T8_VVDQjYpI\/AAAAAAAABsM\/iyUJi50Y4Z4\/s72-c\/zeus-father-4.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338464331588642586.post-6053496042633549087"},"published":{"$t":"2012-02-23T17:30:00.000-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-09-06T23:27:45.983-04:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Al Horford"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Atlanta Hawks"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Bryan Harvey"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Gilbert Arenas"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Greg Oden"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Manu Ginobili"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Memphis Grizzlies"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Naturalism"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"San Antonio Spurs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Washington Wizards"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Yao Ming"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Zach Randolph"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Al Horford Has Angel Wings: Identity, Injuries, and Hope in the NBA"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-V4BXjFIdvVg\/T0Rfln-QHUI\/AAAAAAAABcc\/K3NluKfwRA4\/s1600\/falcford1.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-V4BXjFIdvVg\/T0Rfln-QHUI\/AAAAAAAABcc\/K3NluKfwRA4\/s400\/falcford1.jpg\" height=\"400\" width=\"322\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"im\"\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #500050;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\"We'll be alright once we get _________________ back.\"\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"background-color: transparent;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #500050; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EWhat sports fan hasn't at some point uttered the above statement, whether out of confidence or sheer desperation? The imagination of sports fans exists in a realm of hypotheticals, what ifs, and naive wish fulfillment. Injuries to significant players flatten the playing field, allowing both wealthy and impoverished fans alike to create a parallel universe where, with one crucial addition, anything can happen. It’s the absence of a player that brings them down, and this absence also allows them to imagine the previously unthinkable: that a team whose achievement has grown stagnant can still shatter glass ceilings.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"background-color: transparent;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #500050; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"color: #500050;\"\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: black;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003ET\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003Ehe New York Knicks are experiencing a form of this right now, as they imagine a world where the isolation of Carmelo Anthony returns to the lineup and is able to coexist with the constant movement of Jeremy Lin in some sort of lion lying down with the lamb rapture. While the Knicks are the only team to find a miracle such as Lin this season, they are \u0026nbsp;not the only team to have a marquee player miss major time due to injury, and they are definitely not the only team that has allowed missed time to ferment into splashes of graffiti on urban gray sidewalks.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"im\" style=\"display: inline !important;\"\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"color: #500050;\"\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003ET\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003Ehe Atlanta Hawks have been without All-Star Al Horford since January 11th, but it is only in the last week that they have begun to slide in the Playoff seedings. Their level of play has been just good enough to pass Horford’s torn chest muscle off as some sort of a weak talisman. The Hawks are neither particularly young, nor particularly old. They are neither on the rise, nor in distress. In 2005, they finished the NBA season with the League's worst record. Two years later they were the number eight seed in the Eastern Conference and gave the Celtics their toughest series of the postseason. Back then, things seemed limitless. Horford’s injury, in a more modest way, opens up a similar space of creative uncertainty.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"color: #500050;\"\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003ECharles Barkley describes today’s Hawks as a collection of great role players. For that reason, the Atlanta Hawks have maxed out on all the good emotions that a rise from the League's basement to regularly finishing fourth or fifth, even as high as third, in the regular season can give birth to. That’s why Al Horford's injury is the best worse thing that could ever happen to a team like this; a team that by its very nature can't go anywhere other than where it already is. Seeing Al Horford on the sidelines in a sports coat allows Atlanta fans and their team to draw angel blue wings out of the center's shoulder blades and prop the cage door open, but the problem is, even if that cage is left open, just like in a Vonnegut book, these Hawks won't fly--they'll just flap their wings like they always do.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"im\"\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003ET\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003Ehe ethereal hunt to make good on a season’s promise confronts more than just teams who have never been to the mountain top, and such is the case with the San Antonio Spurs, whose Sphinx’s riddle combination of youth and old age makes them a unique hybrid of infantile enthusiasm and decrepit old age, but the Spurs do not belong in a conversation about potential and expectations simply because they possess a bit of youth on their roster--no, the reason the Spurs belong in the discussion is because they have always made a habit of resurrecting their championship dreams with rebuilt rosters, diamonds in the rough, and foreign assassins. For a team that has never before found their efforts to be so consistently benign, as say the Atlanta Hawks, in achieving their end goals, the Spurs are finally coming to terms with the limitations that define most franchises and the fact that \u0026nbsp;their jersey alone does not make every role player into a Stephen Jackson. At times, potential is as much about what a team can’t do as what it can do, and San Antonio was set to learn this lesson prior to Manu Ginobili’s injury. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EBut his broken hand, while on the surface yet another reason to doubt, actually gives them new hope for the season. Manu is his own precedent here; two years ago it was his ankle and last season it was his elbow that thwarted the team's quest for a fifth title. And while some may write off such reasoning as an avalanche of excuses, what's really taking place is that rational fans, coaches, and athletes are looking for ways to deny the devestating erosion of their team's potential, to buy into the idea that those initial stages of continued growth can occur again by first taking steps backward.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EEarly on in the absence of Ginobili, Gregg Popovich picked up his intensity, the team responded, and he was left praising players such as former UNC standout Danny Green and rookie Kawhi Leonard. So, while Ginobili’s thirty-eight day absence served as a constant reminder of just how fragile the San Antonio landscape has become, the team was simultaneously given a chance to celebrate the development of the young role players who helped keep a sinking ship afloat.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EHowever, these small victories against time’s war of attrition do not guarantee that San Antonio will ever recover any of its old championship magic, just as the valiant efforts of the Hawks in Horford's absence do not guarantee that Atlanta will ever win its ongoing battle against Playoff mediocrity. But that does not render such victories meaningless. On their own, these small achievements ward off the complacency and frustration that settle over a city when its team is believed to have plateaued. When the normal cogs in the machinery are tossed out or broken, fanbases are forced into surrendering expectations, but when a team manages to then surpass even the lowliest of goals, a miracle is perceived; and these conquests make way for the belief that \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003Eanything \u003C\/i\u003Eis still possible. And that initial spark between a team on the rise and a hungry fanbase is slowly rekindled one toughed out game at a time.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;\"\u003ES\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;\"\u003Eometimes, though, loss is more than just a rallying cry but an identity. The same Memphis Grizzlies team that dispatched the number one seeded Spurs last season has been carrying on without their stalwart, Zach Randolph, who in last year's postseason proved definitively that he is the League's most unique combination of brute strength and raw precision. As if the tradition of defeat were a body to be hunted, killed, and devoured, he left the blues gutted on the Memphis sidewalk; his vendetta against his own past intertwined with that of the franchise's and the city's.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-AICphW9Jmpk\/T0WWoCrWWqI\/AAAAAAAABdE\/KE6KzexxiYc\/s1600\/randolphboat-1.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-AICphW9Jmpk\/T0WWoCrWWqI\/AAAAAAAABdE\/KE6KzexxiYc\/s400\/randolphboat-1.jpg\" height=\"272\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EAnd while some teams would not survive the prolonged absence of their team's heart and soul, the Memphis Grizzlies are doing what a team such as the 1997 San Antonio Spurs without David Robinson could not do but the 1998 Orlando Magic without Penny Hardaway could: they are persevering, bonding together, becoming stronger, and not drifting into melancholy. Perhaps their ability to do so comes from their own experience: last year their rumble through the postseason came without forward Rudy Gay, who is now doing for the team what Zach Randolph once did, raging against all the trade rumors, doubts, and time lost to injury. Or maybe the Grizz define themselves by a mantra that is much less passive than the \"We'll be alright once we get Zach back.\"\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EEarly on in January, Memphis coach Lionel Hollins, when asked about Randolph’s injury, bluntly stated, “That’s life. . . . We can’t worry about what ifs and what we should do to get him back. This is where we are.” This man is not an optimist and much too dire in his outlook to be a straight realist. No, Lionel Hollins is a natural born survivor; a man who finds himself at home in Stephen Crane’s “Open Boat,” not even bothering to bail water out of the shoddy hull but stubbornly rowing for shore nonetheless, and when that proves futile, he will surely dive into the ocean and swim against the ambivalent current. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"im\" style=\"color: #500050;\"\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EThe earnest depravity of the Memphis Grizzlies offers a stark contrast to the illusion of flight that is the Atlanta Hawks on a nightly basis. Because of how physical the Grizz are, the idea that they must struggle seems inevitable, as if injury is a part of the plan when they take the floor. On the other hand, the Hawks have always been about mistaken identity: the face of ownership is constantly changing, Marvin Williams was taken over Chris Paul, they overpaid for Joe Johnson, and Josh Smith has always refused to be a true power forward. While the Grizz are their pain, the Hawks risk being viewed as impostors, that at some point their lack of identity will catch up with them, that they can’t play this bruised and battered role forever. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-WDI40CbB8Ew\/T0WKxPf4DvI\/AAAAAAAABc8\/GMK2_QMWcA0\/s1600\/042709oden(1)-1.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-WDI40CbB8Ew\/T0WKxPf4DvI\/AAAAAAAABc8\/GMK2_QMWcA0\/s400\/042709oden(1)-1.jpg\" height=\"303\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EF\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003Eor some teams, this examination of will lasts even longer than a few weeks or even a season. This kind of hamster's wheel illusion of judging success by working nonstop to maintain the status quo, when the entire world believes disaster is only a few games away, is what has come to define both the Houston Rockets of the last decade and the entire existence of the Portland Trail Blazers.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"background-color: transparent;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EThe Rockets have written an Oddyssey's worth of poetic verse on how to band together and survive in the absence of their king, sometimes played by Yao Ming and at other times by Tracy McGrady. In fact, it was in 2008 that this team became pure duct tape and won twenty-two straight games, the second longest streak all-time, without Yao Ming. And a year later, in the Playoffs, against the reigning Western Conference champion Lakers, the Rockets echoed the resiliency of their streak by pushing L.A. to seven games despite the loss of their center, once again, in Game 3 of the series, which makes one wonder if the loss of a star player can serve as a crucible for those players believed to be of a lesser value than the stars they play beside, offering them a chance at validating, as both a team and individuals, their own rectitude. And, in some ways, perhaps even this year’s Rockets are hustling hard for the mythical day on which their giant center might return. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"background-color: transparent;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EMeanwhile, the Portland Trailblazers have every excuse under the sun to have their history parallel that of the L.A. Clippers, but the ashes of Bill Walton, Sam Bowie, Ronnie Lester, Greg Oden, and Brandon Roy appear to be of more use to soldiers stranded behind enemy lines than the torn ligaments of Danny Manning, Shaun Livingston, and Elton Brand. Whether due to locker room chemistry, talent, or fate, not every team or franchise is stubborn enough to rebound from hardship, however brief or enduring. The Blazers and the Rockets have persevered, and are persevering, because they view fate as a challenge rather than a death sentence, but no matter what they were able to accomplish without their big names, the absence of such names created great, big roaring chimeras of what might have been, and perhaps the increased tempo of this year’s Blazers has as much to do with the addition of Ray Felton as it does with chasing down the phantasms and ghosts of Brandon Roy and Greg Oden, that in some parallel universe are still running game. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"background-color: transparent;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EThese teams may not win championships. Some of them may not even reach the Playoffs, but there is courage to be found in their desperate flailings. Like teenagers scorned by heartbreak, they stand outside our windows holding radios over their heads that demand we hear them out, let the song run its course, and not write them off until they are done with romantic gestures. And while the songs they’re playing are not quite the same, their motives for playing them are. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"background-color: transparent;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EJ\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003Eust a half decade ago, the Washington Wizards were a team that felt headed to somewhere, and somewhere can be a lot of places. For Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, somewhere was always the Finals, until a few years ago, and then somewhere relocated to the second round. For the Atlanta Hawks, somewhere has always been and always will be the second round. For Memphis and the Knicks, no one knows yet. And that’s the beauty of somewhere--until you get there, you have no clue where it is. You live in an unending moment of anticipation. And that’s where Washington Wizard basketball existed before guns and knee injuries, before Gilbert Arenas unraveled. But, before anyone in Washington was willing to admit that Agent Zero no longer existed, the 2008 season unfolded. And despite having its best player suit up for an unlucky number of games, the Wizards still made the Playoffs behind the play of Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler, which was nothing new--the accomplishment capped off a run of four straight postseasons, all but one ending in the first round; the two most exciting runs coincidentally being the first one, because it whet the appetite, and the last one with Gilbert coming \u0026nbsp;off the bench, because it spoke to the quality of the whole and had everyone in the District thinking, “Wait until Gilbert’s back--healthy.”\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"background-color: transparent;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003EThe wait lasted until March of 2009, and the Wizards went 19-63; somewhere was in the first round; but no one knew it at the time, and, for the record, didn’t want to--because knowing would have tamed the wild fantasies that keep entire cities, states, and fanbases hungry and enthralled; filling in the blanks of their despair with whatever name can carry the burden of a season’s hindered hope. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003E\u003Cb style=\"font-weight: normal;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E**\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe credit for the Al Horford and Zach Randolph images goes to Langston, and much of the drafting process was aided by Nathaniel Friedman. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;\"\u003EBryan Harvey can be followed on Twitter\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LawnChairBoys\" style=\"background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E@LawnChairBoys\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;\"\u003E.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003EPost\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/6053496042633549087\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2012\/02\/al-horford-has-angel-wings-identity.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/6053496042633549087"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/6053496042633549087"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2012\/02\/al-horford-has-angel-wings-identity.html","title":"Al Horford Has Angel Wings: Identity, Injuries, and Hope in the NBA"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05841282055513560945"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-V4BXjFIdvVg\/T0Rfln-QHUI\/AAAAAAAABcc\/K3NluKfwRA4\/s72-c\/falcford1.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338464331588642586.post-5783872599284760659"},"published":{"$t":"2012-01-08T22:08:00.000-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2012-01-08T22:08:50.108-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Broken Hand"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Bryan Harvey"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Gregg Popovich"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Langston"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Manu Ginobili"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Popovich"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"San Antonio Spurs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teach"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"A Look Inside the Mind of Gregg Popovich and Ginobili's Broken Hand"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-UiriyBZUMeg\/TwpVogekujI\/AAAAAAAABYo\/_bqnyuDHYoI\/s1600\/poppovichdream1.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"367\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-UiriyBZUMeg\/TwpVogekujI\/AAAAAAAABYo\/_bqnyuDHYoI\/s400\/poppovichdream1.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EGregg Popovich's face, pockmarked and scowling, looks like it has seen things that would keep most men up at night, stirring in their bed sheets, pacing over their floorboards, wondering about what it would be like to be inside of a refrigerator, when the door shuts, and the light goes out, and everything is cold.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe coach has always frowned upon men who get up for midnight snacks, who are afraid of the sounds their stomachs make. He has always been a realist, never a dreamer, so when he hears the tic toc crocodile tic of Tim Duncan's knees going up and down the court, he's dead serious as he ponders the impact on his basketball team of replacing Manu Ginobili's broken hand with a metal hook: would such a procedure place his swashbuckling closer back on the court faster than waiting for the bone to heal or are such imaginings simply a wasted exercise in childhood escapism? And what would happen when Manu dribbles the ball? Would it deflate? Would other players simply get out of his way as he literally slashed his way to the basket? Is it fair to ask a man to give up pieces of his body when the championship is already out of reach?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETic. Toc. Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc. The heart beats faster in a shortened season.\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003EPost\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/5783872599284760659\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2012\/01\/look-inside-mind-of-gregg-popovich-and.html#comment-form","title":"2 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/5783872599284760659"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/5783872599284760659"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2012\/01\/look-inside-mind-of-gregg-popovich-and.html","title":"A Look Inside the Mind of Gregg Popovich and Ginobili's Broken Hand"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05841282055513560945"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-UiriyBZUMeg\/TwpVogekujI\/AAAAAAAABYo\/_bqnyuDHYoI\/s72-c\/poppovichdream1.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"2"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338464331588642586.post-4432229219319012458"},"published":{"$t":"2011-06-26T12:40:00.005-04:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2011-06-26T16:56:44.093-04:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Bryan Harvey"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"George Hill"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Manu Ginobili"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA Draft"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"San Antonio Spurs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Tim Duncan"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Tony Parker"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"George Hill: Keeping Hope Alive"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-pCEXViJmGbQ\/TgdfUuhnOQI\/AAAAAAAABFY\/40LKbTTKwIA\/s1600\/act_george_hill.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"284\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-pCEXViJmGbQ\/TgdfUuhnOQI\/AAAAAAAABFY\/40LKbTTKwIA\/s320\/act_george_hill.jpg\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENow that the George Hill era in San Antonio has come and gone we can say that it went exactly as we expected. He never delivered a championship or even an All-Star performance, but then again, what twenty-sixth pick from IUPUI ever does? What does IUPUI even stand for? Did we ever even find a position for George Hill? And the true answers to these questions are the paradoxical existence that is a team at the end of a championship run: Being drafted at the end of the first round to a team like the Spurs comes with all the mystery and pressure of being asked to perform necromancy, when to be picked by any other team would merely be a free pass to let the dead rest. When a team is on the rise, it relies on picking the right cornerstones at the top of the draft, but the more a team rises into the League's higher altitudes, it requires late round picks to prolong its oxygen supply, and George Hill was the Spurs' last breath.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-9J4z8EX-bLQ\/Tgdgo6kLkYI\/AAAAAAAABFk\/Sib2X2GfEw8\/s1600\/Maester-Aemon-game-of-thrones-20577508-595-397.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"266\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-9J4z8EX-bLQ\/Tgdgo6kLkYI\/AAAAAAAABFk\/Sib2X2GfEw8\/s400\/Maester-Aemon-game-of-thrones-20577508-595-397.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETim Duncan's Spurs got old twice, maybe even three times. Most teams never have that luxury, but San Antonio got old and then born again between the '99 and '03 championships, on the legs of Manu Ginobili, who as a fifty-seventh pick swept into the League like Dark Magic, and became the unfair standard for every non-Lottery Spurs pick thereafter, which happened to be every Spurs pick thereafter, which meant the Spurs were picking between bastard sons, rapists, thieves, and IUPUI graduates. But do not hold these men to their labels. George Hill should not be remembered as the Manu that never was, even if at this point in his career it gives his story context. No, George Hill proved himself more than his beginnings.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHe was a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.48minutesofhell.com\/how-gregg-popovich-could-trade-his-favorite-player\"\u003Efavorite son\u003C\/a\u003E. Less prodigal than either Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili, his banishment from the Black appears unwarranted. He was a constant believer in Pop's system, playing any of three perimeter positions, when asked, and willing to start or come off the bench. On some nights he was the team's defensive stopper, on other nights its key playmaker, on some a spot up shooter, and on others its best slasher. He did the duty that was asked of him, without the rumors that he'd \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/2011\/basketball\/nba\/06\/07\/tony.parker.spurs.ap\/index.html\"\u003Egiven up on the team's vision\u003C\/a\u003E, and without the heart-attack-inducing play of his two forbearers. And he was also young: twenty-five years old, which allows one to predict that his best years are still to come, somewhere beyond the walls of San Antonio. And that is why his parting is so filled with sorrow: Spurs fans are not used to seeing their best depart with so much game yet to run.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-2PuQDj5cQis\/TgdgCu1CN2I\/AAAAAAAABFg\/NnbRacbmtzo\/s1600\/game-of-thrones-wall.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"237\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-2PuQDj5cQis\/TgdgCu1CN2I\/AAAAAAAABFg\/NnbRacbmtzo\/s400\/game-of-thrones-wall.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhen today's Spurs fans are old and wrinkled, they will surely gather by late night fires and cozy bedposts, to tell the tales of Tim Duncan, Manu, and Tony. They will paint a grizzly face of Pop, potmarked and scarred from years of battle against Purple Walkers and Kobe Bryants. David Robinson, Sean Elliott, and George Gervin are likely to hear their names whispered in these stories, too; bricks and mortar in a strong lineage. But, now, George Hill's name will likely not be mentioned, except maybe as a footnote, or a man who rode off in the middle of the night, but it shouldn't be so. His willingness to not only play any part but to depart with class is something that needs to be shared and praised. He is the necromancer, and he keeps the game alive, even if his miracles are now limited to the snowy cornfields of Indiana.\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003EPost\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/4432229219319012458\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2011\/06\/george-hill-keeping-hope-alive.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/4432229219319012458"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/4432229219319012458"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2011\/06\/george-hill-keeping-hope-alive.html","title":"George Hill: Keeping Hope Alive"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05841282055513560945"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-pCEXViJmGbQ\/TgdfUuhnOQI\/AAAAAAAABFY\/40LKbTTKwIA\/s72-c\/act_george_hill.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338464331588642586.post-1265905783201398000"},"published":{"$t":"2009-11-01T21:03:00.005-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2010-01-10T20:31:17.044-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Edward Hopper"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Manu Ginobili"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Richard Jefferson"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"San Antonio Spurs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teach"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"San Antonio Spurs Preview: \"Second Story Sunlight\""},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Ci\u003EIn an effort to gear up for the NBA season (even though the season started last week), we will view the upcoming season through the eyes of Edward Hopper. Feel free to add your thoughts on the 2010 Spurs in our comments section\u003C\/i\u003E.\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_i_nDUWbBNfg\/Su4wh8Zrm2I\/AAAAAAAAAXc\/Zep-Qv_BQ18\/s1600-h\/hopper9.jpg\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 313px;\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_i_nDUWbBNfg\/Su4wh8Zrm2I\/AAAAAAAAAXc\/Zep-Qv_BQ18\/s400\/hopper9.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399306362971462498\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EMs. Jefferson jerks in fright as a bat flaps out of the woods and into the crisp night air.  \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\"Nasty little bloodsuckers, aren't they?\" quips Senor \u003Cspan class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_0\"\u003EGinobili\u003C\/span\u003E, never lifting his eyes from his newspaper.  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\"Yeah,\" comments Ms. Jefferson faintly; her attention diverted to trapping the sounds of the bat's wings.  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\"When I was younger, I would venture into those woods alone, and snatch those creatures out of the air with my bare hands.  I would walk into a clearing and just stand there with my eyes closed, waiting.  When I caught one, I would bring it back to the house and show my father.  I would tell him, 'Pops, look what I hunted down for you in the woods,' and he would tell me, '\u003Cspan class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_1\"\u003EManu\u003C\/span\u003E, you are a foolish boy.  One day you will get bit, catch disease, and die way too young.'  Well, I'm old now and not a scratch on me.  Fathers only know so much, eh?\"  He puts the paper down on a table next to his glass of wine.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EMs. Jefferson does not know how to respond.  Her Argentine lover is an odd man.  If he weren't wealthy, she would say he was crazy or call him mad and be done with the whole affair; but his bank account can afford the label of eccentric, so she puts up with his stories of catching bats, the often depressing words of his father, and his elderly friends, who laugh too hard at jokes that are no longer funny.  She's even come to accept his thinning hair and the bald crater its left on the back of his head.  After all, it's Senor \u003Cspan class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_2\"\u003EGinobili\u003C\/span\u003E who saved her from disappearing into the drab Milwaukee skyline.  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EShe stood on the corner, eyeing her reflection in a rain puddle, tinted red and green from a traffic light when a Rolls Royce pulled up to the curb.  The window rolled down, and a Spanish accent rolled out, \"Excuse me.  I require a tour guide.\"\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EShe told the voice from the car window, \"As long as you got the money, you call it whatever you want.\"\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\"No, really, I need a tour guide.  I'm here to view the city's gutters and down spouts.\"  Ms. Jefferson took this for a euphemism, hiked up her skirt, and got inside the luxury car.  Inside the Royce's dark interior, she did not get a clear view of her client's, her patron's, her future lover's face, but he greeted her with a story, as if they already knew one another and all the characters were familiar to her.  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\"Pops always believed one could tell the most about a city by how its citizens handled their rain water.  He would say, '\u003Cspan class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_3\"\u003EManu\u003C\/span\u003E, any city can stay dry in sunshine, but, son, I want to live where people stay dry when it floods.'  My father always spoke like that, and I always listened to my father; but, unlike him, I prefer a city whose spouts and gutters overflow, causing unpredictable torrents from rooftop to sidewalk.  I thrive on sudden downpours actually.\"  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EAnd with that Ms. Jefferson knew she had found a different kind of client than the typical Midwestern drunk who would take her back to a shabby apartment and split a twelve pack of \u003Cspan class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_4\"\u003EPBR\u003C\/span\u003E with her.  A night with Senor \u003Cspan class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_5\"\u003EGinobili\u003C\/span\u003E was like looking through a \u003Cspan class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_6\"\u003Ekaleidoscope\u003C\/span\u003E.  Her world was changing, and she now sat with her Argentine lover on a porch in south Texas, attempting to not startle at the nocturnal migrations of bats, searching the night for prey, like rats, mice, and mosquitoes.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ESenor Ginobili downs his wine, and rises from his chair, leaving an indention where he's sat reading all night.  As he stands, he can feel all the years of bull fighting, fencing, and rock climbing creak through the timbers of his knees.  He reaches out and runs his fingers through Ms. Jefferson's hair.  He leans into smell it; its scent screams just twenty years old, and makes his knees feel less stiff while other parts of him grow rigid.  He walks over to the bedroom doors.  \"Ms. Jefferson, I think it's time we retire.\"  He swings the door open and gestures with his arm for her to enter.  She rises like moonlight from her chair and floats across the porch, stroking his cheek with her hand as she passes.  She disappears into the darkness of the bedroom.  \"Manu, I've been meaning to tell you. I'm thirty, not twenty.\"  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EHer voice is strange to him.  He can't place it.  She's lost to him like a minotaur buried inside of a maze.  Wings whisper at his back.  He spins around and flashes his left hand up to his chest, seizing the bat from the air.  He flings it over the railing and walks inside the bedroom.  Blood drips from his hand onto the carpet.  Senor Ginobili's been bitten; rabies is coming to a boil inside his veins.  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003EPost\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/1265905783201398000\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2009\/11\/san-antonio-spurs-preview-second-story.html#comment-form","title":"3 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/1265905783201398000"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/1265905783201398000"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2009\/11\/san-antonio-spurs-preview-second-story.html","title":"San Antonio Spurs Preview: \"Second Story Sunlight\""}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05841282055513560945"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_i_nDUWbBNfg\/Su4wh8Zrm2I\/AAAAAAAAAXc\/Zep-Qv_BQ18\/s72-c\/hopper9.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"3"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338464331588642586.post-6696176232518703453"},"published":{"$t":"2009-08-27T10:36:00.008-04:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-08-28T11:23:23.981-04:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Manu Ginobili"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Parody"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"San Antonio Spurs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Tim Duncan"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The Mall Walkers: Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_i_nDUWbBNfg\/Spaa8jfniCI\/AAAAAAAAALg\/VJhT0kG2fMs\/s1600-h\/mallwalkers.jpg\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 169px; height: 320px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_i_nDUWbBNfg\/Spaa8jfniCI\/AAAAAAAAALg\/VJhT0kG2fMs\/s320\/mallwalkers.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374653570423949346\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EWhile most stories out of San Antonio this offseason have focused on the team's new acquisitions, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/sports.espn.go.com\/nba\/news\/story?id=4422555\"\u003Ethe Associated Press\u003C\/a\u003E is now reporting on the health of  Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.      \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EDespite the additions of Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess, the Spurs' success this season depends on the health of their big three, which is why all Spurs fans are happy to hear that Duncan and Ginobili have\u003Cb\u003E taken up mall walking\u003C\/b\u003E this offseason.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EGinobili described the experience as, \"tough at first cause no one really knows how one's ankles and knees will hold up on the escalator, but I just have to stay focused and use tunnel vision...no orange juliuses or cinnabuns...they go right to the hips.\"\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EFellow teammate Michael Finley introduced Duncan and Giniobili to the idea of mall walking, claiming that it's the reason he's still playing basketball after all those years in the ABA: \"it's a great physical and mental workout.  Verne always tells stories about when her husband Rupert was over in the Pacific, fighting the Japanese, and I just try and relate those to playing against the Lakers.  Verne really puts things in perspective.\"\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EAsked if mall walking might increase one's chances for further injury, Duncan responded, \"that's why we stretch.\"  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ESome critics of the Spurs hear that the team is doing laps at the local mall, a hobby normally reserved for the elderly, like Finley, and wonder if the team will be in the physical condition required to compete at an NBA level, to which Spurs coach Greg Popovich responds, \"I tried going a few laps with them, but I tuckered out and wound up sitting on a bench outside of Panera, so you tell me who's out of shape.\"  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EGinobili laughed when asked if the story of his coach was true, \"yeah, we went pretty hard on him at the start, hoping he would get tired. As soon as he was out of sight, we hopped on the rascals and raced to the arcade.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_i_nDUWbBNfg\/Spai6zmy7uI\/AAAAAAAAALo\/5kKENjQ_N7o\/s1600-h\/electric_mobility_rascal_329le.jpg\"\u003E\u003Cimg style=\"display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 285px; height: 285px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_i_nDUWbBNfg\/Spai6zmy7uI\/AAAAAAAAALo\/5kKENjQ_N7o\/s400\/electric_mobility_rascal_329le.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374662336482307810\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E  \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003EPost\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/6696176232518703453\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2009\/08\/mall-walkers-tim-duncan-and-manu.html#comment-form","title":"8 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/6696176232518703453"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/6696176232518703453"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2009\/08\/mall-walkers-tim-duncan-and-manu.html","title":"The Mall Walkers: Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05841282055513560945"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_i_nDUWbBNfg\/Spaa8jfniCI\/AAAAAAAAALg\/VJhT0kG2fMs\/s72-c\/mallwalkers.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"8"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338464331588642586.post-6038595519651914051"},"published":{"$t":"2009-02-04T18:16:00.005-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-02-04T18:42:05.866-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Dunk of the week"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Dunks"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Hilton Armstrong"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Langston"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Manu Ginobili"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"San Antonio Spurs"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Dunk of the Week: Hilton gets Spurred"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"I have been harsh on him in the past, but I have got to give it up for Manu on this play. He starts the play off by burning his defender thanks to a nice pick from Tony Parker, gets the dish, flys through the lane, and finishes by absolutely posterizing Hilton Armstrong. If this play is any evidence of his improved health, the western conference should be put on notice. With Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, the out of nowhere skills Roger Mason has been displaying, Manu, and a younger bench; this team has what it needs to be a true test for any team in the league and should be considered a contender for the championship.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cobject width=\"425\" height=\"344\"\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/anS6gmotZaw\u0026color1=0xb1b1b1\u0026color2=0xcfcfcf\u0026hl=en\u0026feature=player_embedded\u0026fs=1\"\u003E\u003C\/param\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"\u003E\u003C\/param\u003E\u003Cembed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/anS6gmotZaw\u0026color1=0xb1b1b1\u0026color2=0xcfcfcf\u0026hl=en\u0026feature=player_embedded\u0026fs=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"\u003E\u003C\/embed\u003E\u003C\/object\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003EPost\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/6038595519651914051\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2009\/02\/dunk-of-week-hilton-gets-spurred.html#comment-form","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/6038595519651914051"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/6038595519651914051"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2009\/02\/dunk-of-week-hilton-gets-spurred.html","title":"Dunk of the Week: Hilton gets Spurred"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/18154553815666186170"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338464331588642586.post-8733997555255625702"},"published":{"$t":"2008-11-24T22:27:00.012-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2008-11-25T20:08:53.666-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Eminem"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Manu Ginobili"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Martin Luther"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Memphis Grizzlies"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"NBA"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"San Antonio Spurs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Tim Duncan"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili..."},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"played his first game of the 2008-09 season tonight, finishing with 12 points and 4 rebounds in a win against the Memphis Grizzlies.  George Hill led the way with 20 points.  Roger Mason chipped in with 18, and Tim Duncan was his usual self with 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks.  Manu, you were missed--\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2008\/10\/2008-2009-nba-preview-hip-hop-roll-call_15.html\"\u003ERakim sounds much better over Eric B.'s scratches than he does going acapella.\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe team is now 7-6 and 6-2 since Tony Parker went down with an ankle injury, meaning they've recovered from a 1-4 start that could have been disastrous, yet another reason of many showing that we take Tim Duncan for granted.  The other 95 reasons were nailed to a church door and started Protestantism.  \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EAnyway, I digress.  Welcome back, Manu, one of the most unique players in the history of the game, which on second thought, makes Manu much like another unique individual, who has also been on hiatus:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cobject width=\"425\" height=\"344\"\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/keU5TQ7nkuM\u0026amp;hl=en\u0026amp;fs=1\"\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"\u003E\u003Cembed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/keU5TQ7nkuM\u0026amp;hl=en\u0026amp;fs=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"\u003E\u003C\/embed\u003E\u003C\/object\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EYou either love them or hate them.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cobject width=\"425\" height=\"344\"\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/cNb-PujGKbI\u0026amp;hl=en\u0026amp;fs=1\"\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"\u003E\u003Cembed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/cNb-PujGKbI\u0026amp;hl=en\u0026amp;fs=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"\u003E\u003C\/embed\u003E\u003C\/object\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EI think I have a man crush.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"blogger-post-footer\"\u003EPost\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/feeds\/8733997555255625702\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2008\/11\/san-antonio-spurs-manu-ginobili.html#comment-form","title":"2 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/8733997555255625702"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1338464331588642586\/posts\/default\/8733997555255625702"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/lawnchairboys.blogspot.com\/2008\/11\/san-antonio-spurs-manu-ginobili.html","title":"San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili..."}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Anonymous"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05841282055513560945"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"2"}}]}});