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Spurs magic upstages football heroes



Mark Woods

The NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs hitched up their Size 13 basketball boots and headed for Milan and for once the stars of Internazionale and AC were almost eclipsed in their lofty shadow. Because the Texans had arrived to participate in the McDonald’s Championship - where basketball’s finest club is crowned every two years - and the full might of Italy’s sporting media machine was sent off in pursuit.

The masses ranks of PR men despatched from New York HQ acted as henchmen as the Spurs were trailed by the public and press at every turn. Enthralled crowds gathered as the Americans popped up at various -venues in the city to catch a glimpse of the renowned hoopsters. Perhaps it did not quite meet the buzz generated by Michael Jordan’s appearance with the Chicago Bulls at the Paris event of two years ago but its effect was omnipresent.

Even Ronaldo was relegated to shirt swapping antics with Spurs young star Tim Duncan while AC Milan’s stars squad ended up watching the action from the cheap seats as for once the city’s sporting adulation focused elsewhere.

One man who was just delighted to be here was American guard Prentice McGruder, a member of Lebanese team Sagesse. Last season, the Californian was plying his trade in the not quite so glamorous uniform of Chester Jets, where he finished the campaign as the British League’s leader in the assists category.

Roared on by three plane-loads of Lebanese travelling supporters, Sagesse, the Asian champions, even came close to an unprecedented defeat of Italian champions Varese. McGruder admitted that the very thought that the mighty San Antonio could possibly be his next opponent had caused his heart to skip more than one beat.

“It’s pretty frustrating when what is probably your only real chance to go on a court with guys of that calibre slips by. But I think our team achieved more than was expected even by pushing Varese the way we did.” 

By when the local favourites defeated the Lebanon’s finest by 98-88 to book a semi-final match up with the NBA kings, the surrounding hyperbole was raised a notch.

“Varese have found the route to the stars,” declared Italy’s daily sporting bible Gazzetta dello Sport , “In Milan, it will be one great dream.” When the Roosters coach Massimo Galli was asked whether he had a plan to stop the Spurs so-called Twin Towers of David Robinson and Duncan, he did not offer an immediate response. He couldn’t. He was laughing too hard.

But the laugh was so very nearly on San Antonio. In previous tournaments, the NBA representative has always ended on top but more than once, Europe has threatened to embarrass its more illustrious guest. None more so that in 1991, when it required a final basket by Magic Johnson to haul the Los Angeles Lakers past an upstart Paris St. Germain challenge.

The underdog chant was in full chorus and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich confessed that the possibility of humiliating failure was unsettling his side. 

“It’s like you have an everything to lose situation and everybody knows that,” he admitted. “Some of the NBA teams in the past have had problems because they haven’t been serious enough.”

Taking centre stage in a circus show which also included Sly the somersaulting wolf, Hugo the slam dunking hornet and tanned American cheerleaders by the dozen, the Spurs players get the easy pre-season work out they had wished for as they trailed for all but the final five minutes against the plucky Italians.

The excitement was intense except perhaps among the resident American TV crew. The prospect of turning over two hours of prime network television for Varese versus Vasco da Gama was not one to overtly tempt the United States programmers and viewing public.

 In the end though, sanity prevailed. Duncan dunked and the Spurs spurted clear with a higher gear which offered a tantalising glimpse of the quality of basketball available night after night across the Atlantic. 

The NBA’s chief slogan is “We love this game.” The Milanese certainly enjoyed every minute, standing in unison at the close to salute both gladiatorial squads. A blow struck for the rest of the world in the game of basketball catch up.


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