It should have been Horry, not Manu or Tim. Tim missed too many clutch shots (especially free throws) and Manu made too many horrendous passes and dribbled into too many triple-teams. Big Shot Rob completely took over Game 5, but made clutch play after clutch play in every other game too. And he never really made any mistakes. Also, if SA doesn't win Game 5, then the Spurs would be in serious trouble for 6 and 7.
Eh.... Manu was great through two games, and arguably the MVP through the first two, but Tim was far more consistent over the entire series. I was really pulling for Manu to get the MVP, but in all honesty, he would have needed to have dropped 35-40+ tonite to really have a legitimate claim over what Duncan does every single game. On the other hand, what Manu did offensively was far more efficient than Tim's game.
I was ready to start calling for TP's deportion during the fourth quarter - TWO airballs, and a completely idiotic foul for Rip's +1 there at the end, but he was better on defense against Rip than he'll get credit for. Next finals, no shooty-shooty for Tony in crunch time. Bring the ball across the timeline and give it to Manu or Tim, where you shall then back off, and pretend to be a perimeter threat.
Brent Barry finally had a solid game. He made a few good shots, and didn't take any bad ones. More than adequate D, which isn't his strength; he had a decent - not great, but decent - game when the Spurs needed him to hold his own.
Props to Horry, not just on his game and his 6th ring, but also on his post-game interview. I like his big-man rating system.
Last... I've been defending Bowen for years against every fellow couchpotato critic friend of min who've kept calling for him to be traded because he's not a great scorer. His late block on Billups was the moment I knew beyond a doubt it was over. I've managed to convert every friend I watch games with to the Bowen-bandwagon, and I intend to continue trying to win others over. He's got two or three good defensive years left in him.
Congrats,
For some reason the Spurs have always been my second favorite team, after the Sonics. That said, Tim Duncan is the best player in the world, and Manu Ginobli is probably the most interesting to watch. I still say Sonics at full strength would have been a better series than this. But you guys beat the second best team in the league.
Carl
PS: Thank god Timmeh asserted himself from the last half of the third quarter on. He deserved the MVP, he was averaging like 19.8 and 14.5 going in, and he dominated this game. He also hit his last 6-7 foul shots if I remember correctly.
Finals MVP should be disconnected from the winning team. This year it should have been Billups, bar none. Without him the Pistons really didn't work.
Once Pop finally stuck Bowen on him, their offense dried up.
It's a tough call between Duncan and Manu. The question is whether the Finals MVP is for all games or only the game that were won? For all games, it is Duncan; for games won, a serious case should be made for Manu.
But I'm sure Manu doesn't care. So why should we?
I don't know why I care. That's a good question. Duncan currently has 8 votes to Manu's 4.
Hey Matthew! We did it! We did it!
Finally! The critics can stick their criticsm about Duncan only winning cos he played alongside dROB. But already they criticism are still coming with such crap it is ridiculous.
ANyhow, I wanted to call all SPurs fans to do me and all San Antonio fans a big big favor. I will make this short but basically there is this sports show on the radio called "THE drive" with some guy named Chris and former NFl'er Brian Cox. ANyhow, today before game 7 around 3-3:30pm called from San ANtonio and said that we fans only liked the Spurs only after we won the Championships. Can you believe this crap? ANd she said all kinds of lies about us fans. For instance she said this crap about how a few years before the 99 trophy that offer some of ya'all might remember where you'd buy one or 2 pizzas at Pizza Hut and you would be able to buy a SPurs ticket for l;ike 1.00 or 5.00 bucks? Remember that? what that stupid BITCH named MONICA was that those were only for like bullshit teams like SPurs vs Warrior and that they were sorry ass nosebleeds sections and not to mentioned that Houston did the same thing. What pissed me off was that People at the show mainly Brian Cox believed this stupid bitch named MONICA. Please all you fans out there call the radio show "THE DRIVE" and call Brian Cox and you tell his punk ass that this bitch MONICA is a fucking liar. Can you believe that this bitch MONICA says that we only liked the Spurs only after the Championships? Can you belive this fuckin' lie and people believed it??
ARG COME on call the "THE DRIVE" in sa radio show it is on ticket 760 am so please get on there and call out this lieing cunt bitch MONICA and tell teh world the truth!
2005 NBA CHAMPIONS!!!!!
Chris(COKE0
Uh, I'm not sure how to follow up after that tirade...
Like Rick, I was rooting for Manu to win the Finals MVP all along. But in the end Timmy just edged him out. It was really close; almost tied. Duncan's defensive impact is what breaks the tie for me. He does it every single night, so it goes unnoticed sometimes, but his defense was huge.
I mean, come on. The Spurs interior defense still looked very good despite the fact that Nazr played and Rasho didn't. Nazr is nowhere near Rasho defensively right now, and yet Duncan's impact made it barely noticeable this series. That's impressive.
Duncan gets the MVP due to hios being able to pull out all the stops with his legacy in the balance. That's skill.
As good as the Postons were I won't miss them droning on about how "Nobody thinks we can do it." They did it already and all the news yesterday was about how they are going to rewrite history and do it again.
The Spurs were the underdog and they pulled it off!!!!
Now I'm going to go get my cap...
As I talked much about choking everywhere, I want to say I truly respect and am inspired by Tim, the man with most ability to dechokeabilitize himself I've ever seen.
cheers
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!
Well, now that I've gotten that out of my system....
It's a tough MVP call between Manu and Timmeh, with Horry a close third. I vote for Tim because:
1) He created the conditions for his big 2nd half by personally getting all 3 of Detroit's big men in foul trouble.
2) In virtually ALL of the critical 2nd-half possessions, the ball went through Tim's hands, and he made the right decisions every time. He may have missed some shots, but he made the ones he needed to and passed the ball brilliantly.
3) He came up big when so many were ready to label him a choker. He HIT HIS FREE THROWS under a lot of pressure, much of it self-imposed.
If I could "split" the MVP award it would be 37% Tim, 34 % Manu, 29% Horry.
Of course, the real reason this is such a tough question is beacuase the Spurs are a TEAM, and play so selflessly. What a great problem to have!!!
I've got Spurs Fever!! GO SPURS GO!!!!!
The Spurs fans were not booing Duncan for the MVP award.. they were booing David Stern..
(1) As Darren said, I heard boos for Stern, but none of Timmeh.
(2) If Manu hadn't had 7 points and 6 TOs as his line for a game, he might have had my vote. MIGHT. Tim does so much more than gets casually noticed, which was especially evident last night. I certainly thought there was reasonable question as to whether Manu would -- or should -- get the Veep, but my vote was with Timmeh.
Belated thanks from a Pistons fan for the kind words about our team. Even though a lot of us felt this one got away, the general consensus is that losing to the Spurs made it easier to accept. There's only one team (a key word, that) we really have any regard for outside of Detroit, and that team is the Spurs. Congratulations.
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