It was not a great game to be at for a Spurs fan. The late start time at least gave me a chance to show up early and, hopefully, snag a sig from my namesake. However, after leaving work a little late, needing to gas up, grab some grub, drive about an hour, park and walk maybe 3/4 mile, and pick up tickets at will call, there was no chance for an adult fanboy's dream to come true.

Was this an ominous sign for what would occur during the game?

Nah, I don't believe in that stuff.

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We all know Manu's injury was a big factor in last season's troubles, but don't forget about the other key to maintaining team health and success.

Tim Kness.

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Fox Sports had quite the interesting column/slide show recently. They tried to determine which players in the NBA are worth "max money." If you have not read this already, be prepared for a surprise.

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I guess you could say this is an ode to this Web site's founder. Powell has since moved on to other things, but it's impressive to think what this site has become--so many users, posts and comments. And it all started at this blogspot location. Since then, the site became "Pounding the Rock." Eventually, it moved onto the Sports Blog Nation.

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from espn:

Kelenna Azubuike will return to the Golden State Warriors after the club matched the Los Angeles Clippers' three-year, $9 million contract offer for the shooting guard on Thursday.

Azubuike averaged 8.1 points and 4.0 rebounds in 81 games last season with the Warriors, who signed the former Kentucky guard out of the NBA Developmental League in January 2007. He started 17 games for Golden State, and he should see more playing time next season after Baron Davis' departure for the Clippers, Mickael Pietrus' signing with Orlando and Monta Ellis' expected move to point guard.

"We are pleased to have Kelenna back in the fold," said Chris Mullin, the Warriors' top basketball executive. "He's a young and talented player who has continued to improve during his two seasons with our team. His versatility, athleticism and ability to shoot the 3-pointer certainly fit our style of play."

Azubuike, a restricted free agent, signed the offer sheet with the Clippers last Friday, giving Golden State seven days to match it. The Warriors, who earlier signed high-scoring free agent swingman Corey Maggette from the Clippers, also signed forward Ronny Turiaf away from the Lakers last week with a similar offer-sheet deal.

Yep. The Euro rules, and the dollar drools. If only we had signed the kid.

Anyway, Childress will be playing in Greece, as reported by the worldwide misleader here.

Could this become a trend? Will the almighty Euro trump the dollar (with respect to signing pro basketball players), limit the number of foreigners in the Association, and even steal away a good chunk of American ballers, a la Childress and high schooler Brandon Jennings? It remains to be seen.

David Stern must be silently sweating this stuff out.

Well, no, no he didn't tell me exactly ... but this Web site, it told me about Manu's decision:

 http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/features/rumors?&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2ffeatures%2frumors

What are your thoughts, comments, or other things that I have to write in order to have enough characters to write a FanPost?

I, for one, am actually happy about this. I trust his judgment and I know this means a lot to him and his countrymen. Plus, this must be his final - or at least penultimate - world competition.

I've been too riled up for the game today. Just nerves all over the place. I am rocking the Ginobili jersey--at work!--for the first time since, I think, opening night-Oct. 30 vs. POR. Just outside my <em>trabajo</em> I found a dude wearing a NY Giants hat (bandwagon alert!) who saw me w/the Spurs jersey and he said something about how we're going to get killed today, then I said I think we'll will win in a close one, and he basically said "yeah, it will be close. Good luck."

A couple of min later I ran into a guy that said, "Game 7 tonight, eh?!" I said, "Yeah, should be a good one," and he said "I hope so."

Well I'm not sure what to make of this, since I am in Utah, but anyway.....

GO SPURS!!!

P.S. The game is at 6:30 my time, I work until 9, but I don't think the stoogetv feed will be blocked. Yes! But we have some meeting that will be about 45 min, and I was unlucky enough to be scheduled for the meeting at 7:30 pm! Other folks will have the meeting tomorrow.GRRR!

Not that it's of great concern to us right now, but the official NBA MVP ballot finally was revealed. Duncan finished 7th and Ginobili was 10th. No big whoop there, but it's nice to see Gino in the top 10 for that award considering how he often gets overlooked and may or may not ever finish that high again.  The only other time he had this much MVP consideration of any kind in the Association was in the '05 Finals.

http://www.nba.com/news/kobe_mvp_080506.html

Which version of Manu Ginobili has been better: the 2005 Playoff Manu or the 2007-08 regular season Manu? I think this one is worthy of a vote from our expert panel (the PTR members).
Take everything into consideration. Remember the performances, check out stats (although they don't tell the whole story...ok is this 300 characters yet?)