SB Nation User Blog: carina_gino20

Manu to be standard bearer in Beijing Games

carina_gino20 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:39:43 -0000

Manu Ginóbili was selected by the Argentine Olympic Committee to hoist the nation's flag in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The result of the 19-member voting panel was:
Emanuel Ginobili (basketball) - 8
Santiago Fernandez (rowing) - 3
Juan Curuchet (cycling) - 2
Luciana Aymar (hockey) - 1
David Nalbandian (tennis) - 1
4 abstentations

What I don't know, however, is what will happen if Manu can't play in the Beijing Games after all. Honestly, I want to see him there because to be in the position of defending an Olympic Gold is very rare. I hope he makes the right decision after he gets his MRI results in July.

I'm proud of the Silver & Black

carina_gino20 — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:22:34 -0000

A Spurs fan once said during the New Orleans series, when things were looking pretty bleak, that if the Spurs were the Titanic, he was going down with the ship. I counted myself in.

          Well, the ship has gone down, at least for this year, and it really sucks. Badly. But as bad as I feel right now, I couldn't even begin to imagine how much harder it must be for those guys out there. Timmy, Tony, Manu, Bruce, Brent, Fin, Pop, Rob. I know they didn't play very well outside of Game 3. Their championship experience as a team didn't show. But heck, they just came off the New Orleans series, got only one-day breaks and gave it their all. The scheduling is not an excuse. There are no excuses. You've got to be ready to play seven games. I'm just saying that if you're an aging team who just came out of a seven-game series, an every-other-day schedule definitely doesn't help any.

           It would be easy to put the blame on the now infamous Joey Crawford non-call. Or blame Pop for sitting Bruce out with six minutes left in Game 1. Or blame Manu for not stepping up when needed. But those points are moot now. There's no point dealing with them. The Lakers were the better team this series. Congrats to them. They outplayed the Spurs, and Phil outcoached Pop. Finally, we saw the Spurs' experience fade into old age. Rob couldn't buy a shot, Fin was erratic. Only the Mango tree showed up to play.

           But there's no shame in being a Spurs fan right now, because they have accomplished so much in the past decade that really, we don't have much room for complaint. I know that for such a successful franchise, anything less than a championship is a disappointment, but Spurs fans should never forget the B.D. era. Before Duncan. When, every year, the Spurs got close to the title but always fell short. Now they have four championships, and that's more than most true fans can boast of.

           Stand proud, San Antonio. There's no reason to be ashamed of this team, and every reason to be proud of it. And next season, when the Spurs begin another title run, I'll be here again rooting for the San Antonio Spurs.

Believe

carina_gino20 — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:33:21 -0000

What's the point of believing if you only do it during the good times? That's not believing. That's taking a free ride. Bandwagonning. Let the bandwagonners jump. This is my team. I've seen them battle out of tough times before. They have Gregg Popovich, Tim Duncan, Bruce Bowen, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. This team has a lot of fight in it. I'm staying with this ship.

via img48.imageshack.us

The flop-o-meter has to be revised

carina_gino20 — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:50:34 -0000

The flop-o-meter has to be revised because CP3 just launced a new brand of flopping.

From MySA.com's Mike Finger

With 2:38 left in the third quarter, Bowen caught Paul's hand on a jump shot, and when a foul wasn't called, we witnessed what might have been a playoff first:

A dead-ball flop.

Paul and Bowen bumped into each other as both approached an official, and Paul fell backwards as if he was trying to draw a charge.

There Can Only Be One - Duncan/Paul

carina_gino20 — Sat, 03 May 2008 11:40:40 -0000

There Can Only Be One - Duncan/Paul

Spurs: Where Amazing Happens (Round 1)

carina_gino20 — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:28:17 -0000

Okay. So I was supposed to be studying, but got supremely distracted again. The Spurs are so good that they get into your head and stay there even when you're one Pacific Ocean away.

So anyway, this is what I did during my study break, a spin-off from the Where amazing happens commercials. Basically, pictures from Round 1. I realized belatedly that Bowen is blatantly missing and I'm just hoping that he doesn't karate chop me out of the Milky Way for this blasphemy.

Video: Tony Parker's career-high 41pts

carina_gino20 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:33:15 -0000

Watch Tony Parker owning the entire Suns team in Game 3. He pretty much had his way going to the basket in Games 1 & 2. In Game 3, Phoenix dared him to shoot. And shoot he did.

He has taken a lot of blows this series, but it has done nothing to deter him. Maybe it's because of Manu channeling his powers to Tony.

via d.yimg.com

Anyway, has anyone read this ?

Funny, isn't it? When just two weeks ago, it was:

via img520.imageshack.us

Then again, it's ESPN.

A couple of highlights from Game 1

carina_gino20 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:48:20 -0000

We've all seen the Timmy three and the Manu game winner. Here are a couple more highlights from that classic Game 1 between the Spurs and Suns.

The first video is of Parker faking Nash with a pass, and going straight to the basket for a layup. That was too funny. Nash actually bought it and ran the other way.

The second one is Fin's three-pointer that sent the game to overtime. A very beautiful play from Pop. A screen from Parker, and another hard screen from Fabricio. Picture perfect jumpshot from Finley.

Flop or Flagrant?

carina_gino20 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:52:26 -0000

1:47 left in the 3rd Q. Barbosa misses. Manu tries to get the rebound, gets fouled by Shaq and is tangled up with Barbosa.

Both fall to the ground. Did Manu flop or not? And what do you think about Barbosa's action? Was it just two players out of control, or is something more than that?

Apparently, the Spurs thought it was notable enough to call for a review on that play. But as Spurs fans have come to except from the NBA, it was ruled unintentional.

The genius who didn't vote for Ginobili

carina_gino20 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:45:41 -0000

Fine. This is just nitpicking, but I still can't believe that Manu didn't get all the 1st-place votes for the Sixth Man Award.

via img395.imageshack.us

What's wrong with this picture? Two things.

Manu got 123 out of 124 1st-place votes. The only remaining 1st-place vote went to Leandro Barbosa.
The idiot who voted 1st-place for Barbosa, didn't vote for Manu for the 2nd- or 3rd- place.

Fine, getting a perfect mark is really very rare, although if 123 others voted differently from you, there's probably something wrong with you. What I have a problem is that the idiot who voted for Barbosa as 1st place, didn't even put Manu in his ballot. Bitter much?

Anyway, last week, ESPN released their predictions. Any guesses who the idiot is?