Appreciate This!

San Antonio 110 vs. Minnesota 91

My brother and I attended the Spurs game last night. Thank God we got in for free. How people could actually pay for games at this point is beyond me. This was an uninspired mess of a contest. To add insult to injury it was fan appreciation night, one of the worst I've seen in modern sports franchise history. Among the lowlights:

* A person picked for the halfcourt million dollar shot actually threw the ball UNDERHAND toward the basket.
* A tarp full of DIGIORNO pizzas being dragged out to center court, then handed out to the first level fans only.
* At least two cheap Polaroid 32 " HDTV's were given away, but the winners had been preselected, so there was no random chance for anyone who showed up to win.
* For exiting fans, a cheap mug courtesy of the Minnesota State Lottery.
I'm not sure when the Ricky Davis figurines were handed out, but face it, he's enough of a bobblehead on the court. I didn't need one to bring home to remind me how he's contributed to this wreck of a team.

And then there was the game.

Remember January 3rd, the last time San Antonio played here? An exciting game, going down to the wire. Mark Blount actually played Tim Duncan straight up and went 12 for14, scoring 28 points. Garnett had 17 rebounds, in a 103-101 victory for our club. Those were the days when the games meant something, when you saw the effort coming from this club. A few weeks later after the Pistons game here at home, it began to unravel.

The story since then?

Garnett is supposedly getting his quad checked out in California somewhere. The MSM press is taking it hook, line, and sinker. What about one of the media outlets actually putting someone out on a plane to check whether or not KG is simply barbecuing at his California home, artificially on the shelf for the rest of the season? I guess the StarTrib and the PioneerPress are too busy with their lawyers to actually shell out any dough for a reporter to investigate. I'm not sure what the television outlets are covering at this point.

Back on the court, we have Duncan taking Blount to school, scoring almost at will when he wasn't on the bench or yawning. There was no team play, passing or offensive rebounding to speak of, only a team going through the motions. Smith and Blount were repeatedly rejected trying to take the ball to the hole, and Trenton Hassell missed close range shots with regularity. The Wolves zone was soft; the Spurs could shoot over the top of it anytime they wanted, a result of actually SHARING the ball. All in all, a nasty, lackluster effort--complete with bad promotions--on a night to show appreciation for the fans who show up to watch this crap.

And the draft choice watch continues...