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原文:
GLOBAL: Rasho Nesterovic
By Nikola Olic
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Mar 1, 2006, 02:18
http://www.hoopsworld.com/global/article_16345.shtml
Somewhere in NBA archives there is a photo of Rasho Nesterovic and Nazr Mohammed holding the 2005 NBA trophy. They are both tired and smiling, after 16 playoff victories and as a many bottles of celebratory champagne. They always replace each other on the basketball floor but on this night it was no more. As all the
Spurs patiently waited to have their photos taken somewhere in the basement of the then-SBC Center, Nesterovic insisted Nazr join him on the floor this one time. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but only one word mattered to San Antonio fans. The word was "Center" and the question was who will it be next season.
The Slovenian seven footer got the job and helped the
Spurs to their best start in franchise history, approaching December with a 12-2 record. This probably came as a surprise to most of the 500,000 fans that a few months ago waved at Nazr, Rasho and the rest of the
Spurs as they strolled down the Riverwalk as NBA Champs. It was right there, black on white for everybody to see, just like the
Spurs logo itself: Mohammed, Duncan, Bowen, Parker and Ginobili were on all the posters for 2005. Perhaps Coach Greg Popovich just took time to make up his mind. In 2006, after their annual Rodeo road trip and 52 games into the season, Nazr again became the starter.
"I don't know what to think" explained Nesterovic after coming of the bench in a recent home game against Seattle. "Maybe it has its advantages. Our rotations are unpredictable. We will see, the change has just begun. I'll wait five or ten games to see how it will work out and then we can talk more. If a player likes to come of the bench, this might work better for them. I never really came of the bench; I think I would rather be a starter. I will have to wait and see how it is coming of the bench."
Of the twenty predictable
Spurs rotations, Nesterovic is -- or was -- in the two most often used ones. With him on the floor, San Antonio on average gains almost two points on the opponent while they break even with Mohammed in his place. San Antonio is one of the best defensive teams in the NBA -- keeping opponents to the league-low 88 points per game -- and Rasho has played for Popovich long enough to know where he needs to be on the floor to help keep that percentage. Fifty plus games into the season, how does coach Popovich pick a center?
"There is the classic way -- rebounds, blocks, defense but you have to ask Popovich for the details. He might have his own little tricks. I did not change my game. At the start of the season I came without the pressure of thinking about the starting role and how much will I play. I played my game and tried to do my best."
San Antonio’s intrastate rivals Dallas Mavericks benefited from shaking up their center roles. Veteran Erick Dampier is coming of the bench for a younger and less experienced DeSagana Diop and is playing better because of it. Call it healthy competition or the basketball version of The Survival Of The Fittest. Nesterovic agrees.
"There is tension there and I think that can help the team" he explained while in training camp in Virgin Islands this summer. "With more competition and more aggressiveness in practice you just carry that to the game and it's just easier for the team effort and for both of us."
Talking about competition in summertime for Nesterovic usually means something different -- international basketball. As the captain of the Slovenian national team, he led them to a sixth place finish at the European championships in Belgrade last summer, an impressive appearance that qualified them for the Basketball World Championships in Japan in August. Their leader already has a plan.
"Every team has weaknesses and strengths. We are ready to play. Our group is tough but we have our advantages against all of those teams. This is our first championship and we can't say we will be going for the gold medal but we have our game to play and we will not give up easily. If we can give a 100% in all our games, I think we will go far."
The group Rasho is talking about is their opponents in the qualification round, a list that includes formidable squads from United States and China. Slovenia has strong NBA weapons to choose from in Rasho Nesterovic, Sasha Vujacic, Beno Udrih, Primoz Brezec and Bostjan Nachbar, an impressive arsenal from a country with a population similar to Houston, Texas.
"Everybody expects the US to get first place. If we lose, everybody expected us to lose against them anyway. But if we win, that would be a great surprise. Slovenians are playing well both here and in Europe. Everybody is getting the minutes they need and deserve. We are ready to play."
Perhaps as a nod to its five international players -- most of any NBA team -- and to the World Basketball Championships in general, Spurs’ organization insists they are NBA Champions rather than World Champions. In Beno Udrih and Rasho Nesterovic they have two Slovenians that don't share the floor much but rather share a language. Can language be used against another team in the court of basketball?
"On the court, not so much" explains Nesterovic with a good laugh. "But of the court, it helps a lot. Two players from the same country, from the same part of the world, it certainly helps. It is a great psychological boost. We don't really have a way to take advantage of our language on the court, it is a team game and our coach is controlling the game. Two of us can't speak Slovenian while the rest are speaking English."
Sounds like a saying Popovich would yell out in practice.
Much like there can not be two centers at one starting spot, there is not likely to be competition without change. If Nesterovic still endorses his summer camp idea that competition is good, he will do so by changing his game. Mohammed got into the starting lineup by doing exactly that and as Nesterovic responds for the remainder of the season, Popovich will truly have a center spot with -- as he put it in another recent saying -- "a two-headed monster".
[Thanks to our Emmett Shaw for helping with this story]
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