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By Pete, April 21, 2008 11:27 pm

Excerpt from a MySA.com article (that Matt found, emphasis added by me):

Suns center Shaquille O’Neal won’t be adjusting his style of play in hopes of avoiding the early foul trouble that limited him to 30 minutes and 20 seconds in Saturday’s double-overtime Game 1 of the Spurs-Suns Western Conference first-round series.

“I ain’t changing nothing,” O’Neal said Sunday morning. “I’ve got 700 days left (on his contract), and I ain’t changing a (expletive) thing. Screw that. I got four (rings) doing it my way, and I’m going to continue doing it my way.”

O’Neal was still angry Sunday that he had been called for three offensive fouls on what he said were “flops” by Spurs players. He praised the physical inside play of Spurs power forward Tim Duncan, then promised he would not resort to flopping in hopes of drawing fouls on the Spurs’ star.

“He got a lot of points,” O’Neal said, “but I was on the bench a lot yesterday. But he’s going to do the same thing: Jump hook, fade, jump hook. He has all the moves on both blocks, but I’ve seen them before. And I’ll be there. But I’m going to play him like a man, though. Not falling like I just got (expletive) shot. None of that bull. That’s how you’re supposed to play.

“That (flopping) is some bull. Then you all write like these (expletive) guys can play. Give me a (expletive) break.”

You’ve got to admit, the level of trash talking is pretty entertaining. Considering the major American sports, football is the closest thing (yet it still pales in comparison) to the NBA as far as playoffs lines are concerned. Game 2 (of the Spurs-Suns series) will be good tomorrow. I’m, however, going to refrain from watching the Mavs game due to a personal superstition.

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By Pete, March 18, 2008 11:36 am

Don’t get me wrong, from a pure basketball fan’s perspective, the Spurs are a great team – I was really impressed with how well they moved the ball (well at least in the 1st quarter) yesterday when I was in San Antonio for the Celtics/Spurs game. But as a Dallas native and a Mavs fan, I HATE everything about or vaguely related to the Spurs (Yes, even Mrs. Parker has fallen out of favor in my books).

It all started with the AT&T Center, which is probably the ugliest NBA arena built in the last 10 years (why build it if you’re going to build it ugly?) The external facade makes the arena look like a modernized barn, the interior felt and looked like that of a Tinseltown theater. It took forever to get into the arena (the only entrances was in the front of the building, that’s why the lines are so long in the picture above). Once I finally got in, I was greeted by none other than the Spurs’ title trophies (which made me want to puke). After we finally made it to our seats, I realized that I hated everything Spurs. And the worst part – I was stuck in what seemed like an ocean of Spur fans with the occasional Celtics fan here and there.

Being at the AT&T Center made me appreciate the AAC and what what Mark Cuban have done for the Mavs (Yes, I do realize that being greeting by those trophies are pretty important, but I know think hope we’re taking the right steps towards that).

The best part of the game was definitely walking out of the AT&T Center after after the Celtics stole the game away (they were down by 20+ in the first quarter), it was (surprisingly) rather pleasing being in the midst of a bunch of disappointed Spurs fan. =)