June 9, 2022 • 44 mins
Hosted by 7-time champion Robert Horry and Jabari Davis, NBA Finals File dives deep into the greatest Finals series in NBA history, breaking down the best moments, storylines and matchups, using rare archival audio from the NBA, and the personal touch that only "Big Shot Bob" can give.
In this episode of NBA Finals File, we examine the 2005 Finals. Tim Duncan and the Spurs going for their 3rd title in 6 years against the defending champion Pistons. The matchup features two of the greatest basketball coaches of all-time going head to head Gregg Popovich and Larry Brown. An epic 7-game series, highlighted by Robert Horry's legendary Game 5 performance.
NBA Finals File is available on the iHeart app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. NBA Finals File is a production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
All right, welcome back to the NBA Finals file. I
am Jabari Davis, joined by of course, seven time champ
Robert Ory. We left off part one after Game four,
you know, with the series too too. But now it's
timing to have some fun because Game five is also
known as the Robert Orri Game. You know, you can
say a lot of things, but it's all about getting
down the court and execute. You know, there's a lot
of people gonna talk to talk, but you gotta walk
(00:25):
to walk. We gotta go out execute Rob. I gotta
be honest with you. I was excited because we finally
get an overtime classic in the finals. There were four
s Ray blowouts by the home teams and start this
and I have to say, this game already would have
been my favorite of the series, but the fact that
it may have been your best game of your career
absolutely made it that much better. We are ready for
one of the most important finals games in recent memory.
(00:47):
For the record, I know you had a forty piece
against the Bucks in the regular season back in and
you actually hit twenty four in the playoffs against the
Blazers one year. But given the circumstances and the significance
of the game. Would you agree that this was the
best game maybe your career. I would say this is
the best game, one of the best games. You know,
if you look at the moment and the severity of
the game, um game five on the road in the
(01:10):
hostile environment. And I say that also because if you
look at the first half zero points in the first
half of Robert Ory, you know it was It was
one of those games where we'll get more into and
we talk about storytime, but it was one of those
games where you go to the locker room and you're
trying to give yourself all types of pep talks. But
we'll talk more about that later. If I'm not mistaken,
(01:32):
it wasn't just zero at half time. I think you
only had three by the end of the third quarter.
You went into you put it in the work. Okay,
all right, because you put it in the work, you're
down the stress of this one. But okay, let's go
ahead and jump into it. Look, I'll be honest, this
one felt like a prize fight. I'm a little bit older,
so you know I still you know, I still watch boxing.
(01:52):
I came up our boxing. This one absolutely felt like
a prize fight. Both teams were trading buckets, bumps and blows,
you know, you know Parker with a loader, Billips on
the other end with a drive, dunking on the block,
then sheet on the block. Just a fantastic first quarter.
Right in fourth part against riche cors contact the shot
(02:13):
up tun C four court long, you know, as the Pistons.
They pushed the lead out to six or seven a
couple of times, only to have your spurs keep chipping
away at it. You guys actually built a nine point
lead earlier in the quarter, and even though Detroit shot
(02:35):
just seven for twenty one in a second, they were
able to claw back and they tied it up. The
guys were tied at forty two and half in this one. Yeah,
to think about that is we knew the severity of
this game. We knew we had to keep the crowd out.
We knew that was gonna try to do. Take the
same forma from last game. Attack us. You know when
teams attack you sometimes they don't like to be attacked.
And I said to us, say, we're gonna establish our
(02:55):
step on the inside early with Tim, because that's gonna
make it easier for us on the outside of course Tim.
You know, he's typical Tim Duncan started doing jump hooks,
you know, being aggressively. And that's the thing we don't
talk about Tim Tim is we talk about his quietness
and how good he is. But he's a competitor. He
doesn't like to lose in anything. I noticed from playing
(03:15):
video games with him, from playing poker with him. He
hates to lose. And so in these moments he wants
the ball to establish himself and established his dominicant. He
don't say it with his mouth, he just said. He
does it with his action. And we sometimes see that
look in certain players eyes. He's like, you know what
he means business like this, Go to him and get
out of his way. All right, I have to ask,
you know, and this is an aside, what's Tim's video
(03:38):
game of choice? What do you what were you guys playing?
What were you guys competing against one of what? What's
the shooting game? No? The world game like gold and Eye?
That would have been like Golden Eye era. No, No, no,
it was Halo. Halo. Yeah, it was Halo and another
one that he loved to play. So yeah, okay, so
look it's already been mentioned that you only had three
(03:58):
points by the end of the third order, But to
be honest with you, it makes the fourth quarter in
overtime that much more impressive because you came out in
that fourth quarter of smoking hot. In Game five, I
pitched out left to Ari eight to shoot Ari's three
good from the left, and that time is the game
at seventy nine. So right, we're just under four minutes
(04:19):
to go in the fourth mine who found you on
the wing on a driving kid? You throw sheet with
a ball fake before knocking down another three, tying the
game at seventy nine. Do you remember this play? Oh? Yeah,
I do remember this play. Um, it's so weird that
there's so many moments that athletes are basketball players. They
call they do what's called the heat check. And even
though you know you've knocked down a couple of shots,
(04:41):
you get a couple of lips. As a player, you
think you're hot. You know everybody said, everybody can make
it up. But now that that's the heat check, and
so at that moment, I was It's hard to explain,
but you get this feeling inside your body. It's almost
like electricity, and the rim becomes bigger and everybody talks
about every basketball talks about how the room get and
it actually does. Everything kind of slows down. And in
(05:03):
that moment, for me, I was feeling really good, feel
the amp, and I think, like you said, he had
to do with the previous games, I had started figuring
out my shot and at that moment a pump fact
sheet and I'm like, what the heck, let's try, you know,
let it fly. That's our model, and let it fly.
And it dropped them a bottom and you kept it.
You kept it going because you would just under a
(05:24):
minute ago you knocked down another three. It doesn't matter
what uniform me, where is what arena? It's in Robert
Ore And I want to actually your key in on that.
I know you said ballplayers simply live for those moments,
but what's going through your mind is you're putting up
thirteen in the quarter, especially given the slow game that
(05:44):
you would had prior to it. For me, I'm like,
run me some players pop, please, I'm hot, you know,
But that didn't happen. He just you know, we're so
good as a team that we can move the basketball.
And I just made sure I got to the spot
that I know that the ball is gonna come to
You know, people always know that first kickout is knowing
not the shot. The second pass is the shot that
(06:06):
you know him to get. So I posistioned a position myself,
not in the position to be the first pass, but
the second past. You can see me in the course
of the games. I'm like, Bruce, move, man, move, because
this is the second slot. I want the shot. And
so you put yourself in that position to score. And
for me at that time, when you rolling like that,
you just want to touch, you want to catch it,
you want to shoot it and see what happens, all right,
So keeping it going to no one's surprise, Detroit winds
(06:28):
up sending the game in the OT on the last
second block on a man who driven seconds. Don't wait
too long. Motto's gonna drive our prench all the way
in runnering lane follows start and here is the poster
chim out of tip in for the game. We are
going to overtime. Oh man, sim duncan have a tip
in at the ram that would have won the game,
(06:49):
but we are going instead of overton pushing it forward
any action. We get to about the one thirty mark
in o t and you guys are down for when
you caught you know, you caught a rough pass on
the wing, and that pulls you off your spot. After
a ball fake, you dropped the hammer on a still
moving rip Hamilton's and fetch the thing's gonna driving inside
slam dunk robert Or and the shot is good of
(07:11):
the foul ripol. What a power move by roberts Or.
Roman's gonna block got shot? Do you do you remember
that dunk? And and were you worried that you might
get called for the charge? I remember that dunk. And
there's a couple of reasons why I remember that dunk.
I'm gonna start number one. My middle son Cameron was
at that game, and before the game, he was talking
to Dad, You're never dunk anymore, do you dunk? And
(07:33):
so I was excited that this dunk because this is
one of my most exciting dunks I've had in a
long time. And so as I was going to the whole,
you know, it was a bad pass, and so they
know I was hot from three, so they rushed out
that the push me off the three. I had to
drive And when I took off, I was saying to myself,
I just take off too far, I'm not gonna make it.
(07:55):
And then I said, oh, I got five files. It's
rip gonna slide over and take this charge. That will
be six files. But I was able to get to
the basket. I was able to drop the hammer, but
also hurt my shoulder at the same time. So really,
we talked about this before, and we talked about man.
He said, I shouldn't have got over there. But yeah,
this is one of my most exciting dunks. And I
(08:16):
actually have a friend that calls this the Batman dunk.
I don't know why because it just looks like I'm
flying through the air like Superman or Batman. Yeah, I
was gonna say it was like the Superman pose, you like.
It was a fantastic dunk, Absolutely fantastic. You know, on
that dunk, a lot of people look at him, like,
but your right hand? Why did you dunk left handed?
There's a few reasons why I started dunking left hand.
(08:38):
The number one reason is because I broke my right
thumb in college, so I had to still work out
and we did a lot of things left handed, um,
jump hooks, everything, So I learned how to jump off
my right leg more than my dominique was my left
and then as I went on, I strained my MCL
in my left leg, which calls me to use my
(09:00):
right leg even more. So these are two the main
reasons why I was a left handed dunker, because the
the left leg is the dominant leg, which is the
jumping leg. For most right handed guys, that side had
been injured from you know, you know, torn ligament in
the ankle, to a c L injury the knee, until
a right thumb being broken. So it made me use
(09:21):
my left hand a lot throughout my career. Yeah, it's
wild to me, you know, as an outsider, the things
that you guys are, you know, supreme athletes are able
to do with your bodies, especially given the fact that
you essentially had to adjust because your body was messed up,
you know, the other side of your body was messed up.
So yeah, no, it remains impressive to me, Thank you.
(09:43):
I try to impress a lot of people with my
skill set. All right, So continuing on, we're down to
ten seconds, and you know you're actually down with man
who trapped in the corner off the end bounds your man,
your man robbed your man leaves them the trap almost
like they haven't seen this movie before. Man who finds
(10:04):
you and all the Detroit collectively groans as you knocked
it down. Won't throw out. The player who throws in
is frequently the player for whom the players runs it
comes in the gay back to Ari, he sucks. Oh
my god, Robert are hitting up three on the love Pling?
What five point eight loft having us first take out
(10:25):
one point lead and fake Bob So Rob, I gotta
I know you've been you've been there, and you've done that,
but please tell us what you know, what you're thinking.
You know, after you knocked that one down, it was
just like how it felt, you know, in that moment um.
The play wasn't even designed for me. I was supposed
to cut through, give it to mine who cut through,
(10:46):
and let mine who go to work, and Tim was
supposed to come out instead of pick and roll. I
was literally supposed to go to the other side. And
so when I passed it, I saw Rashid bit on
the past because you know, if you really think about it,
Rashid did what most good players should do. You're in
the dead zone. Money was in the dead zone. You
got Tayshawn Prince who's six nine, you got received, while
(11:08):
at six level you got Mona Jenobli, who's six three.
You trapped that in the corner. And if you get
a good trap, you can get a turnover or you
can you know, disrupt the plate. But Minu, being a
great passer, passed the ball out to me and I
just stepped in. I'm already rolling and I was gonna
let it fly, and so the moment was fantastic for me.
(11:29):
Even after that left handed dunk and my left shoulder
was in was thriving in pain. I was able to
focus and key in on that shot. Like I said,
when he bit Mini received, while it's everything just slowed down, man,
and when I called it, I was able to rise
up like I normally do. And as I looked back
at that film, I was lucky to get that shot
(11:51):
off because Tayshawn Prince, being the shot blocker that he
he is, was so close to blocking that shot. But
I know it's able to knock down at three and
it wasn't a smooth three. It kind of rattled and
went in. But I like it when you hit the
next go. But he rattled it and I take it
though I was just gonna say you want to take
the points off the board because it wasn't that wasn't
(12:12):
a perfect shot. Yeah, yeah, I know. Look, we we
already mentioned that Tim doesn't really get very emotional or
doesn't really you know, doesn't react all that much. And
you know in the act in the moment, but I
noticed he did kind of pull your close after you
after you knocked that shot down? What are you? What
was he saying to you? The thing about Duncan you know?
Tim was this guy, he showed emotions every once in
(12:33):
a while. When he came up to me and gave
me a hug, he was like, way to go. I'm like,
can I get a little bit more love than that?
Like no, I just kidding now, but he was like,
he was like, way to go. And then Tony came
up next was like fix shot, Bob. You know, it
was just a fantastic moment for me because people don't
know what happened to me when I first got to
(12:54):
the Spurge. But my first year with the Spurs, it
wasn't a year a Robbert or a year I would saying,
and I'm not and the third person, but I had
I didn't have a good year, which was my first
season there. We lost to the Lakers and they went
on to play the Pistons in the Vinyls and I
actually signed a one year deal and two for two
thousand five. I signed a one year deal because I
(13:14):
felt like I owed them a year to show them
what I could do. And so I was on a
one year contract in two thousand, two thousand five, and
I had that great season. Then I signed another contract
in the off season. Wait, I have to and you know,
not to dispute what you're saying, you felt like you
owed them. Why did you feel that? Because when you
come to a team and you know, you put great
(13:36):
expectations on yourself, at least I do. And I hadn't
having all the playoff experience that I had and you know,
becoming you know, the legend of big shot Bob, so
to say, um, my first year with the Spurs, it
wasn't a year that I I felt like I stepped
up to the plate. And I don't know if it
had to do with the fact that the Spurs is
the first team I ever played with that had over
(13:58):
fifty plays and they're very uh, they're very technical team.
They like to run a lot of plays, and it
takes your time and takes some time to get used to.
And that's the first thing I told Michael Finley when
he got to us in two thousand and five two
thousand and six seasons, that it's going to take your
time to learn this system, because you know, basketball players
like to just play off reads. Brent Barry and I
(14:19):
had a great rapport when it came to that, and
with the Spurs is they ran their plays. You go
a B C. And most players, if you see a
back door, you go back door. And in this system,
you could not do that because they was like, no,
we have something to back up the beach, we have
something to back up and sea and sold forth and
so on, and so it took me a while to
(14:39):
understand that system. So therefore I felt like, Okay, I
have the system under my belt. Now I know what
to do to make myself better and make the team better.
I know you alluded to it in a previous series breakdown,
but what which which? Which system was more difficult to
pick up because and the reason why I asked this
is specifically, everybody talked about the triangle as being the
one like, oh, it's really tough was the was the
(15:00):
Spurs system actually more difficult? Pick up the Spurs systems
way more difficult than the triangle. Um, the triangle is
kind of what we ran when I was in Houston.
So different terminology, that's the only thing. Different turnline. But
the end of the day, if you have a background
of plan for a good college team, a good high
school team, you have the i Q to run the
(15:20):
triangle and so and also with with the Spurs, it's
just you have to have the intellectual remember all the
plays and all the signs because Pop had a lot
of hand signals because of all the foreign players. Think
about it, we were we were like an international team.
We had all the foreign players on it, so there
was sometimes a language barrier there. So, but so we
just had like dive role and all these kind of
(15:41):
things and you know, fist and the fist down, you know,
you know floppy, you know. It's all these plays that
we had that all had hand signals, and so that's
what we had to do as a team. And you
had to learn all these plays and it was a lot.
I can imagine that. Honestly, you haven't watched you guys,
I absolutely can't imagine, all right, so wrapping this one up.
They even after you made that huge three, Rip wind's
(16:04):
up getting a nice look on the other end. You know,
obviously you know it doesn't go down. You guys end
up winning. But you remember the look that he got. Oh,
I remember the look. Man. He had a drive and
he got in the mid range. We know Rip is
the mid range master at the time. You know, he
took the took a playbook out of what Reggie Miller
used to do and just was always on the move.
(16:25):
And I was a little shocked, to be honest with that.
They didn't go to Chauncey and Rip kind of took
it upon himself to go to the hole and you know,
he got the bump and he was looking for the file,
but it wasn't a file, it was you know, verticality.
He went up and he missed the shot. He was
able to secure the rebound and we went on to
win Game five. Looking inside finds Hamilton's posting up on
poker ball make away. He got the back, puts on
(16:46):
the shot, nod rebound tip out top by throwing this
tall game was over this first of one Game five.
You took Game five you're heading home up three too.
And this one that should be noted. Duncan was really
fantastic at twenty six and nineteen. Manu was great again
at fifteen nine and six. Uh, you know detro from
(17:07):
Detroit side of things, they were pretty balanced. All five
starters scored and double figures, with Chauncey leading away with
thirty four. But how do you know what what what's
the feeling when you're headed back. You're heading back and
you're up three too. We talked about threes in this game.
You know, Chauncey hit two threes and they were only
with two for nine for three. That's show you how
many threes that they would shooting. And we were with
(17:28):
eight for twenty. Not a lot of three shots. But
you know, we was like, okay, we got them right
where we wanted. We stole a game in their building.
We're gonna go home and we just gotta win one.
We want to win the first one, but we just
gotta win one. And but we also was saying, you
know what, they're gonna come out hard. They're there, they're
the previous champion. They got their backs against the wall.
Don't take anything like they go home, get off your feet,
(17:50):
get some rests, and get ready to come out and
play game six. Brob let's go ahead and get into it.
Story time with Big Shot time. Oh, story time. So
we mentioned about me and Bruce having a little competition
with threes. It was like Bruce and I were seatmates,
meaning on the planes, were sitting next to each other,
and we would talk about, um, you know, the game,
our families and whatnot. And in this series, I was like, Bruce,
(18:12):
you know you're knocking that jay down from You're knocking
that three down from the corner. I said, but you
know what, so am I? So I guarantee you I
end up with more threes and the funds than you
do the win against Dinner. So we had too little.
We had that little inside thing going. And and then
after game five, Bruce was looking at me like, dude,
what did you say to yourself in the corner? And
(18:33):
what I mean by that is at halftime of game five,
you know Detroit has one of those amazing locker rooms.
Not it's terrible. So I'm in the corner, it's game five.
I know the importance of Game five. I'm literally talking
to myself and I ain't gonna tell you what I
was saying to myself. I was literally cussing myself out
in the corner, and Bruce was looking at me with
like that weird looked like this dude crazy, right, So
(18:56):
and and so, when I go out in the second half,
I'm telling myself, dude, you suck man, you gotta come on,
you gotta play this game five. I'm giving myself pep
talk because you know, there's so many guys out there
that give pep talks, and I don't listen to him
because I'm the only one that knows how to motivate me,
you know. So I'm trying to motivate myself to go
out there and play good. And I went out and
(19:17):
had a great second half and Bruce, and Bruce will
say to me, so, why don't you talk to yourself
more often? Like the only worse once? Man, It's like
you can only pull that out of the hat once,
you know, so exactly, And I pulled it out in
game five. And that's that's one of the things that
Bruce Born, he and I always laugh about to this
day that I was talking to myself and I amped
(19:39):
myself up to pull a Robert Roy slash big shot
moment in game game five. You know, Tim Duncan was like, yeah,
Rob doesn't never show up, you know, he sits on
the sideline. He does. In the interview with Tim after
this was so funny because I was the next guy
coming up. And it's a funny a little a little
chuckle that he and I gets because he's like, Rob
(20:00):
doesn't play. He waited, sits on the side and all
season and then he waits for a big game to
show up. So that's that's the legend of big Shot
Bob right there. It's best. That was probably the greatest
performance I've ever been a part of. I'll tell you
the deal with Rob. Rob just hangs out the entire game.
He does it all season long. He doesn't do anything.
He doesn't feel like playing. He shows up sometimes and
(20:23):
then you put him in the fourth quarter in a
big game and he's like, Okay, it's time to play now.
I've been hanging out the entire season. It's time to
play now, and and he just turns it on. And
as funny as that seems, it's just how it is. Uh,
he doesn't want to show up, he doesn't feel like playing.
Huntil it's a big game, Thank you, Robert or We'll
be next. So I have to ask that that's a
(20:51):
fantastic story. So but I have to ask you, where'd
you get your steak? Where? Where did where? Did? Where
did Bruce take you for your know? Because you you
you made fifteen to his thirteen in this seer? Where
did he take you to dinner? Doo still owes me dinner?
So yeah, we had, you know, we had. We hadn't
had a chance to go to Dinny yet, you know,
because during the Susan seasons, so was I was out
(21:12):
of San Antonio, I was missing my family, had to
go home and see my my wife, my daughter, and
my son and hang out with them. So Bruce is
never he's never paid up on that bet, Bruce missing up.
We're coming for you, mad. When we promo this show,
I'm gonna absolutely have to mention that it's like my
sister repeaters, champions don't have to win Game six and
seven on the road, something that no team down three
(21:34):
two has ever done in the NBA Finals. So that
actually kind of goes into where I was gonna start
off Game six with because obviously, you know, Detroit's fighting
to stay alive, once again, and to borrow a quote
from you know, a great coach that you're fully familiar with,
you can never underestimate the heart of a champion. The Pistons,
they simply weren't ready to go home. And I'm not
saying in any way that you were underestimating them, but
(21:56):
was there a part of you that said, hey, look
we're up three too. We like where we're at, know
we at least know that we got two shots at this.
No no, no, no, no, no, not at all, because
injury can always come into play. Um and that's the
one thing as players, you want to end it as
soon as possible. You want to act like this is
game seven. And you know, you gotta give the Pistons credit.
(22:16):
They came out and played a heck of a game there.
All these starters contributed. It wasn't like before it was
just maybe one here or two there, three that, but
they all came out and they contributed, had a good
you know, a good outing from the bench again. So
it was a complete team effort by the Pistons. They
felt like they in the driver see right now, But
they still got a knockers out and you know, we
still got a couple of rounds left in this thing.
(22:38):
It's like a heavyweight fight. We're coming to work, man,
We come to work tonight. Absolutely. I mean in the
first half it was the usual suspects doing the bulk
of the damage for both teams. For a trade that's
somebody trace. I want a way to start that. I'm
gonna try to drive on Bros. To the faint pull
up jumper. That shot is good. You know, you guys
battle back and forth, you know, it was it was.
It was actually a really good first half, but the
(22:58):
second half and it actually actually had a weirdly similar
feeling to those first two home games for Detroit where
they really turned it up defensively and made life difficult
for you guys without you know, without even really turning
you over that much. We're gonna write the Generals keta
on a drive along the baseline, nothing there, pitched it
away swaite by Rashi. It's another forced turnover by Detroit.
(23:20):
I should mention they did have six second half blocks,
you know, in order to make things more difficult for you,
but the spurs and your your spurs would up shot
in the second half compared to almost in the first.
Did you notice or do you remember any specific adjustments
that would you know, would account for such a you know,
it's such a swing. I think they amped up their defense.
They try to pick us up at half court. They
try to get us out of our sets because, like
(23:41):
I said, San Antonio is a set oriented team. We
have to run sets. We have to run down place A, B, C,
and D with the movement, and they kind of got
us out of that position. You get any better than this,
both teams playing with great intensity. Sometimes as a team,
to get a team out of their rotations, you amp
up of defense and you pushed the ball offense because
(24:02):
sometimes when you push the ball, that makes the other
team hurry up. Also because it becomes a fast paced game.
Allat Loyola Merrimont back in the day. So this is
one of those things that we had to do and understand, Yo,
don't play at their pace, play at our pace and
keep getting the ball inside to Tim Duncan, because in
this game, Tim was very efficient. He played very well,
(24:22):
but we didn't use him enough. Now that you look
back on that game, and speaking of this ultimately, you
know Duncan, menu and and Tony they were each solid.
You know, you guys kept on fighting throughout, but it
just wasn't quite enough. The Pistons end up tying things
up at three three with a eight six, winning Game six.
She's got dunking on him, drives it down the lane,
Finger rolls No, but she'd taped to them, and there'll
(24:44):
be no parade in San Antone. On Thursday, the Pistons
put San Antonio away Night six, setting up a Game
seven for all the marbles. Johncey ripped and she'd seemed
to kind of take turns making big, you know play.
He's down the stretch for this one, and you're honestly,
we're at this game seven situation where we know anything
(25:05):
can happen. Rip Hamilton's had his best game. He had
twenty three points in that game. He was on fire.
He was nine for nineteen, and you know, like I said,
Ben Wallace, even though he was four for six, he
was out scoring points eight points and grabbing rebounds, grabbing
blocks and getting steals. If Ben is able to get
blocks and steals, you're gonna be in trouble. And he
had three blocks and two steals. You have to keep
(25:25):
that great defensive players at Bay because defensive players like
Ben Wallace. When they get their blocks, they get their steals.
That's almost like again a slam dunk for the team.
It hypes them up. They go out and they play well,
and they played extremely well in game six, So you
can't take anything away from them. They came out, they
beat us. Hats off to them because their true champion.
Can you just talk about the satisfaction of of forcing
(25:47):
this game seven? Yeah, I mean it means everything. You
know what I mean. We go back to the hotel
instead of to the airplane, you know. So I think
that this is what it's all about. Man, You're in
the finals. It's a game seven. You know, the two
best teams in the league. Um, don't get no better
(26:07):
than this. All right, so let's take a break here,
but coming up next seven. All right, we're back here
on NBA Finals File with Robert Range Bari Davis. So
let's go ahead and kick the game seven. Welcome to
(26:31):
seven of the last two chefs here for all then, Yo,
you have an opportunity to get your six. This is
gonna be Duncan's third, So Rob, it's winning time. What's
the message from Pop and what's the vibe in the locker? Room.
You know, it's so weird. You have so many coaches
that come out and be like, we gotta do this,
(26:53):
we gotta do that, and Pop says, you know what's
at stake. We've been here, we know what we need
to do. We lost the opportunity if in game six,
just come out, run out schemes, play good defense, keep
them off the offensive boards, and we'll come out on top.
And that's what Pop said. You know, sometimes when you
have a veteran team, like we had, all these guys
(27:15):
that one rings been there before, he said, you know,
we know what we need to do. You know, physically,
we're ready, mentally, be ready. Go out and do your
job simple and to the point. And I honestly, if
you do the work in advance, you don't have to
worry about trying to scramble and do it at the end.
So I can appreciate that mindset. It seems it sounds
like it was kind of similar to Fils like in
(27:37):
that and I'm not, you know, you know, comparing it too,
but it's interesting that it sounds like they both had
that same type of approach. I think all great coaches
have that type of approach, especially when you have um
superstar players on your team thinking about the field. Had
M J. Kobe, Shack Scotty. Now we got Tony Tim
and many So we had superstar status type players who
(27:59):
have been there before and to sit the stakes, and
guys that you know, you know, guys in support of them,
like yourself that obviously been there many times. So I
get it, okay, So you know, to no one's surprise,
the two defenses, they battled back and forth for the
first three quarters of of Game seven, long scoring game,
but it is tight, it is tense, and its defensive minded.
You actually got off to a nice starting this one
(28:19):
with eight points in the first quarter. Barry, I'll put
the junk and top of the gig inside the oory
left hand upside it over Fred Wallace. But neither team,
you know, held more than the six point lead throughout
the first half, and we actually had a finals half
time scored a thirty nine thirty eight. We have reached
half time with a score Detroit thirty nine, San Antonio eight.
This has been all you can hope for in the
(28:41):
game seven. I can't even imagine what folks because folks
will be losing their mind if that happens in today's game.
I know, right, I'm like, first quarter was three f four.
I was rolling on like pop rumes and plays. Man,
let me carry you to the promised land. I could
do this, man. But now you know that's that's the
testament to to our team. You know, my Stefan Brent
Berry came out and had a good first quarter and
at ten points, you know, off the bench, and so
(29:03):
it's takes a team. It's not just the start. It
it's the team. It's the guys who can come off
the bench, who can contribute. And that's what Ben Baron
I did. We were smart enough to understand the stakes.
We're smart enough to you know, know our role and
were smart enough to have a good first quarter. So
the Pistons they put together a nine oh run near
the start of the third to take the game's biggest
lead of forty eight thirty nine. And again you know,
we're just under seven forty five to go in the quarter. Again,
(29:25):
that's always gonna just sound crazy nine Detroit, but your
your big three. You know. They took turn scoring buckets
the next few trips down, including in the and one
from Duncan, and it was back to just a two
point game. By the six eight mark of the third,
tip Duncan down again. Crazy to say, tied it fifty
(29:49):
seven heading into the fourth. So Rob, there's one player
that I you know, that I want to talk about
at the start of the fourth. I don't think you're
in the game at this stage, but Manu, he splits
the defense up top cross you know, crosses, and he
ex actually going to his right. He jumps and it
looks like he's going to dunk it with his customary
left hand, but no, he he jumps off his right
foot and dunks it with his right hand. O. God
(30:14):
was so clever. He hesitated and drug and as soon
as he saw lut that's an explosion. He attacked that
craft and that's the time of thing he did in games.
Wanted to when he remember that play, Oh, I remember
that play. It was bananas because I don't know if
it's the Latin flare or what maybe, but the fans
(30:36):
in San Antonio, I think they love Monty. Monty loved
Tim Duncan. And when Mono did this dunk, we're on
the bitch, like did he just do that? Because he's
such a left handed plan you know, I'm not gonna
compared to the moment when Michael Jordan went down in
the air and switches from his right to lay it
up with his left, But this was similar. They said,
my new got up so high and he dumped that,
(30:58):
And I'm like, I would love to have talked to monitor.
Do you remember that, because as a player, you do
a lot of things off the instinct and off the bounce,
off the moment, And I wonder if he did that
off the moment, because I don't ever remember him dunking
with his right hand throughout the course of the season,
but in that moment, the big moments, big time players
shine and Manu, we forget. It's a Gold Mellist, NBA
(31:21):
champion and he was able to come through in Game
seven big time. And no, honestly, and you know, on
that note, that's why it was wild to me when
I saw people, you know, and and I should I
should consider the source because social media it's a place
that folks are always just gonna say anything and everything.
But I saw folks that were questioning Minu would be
in the Hall of Famer, and it's like, guys, first
(31:42):
of all, it's the Basketball Hall of Fames, But to
be honest with you, he would have deserved to get
there just off the strength of his NBA career. But
when you factor in his international play, you know, fact
he's a gold medalist. You know, my mine Wu was
one of the one of the greats of his generation. Yeah,
you know he won sixth Man of the Year. Um.
I think anytime you win some type of award in
the NBA is that you should be in the Hall
(32:03):
of Fame. And there's a lot of guys I know
that one awards like Michael Cooper Defensive Player of the Year,
then in the Hall of Fame. That should be in
the Hall of Fame. And Monu should be first about
the Hall of Fame because he was an outstanding player
both internationally and in the NBA. You know, it's like
hating up to me when you mentioned Michael Cooper and uh,
I know that's not this series, but one percent agreed.
Anytime you're an eight time All Defensive Player that you know,
(32:26):
All Defensive Player, five of those times being first team
you know, six times with five or six time champion
Defensive Player of the Year as well as multiple time
champion as a coach in the w n b A
as well as in the G League. I would agree
you deserve to be there, all right, and then pushing
it forward just a little bit more in the action
right around the eight thirty mark, I think it was
man who find you know, man who's probing. He finds
(32:48):
you in the corner, you know, four or three. The
three put you guys up five, and to be honest
with you, you kind of had control after that point.
You remember that shot. I remember that play a big
time because you know, as a player, you know when
you're feeling good. Um, I was feeling good in this game.
You know, the ocean wan as big as it was
(33:10):
in game five, but it was a pond, so to say.
But for me, when you're in that moment um, you
know what's at stake, and my new the competitor, he
is the smart guy is you know, being able to
collapse the defense and finding me in the corner. You
know I had moved Brue side of that corner and
I was in that corner, so I was able to
knock down that three and to put us up five.
(33:30):
And I think for me, you know, knocking down that
shot was so important for us because when you in
this day and age in this area. When you get
a three like that in a big time situation, is
demoralized into a team because as you can see throughout
this series, a lot of threes weren't made by each team.
You know, we out we out shot the Pistons from
the three market. That's probably why we run this series.
(33:52):
But for me knocking down that shot at that moment
kind of let them know that, uh, we tried. But
it's the night's not our night, Bob doing big shot
Bob things. Here we go, driving in for the right
to know the late late today and Tigers and hard
Tart Chris he fires a threat that shots so good
(34:12):
just gave us over. The Saint Antonio Spurs have won
their third NBA World Championship. Larry Brown and Gregg Popabit's
longtime friends embraced here mid parton the Spurs have the
prawn they did try testings in a classic seven game series.
(34:37):
Is it the best championship? Um V Just because of
all the ups and downs that we went through all
year long, ticket all the way to Game seven, to
play the absolute last possible basketball game in the year,
and to win it in that fourth quarter, it was
just everything that everything together, it just makes it so special.
So Duncan in mind combined for forty game points and
you provided what they needed with fifteen off the bench
(34:59):
again other than you another another big game off the bench.
And then now you're officially a significant part of title
teams with three different organizations. Now I asked you, you
know at the start, you know, like if you have
thought about it in you and you acknowledge that you
didn't necessarily you know, think about it heading in. And
I also have asked you, you know what the different
rings meant to you, But what does this one mean
to you, given the fact that now you've contributed to
(35:21):
three different dynasties. For me, it was it was so gratifying. Um.
I know when I held up at five, I never
thought I'd be holding up six fingers to represent six championships,
but to do it with the San Antonio Spurs. And
you know, and sometimes as a as a player, you
you you think a little bit selflessly, and I think about, man,
I killed it in game five. You know I would
(35:42):
just killed it in game seven. Two big games, even
though Games six is a big game, and I didn't
have the game that I wanted to have, but those
two games, to me, I look back at like man,
I was able to complish something in the NBA that
a lot of guys would never be able to accomplish.
And so I was very excited. You know, it's very
excited to ship that championship with with Brent Berry. Was
(36:02):
thinking about Brent Berry and I came off the bench
and we will plus thirty one. Yeah, and that's huge
for a team. You got two guys that will plus
combined plus thirty one. And for us to step up
in a big time moment and for me to win
my sixth ring. For Brent and win his first ring,
it was huge for us. And you know, and you
think about the San Antonio organization, they're a team that
(36:24):
just flies by under the radar. Nobody talks about him
until his playoff time. Like San Antonio has the best record. Oh,
they win another championship, and I wanted to be a
part of that. I was happy that I was there
to be a part of that because I had won
a championship in Houston, I had won a championship in
San Antonio. There's three teams in Texas and I was
part of championship with two of them, so I was
(36:44):
I was very excited about that, you know, I know
I actually never thought about that. You know, was there
ever a part of you that maybe wanted to tack
on a final run with the MAVs to see if
you could pull off the trifector interest. In fact, Mark
Cuban tried to sign me after the two thousand and
five seasons because, as I told you, I only signed
(37:06):
a one year deal because I was so mad at
myself for having a bad year that first year. Because
I signed a one year deal my first year with
the Spurs. I signed another one year deal and so
I redeemed myself to me in two thousand five. So
Mark Cuban saw in the series that I had. He
offered me a contract, which I had to say, was
more money than the Spurs offered me. And a part
(37:29):
of me said, hey, it's still Texas and no tax taking.
But I felt comfortable with the Spurs. I felt like
we had a chance to repeat, and so I stayed
with San Antonio and eventually Dallas went on to win
a championship in that time period where I would have
been with them, but we won one another one to
two in two thousand and seven, So I was happy
with my decision. Yeah, I was just gonna say, I
feel like you made the right choice, and I'm not.
And honestly, I'm not mad at Mark for dirty mackin
(37:51):
because I would have done the same exactly. Hey, you
thinking about it wherever I go. The Championships followed, so
it's in the Phoenix. I wasn't there Longe enough, But hey,
I'm a champion man. That's why all I have to
say relations to Peter and Julietta Hall, to this extraordinary team,
to the city. I'm San Antonio. Here's the trophy. This
(38:19):
was the Swedest school. This was this was the hardness.
It was a hell of a grind. We played great
teams and it was the Swedest no doubt. And on
that notice, time for our last break. When we come back,
it's our finals follow awards, and I think Rob might
have to give himself one of the m v P
met Hey say it, say it with your chest, say
it with your chest. Everywhere goes to me. That's right,
(38:52):
all right, we're back here on the NBA Finals follow
and here's my favorite part. We get to your awards.
Let's go ahead and break them down. What Who's Who's
the m v P? Me just so game five alone? Me? No,
But I'm serious though, I think you know, Tim has
always been that catalysty, He's always been an inside presence.
He did so much damage for us in the paint
(39:12):
and everything. He had twenty five points in that last game.
You know, it could be a close tie between Tim,
nobody and me. So okay, honestly smiles aside. I thought
I thought for sure you were going to, you know,
you shout me down because I was gonna say, taking
nothing away from Duncan and his incredible greatness. I think
(39:33):
a case could be made for myn who to be
the the m v P of this of this finals,
and again taking nothing away from him. He deserved it,
he earned it. All I'm saying is man who was
also special with this finals. You know, the thing that
we don't talk about because we're so interested in offense,
Myne who held Tashan Prince and check and even though
he was like big deal, Tayshan is a guy who
(39:56):
averaged between eleven and fifteen points a game, and for
him to keep him under that is huge, you know,
because he just took totally took take shot out of
the game and at times we need a bigger body.
He was able to guard Chauncey. He was able to
guard Rip. So there were so many things that would
go unheard over. And for Manu, you know, he deserved
to have his name put up there as m v
(40:17):
P for this series. So you know now that we
say it out loud, Okay, my m v P goes
to Mono Genobli. Okay, Hey, you know what, I'm gonna
take it. I'm gonna take it a run. So keeping
keeping it going. Who is your best role player in
this series? There were a lot of great ones, but
I don't honestly, don't be honest. You know, I'm not
gonna put me in that book because I'm gonna go
(40:38):
back to you know, Antonio mcdice. I think he provide
a huge spark for them. I think he averaged ten
points in this series, eleven points in this series. And
for him, he was a great role player coming on
that team, even though you know he because I say
that because he didn't win a championship with them the
previous season. He came to them the next season trying
(40:59):
to get them to repeat, and he was a great
role player for them, him and Ben Even and Ben Wallace.
And then you know, I'm not going to give myself
this accolade as the best role player that because I
considered myself a star. Okay, you know, honestly, you're smiling
about it. I don't. I respect, I respect, all right.
And and and honestly, you know you shouts to mc
dice because he was fantastic for them. He respectacular. You know,
(41:22):
all right, what about the coaching matchup? I give it
to Pop And I look at the way Pop coach
this series. He went with his core rotation. He inserted
Brent Bury at times, he inserted Banno Udrich at times
would need to be so he made some some great
pieces and great moves and and and because you don't
don't get me wrong, Land Brown did a hell of
(41:43):
a job. You know, if they win, you give the
lad Brown. And since we wanted, you have to give
it to Pop. He just you know, he made some
right moves at the right time. And by starting Mono Genoboli,
and you know, keeping him as a starter throughout that series,
and you're not bringing him off the bench, which is
what his normally role is. We is big for us.
I cannot disagree in any way. Um, I'll be honest
(42:04):
with you. While it's not a criticism, had you know
Coach Brown rude the sheet train a little bit more,
or actually a lot more, maybe it goes a different
way both with this award as well as with the series.
But in this one, absolutely respect to both of you know,
both of those legends, and Pop deserves it, all right.
You know what time it is? Who's getting the Big
(42:25):
Shot Bob Award? And and don't even don't play with me, man,
don't don't play with me. Who's a big Shot Bob
Award in this series? This is the one time I
had to pat myself on the back dog just for
Game five and Game seven is along where I was
able to step up and knock down Jay's I have
to give myself the big Shot Award. Yeah, hell, this
name not to me, So you know, I have to say, man,
(42:47):
because I look back at the games in this series,
it's about making adjustments and for me personally, I made
adjustments from game ones and one and two who I
wasn't shooting the ball in the correct form. I made
that adjustment and I was able to knock down some
big shots. Um, having an extraordinary second half for a
guy that didn't have any place ran for him, you know,
(43:09):
and then to go in Game seven and to come
out in the first quarter and have eight points. For me,
I have to give myself the big shot at one,
you know, even though I could probably slide it over
to one of my favorite players all time, Brent Berry,
but I'll signed him. So I'm giving the award to me. Hey,
I was gonna say, you can be not yet you
can be nice and be cute with it. Rob, you
won this award fair and square. You're right. The award
(43:32):
is named after you, and it's specifically because of these
types of moments, in these types of you know, your
your greatness in these moments, so I think it's well deserved.
I would like to say, in the words of Rudy King,
Nicking Nicking absolutely absolutely, absolutely fantastic time breaking this series
down with you, Rob. I know it's not your favorite
(43:53):
thing to talk about yourself, but you know what, it's
one of my favorite things. So I appreciate your bearing
with me. But you know, the great thing about this
series is it was two defensive Juggernauts going out and balance.
I know people want to see the sexiness of no
knocking down Jay's and hitting threes and the dunks. But
if you look at this, just this game as a whole,
in this series as a whole, it was too defensive
(44:15):
minded teams going out and playing for a championship and
the team that had not the best defense but the
best offensive output because good defense it's sometimes great, but
great offense is always better. Fair Enough, and we will
leave it on that note. Make sure you tune in
next week. We got a absolute classic m the Jay
(44:38):
in Parker
All right, welcome back to the NBA Finals file. I
am Jabari Davis, joined by of course, seven time champ
Robert Ory. We left off part one after Game four,
you know, with the series too too. But now it's
timing to have some fun because Game five is also
known as the Robert Orri Game. You know, you can
say a lot of things, but it's all about getting
down the court and execute. You know, there's a lot
of people gonna talk to talk, but you gotta walk
(00:25):
to walk. We gotta go out execute Rob. I gotta
be honest with you. I was excited because we finally
get an overtime classic in the finals. There were four
s Ray blowouts by the home teams and start this
and I have to say, this game already would have
been my favorite of the series, but the fact that
it may have been your best game of your career
absolutely made it that much better. We are ready for
one of the most important finals games in recent memory.
(00:47):
For the record, I know you had a forty piece
against the Bucks in the regular season back in and
you actually hit twenty four in the playoffs against the
Blazers one year. But given the circumstances and the significance
of the game. Would you agree that this was the
best game maybe your career. I would say this is
the best game, one of the best games. You know,
if you look at the moment and the severity of
the game, um game five on the road in the
(01:10):
hostile environment. And I say that also because if you
look at the first half zero points in the first
half of Robert Ory, you know it was It was
one of those games where we'll get more into and
we talk about storytime, but it was one of those
games where you go to the locker room and you're
trying to give yourself all types of pep talks. But
we'll talk more about that later. If I'm not mistaken,
(01:32):
it wasn't just zero at half time. I think you
only had three by the end of the third quarter.
You went into you put it in the work. Okay,
all right, because you put it in the work, you're
down the stress of this one. But okay, let's go
ahead and jump into it. Look, I'll be honest, this
one felt like a prize fight. I'm a little bit older,
so you know I still you know, I still watch boxing.
(01:52):
I came up our boxing. This one absolutely felt like
a prize fight. Both teams were trading buckets, bumps and blows,
you know, you know Parker with a loader, Billips on
the other end with a drive, dunking on the block,
then sheet on the block. Just a fantastic first quarter.
Right in fourth part against riche cors contact the shot
(02:13):
up tun C four court long, you know, as the Pistons.
They pushed the lead out to six or seven a
couple of times, only to have your spurs keep chipping
away at it. You guys actually built a nine point
lead earlier in the quarter, and even though Detroit shot
(02:35):
just seven for twenty one in a second, they were
able to claw back and they tied it up. The
guys were tied at forty two and half in this one. Yeah,
to think about that is we knew the severity of
this game. We knew we had to keep the crowd out.
We knew that was gonna try to do. Take the
same forma from last game. Attack us. You know when
teams attack you sometimes they don't like to be attacked.
And I said to us, say, we're gonna establish our
(02:55):
step on the inside early with Tim, because that's gonna
make it easier for us on the outside of course Tim.
You know, he's typical Tim Duncan started doing jump hooks,
you know, being aggressively. And that's the thing we don't
talk about Tim Tim is we talk about his quietness
and how good he is. But he's a competitor. He
doesn't like to lose in anything. I noticed from playing
(03:15):
video games with him, from playing poker with him. He
hates to lose. And so in these moments he wants
the ball to establish himself and established his dominicant. He
don't say it with his mouth, he just said. He
does it with his action. And we sometimes see that
look in certain players eyes. He's like, you know what
he means business like this, Go to him and get
out of his way. All right, I have to ask,
you know, and this is an aside, what's Tim's video
(03:38):
game of choice? What do you what were you guys playing?
What were you guys competing against one of what? What's
the shooting game? No? The world game like gold and Eye?
That would have been like Golden Eye era. No, No, no,
it was Halo. Halo. Yeah, it was Halo and another
one that he loved to play. So yeah, okay, so
look it's already been mentioned that you only had three
(03:58):
points by the end of the third order, But to
be honest with you, it makes the fourth quarter in
overtime that much more impressive because you came out in
that fourth quarter of smoking hot. In Game five, I
pitched out left to Ari eight to shoot Ari's three
good from the left, and that time is the game
at seventy nine. So right, we're just under four minutes
(04:19):
to go in the fourth mine who found you on
the wing on a driving kid? You throw sheet with
a ball fake before knocking down another three, tying the
game at seventy nine. Do you remember this play? Oh? Yeah,
I do remember this play. Um, it's so weird that
there's so many moments that athletes are basketball players. They
call they do what's called the heat check. And even
though you know you've knocked down a couple of shots,
(04:41):
you get a couple of lips. As a player, you
think you're hot. You know everybody said, everybody can make
it up. But now that that's the heat check, and
so at that moment, I was It's hard to explain,
but you get this feeling inside your body. It's almost
like electricity, and the rim becomes bigger and everybody talks
about every basketball talks about how the room get and
it actually does. Everything kind of slows down. And in
(05:03):
that moment, for me, I was feeling really good, feel
the amp, and I think, like you said, he had
to do with the previous games, I had started figuring
out my shot and at that moment a pump fact
sheet and I'm like, what the heck, let's try, you know,
let it fly. That's our model, and let it fly.
And it dropped them a bottom and you kept it.
You kept it going because you would just under a
(05:24):
minute ago you knocked down another three. It doesn't matter
what uniform me, where is what arena? It's in Robert
Ore And I want to actually your key in on that.
I know you said ballplayers simply live for those moments,
but what's going through your mind is you're putting up
thirteen in the quarter, especially given the slow game that
(05:44):
you would had prior to it. For me, I'm like,
run me some players pop, please, I'm hot, you know,
But that didn't happen. He just you know, we're so
good as a team that we can move the basketball.
And I just made sure I got to the spot
that I know that the ball is gonna come to
You know, people always know that first kickout is knowing
not the shot. The second pass is the shot that
(06:06):
you know him to get. So I posistioned a position myself,
not in the position to be the first pass, but
the second past. You can see me in the course
of the games. I'm like, Bruce, move, man, move, because
this is the second slot. I want the shot. And
so you put yourself in that position to score. And
for me at that time, when you rolling like that,
you just want to touch, you want to catch it,
you want to shoot it and see what happens, all right,
So keeping it going to no one's surprise, Detroit winds
(06:28):
up sending the game in the OT on the last
second block on a man who driven seconds. Don't wait
too long. Motto's gonna drive our prench all the way
in runnering lane follows start and here is the poster
chim out of tip in for the game. We are
going to overtime. Oh man, sim duncan have a tip
in at the ram that would have won the game,
(06:49):
but we are going instead of overton pushing it forward
any action. We get to about the one thirty mark
in o t and you guys are down for when
you caught you know, you caught a rough pass on
the wing, and that pulls you off your spot. After
a ball fake, you dropped the hammer on a still
moving rip Hamilton's and fetch the thing's gonna driving inside
slam dunk robert Or and the shot is good of
(07:11):
the foul ripol. What a power move by roberts Or.
Roman's gonna block got shot? Do you do you remember
that dunk? And and were you worried that you might
get called for the charge? I remember that dunk. And
there's a couple of reasons why I remember that dunk.
I'm gonna start number one. My middle son Cameron was
at that game, and before the game, he was talking
to Dad, You're never dunk anymore, do you dunk? And
(07:33):
so I was excited that this dunk because this is
one of my most exciting dunks I've had in a
long time. And so as I was going to the whole,
you know, it was a bad pass, and so they
know I was hot from three, so they rushed out
that the push me off the three. I had to
drive And when I took off, I was saying to myself,
I just take off too far, I'm not gonna make it.
(07:55):
And then I said, oh, I got five files. It's
rip gonna slide over and take this charge. That will
be six files. But I was able to get to
the basket. I was able to drop the hammer, but
also hurt my shoulder at the same time. So really,
we talked about this before, and we talked about man.
He said, I shouldn't have got over there. But yeah,
this is one of my most exciting dunks. And I
(08:16):
actually have a friend that calls this the Batman dunk.
I don't know why because it just looks like I'm
flying through the air like Superman or Batman. Yeah, I
was gonna say it was like the Superman pose, you like.
It was a fantastic dunk, Absolutely fantastic. You know, on
that dunk, a lot of people look at him, like,
but your right hand? Why did you dunk left handed?
There's a few reasons why I started dunking left hand.
(08:38):
The number one reason is because I broke my right
thumb in college, so I had to still work out
and we did a lot of things left handed, um,
jump hooks, everything, So I learned how to jump off
my right leg more than my dominique was my left
and then as I went on, I strained my MCL
in my left leg, which calls me to use my
(09:00):
right leg even more. So these are two the main
reasons why I was a left handed dunker, because the
the left leg is the dominant leg, which is the
jumping leg. For most right handed guys, that side had
been injured from you know, you know, torn ligament in
the ankle, to a c L injury the knee, until
a right thumb being broken. So it made me use
(09:21):
my left hand a lot throughout my career. Yeah, it's
wild to me, you know, as an outsider, the things
that you guys are, you know, supreme athletes are able
to do with your bodies, especially given the fact that
you essentially had to adjust because your body was messed up,
you know, the other side of your body was messed up.
So yeah, no, it remains impressive to me, Thank you.
(09:43):
I try to impress a lot of people with my
skill set. All right, So continuing on, we're down to
ten seconds, and you know you're actually down with man
who trapped in the corner off the end bounds your man,
your man robbed your man leaves them the trap almost
like they haven't seen this movie before. Man who finds
(10:04):
you and all the Detroit collectively groans as you knocked
it down. Won't throw out. The player who throws in
is frequently the player for whom the players runs it
comes in the gay back to Ari, he sucks. Oh
my god, Robert are hitting up three on the love Pling?
What five point eight loft having us first take out
(10:25):
one point lead and fake Bob So Rob, I gotta
I know you've been you've been there, and you've done that,
but please tell us what you know, what you're thinking.
You know, after you knocked that one down, it was
just like how it felt, you know, in that moment um.
The play wasn't even designed for me. I was supposed
to cut through, give it to mine who cut through,
(10:46):
and let mine who go to work, and Tim was
supposed to come out instead of pick and roll. I
was literally supposed to go to the other side. And
so when I passed it, I saw Rashid bit on
the past because you know, if you really think about it,
Rashid did what most good players should do. You're in
the dead zone. Money was in the dead zone. You
got Tayshawn Prince who's six nine, you got received, while
(11:08):
at six level you got Mona Jenobli, who's six three.
You trapped that in the corner. And if you get
a good trap, you can get a turnover or you
can you know, disrupt the plate. But Minu, being a
great passer, passed the ball out to me and I
just stepped in. I'm already rolling and I was gonna
let it fly, and so the moment was fantastic for me.
(11:29):
Even after that left handed dunk and my left shoulder
was in was thriving in pain. I was able to
focus and key in on that shot. Like I said,
when he bit Mini received, while it's everything just slowed down, man,
and when I called it, I was able to rise
up like I normally do. And as I looked back
at that film, I was lucky to get that shot
(11:51):
off because Tayshawn Prince, being the shot blocker that he
he is, was so close to blocking that shot. But
I know it's able to knock down at three and
it wasn't a smooth three. It kind of rattled and
went in. But I like it when you hit the
next go. But he rattled it and I take it
though I was just gonna say you want to take
the points off the board because it wasn't that wasn't
(12:12):
a perfect shot. Yeah, yeah, I know. Look, we we
already mentioned that Tim doesn't really get very emotional or
doesn't really you know, doesn't react all that much. And
you know in the act in the moment, but I
noticed he did kind of pull your close after you
after you knocked that shot down? What are you? What
was he saying to you? The thing about Duncan you know?
Tim was this guy, he showed emotions every once in
(12:33):
a while. When he came up to me and gave
me a hug, he was like, way to go. I'm like,
can I get a little bit more love than that?
Like no, I just kidding now, but he was like,
he was like, way to go. And then Tony came
up next was like fix shot, Bob. You know, it
was just a fantastic moment for me because people don't
know what happened to me when I first got to
(12:54):
the Spurge. But my first year with the Spurs, it
wasn't a year a Robbert or a year I would saying,
and I'm not and the third person, but I had
I didn't have a good year, which was my first
season there. We lost to the Lakers and they went
on to play the Pistons in the Vinyls and I
actually signed a one year deal and two for two
thousand five. I signed a one year deal because I
(13:14):
felt like I owed them a year to show them
what I could do. And so I was on a
one year contract in two thousand, two thousand five, and
I had that great season. Then I signed another contract
in the off season. Wait, I have to and you know,
not to dispute what you're saying, you felt like you
owed them. Why did you feel that? Because when you
come to a team and you know, you put great
(13:36):
expectations on yourself, at least I do. And I hadn't
having all the playoff experience that I had and you know,
becoming you know, the legend of big shot Bob, so
to say, um, my first year with the Spurs, it
wasn't a year that I I felt like I stepped
up to the plate. And I don't know if it
had to do with the fact that the Spurs is
the first team I ever played with that had over
(13:58):
fifty plays and they're very uh, they're very technical team.
They like to run a lot of plays, and it
takes your time and takes some time to get used to.
And that's the first thing I told Michael Finley when
he got to us in two thousand and five two
thousand and six seasons, that it's going to take your
time to learn this system, because you know, basketball players
like to just play off reads. Brent Barry and I
(14:19):
had a great rapport when it came to that, and
with the Spurs is they ran their plays. You go
a B C. And most players, if you see a
back door, you go back door. And in this system,
you could not do that because they was like, no,
we have something to back up the beach, we have
something to back up and sea and sold forth and
so on, and so it took me a while to
(14:39):
understand that system. So therefore I felt like, Okay, I
have the system under my belt. Now I know what
to do to make myself better and make the team better.
I know you alluded to it in a previous series breakdown,
but what which which? Which system was more difficult to
pick up because and the reason why I asked this
is specifically, everybody talked about the triangle as being the
one like, oh, it's really tough was the was the
(15:00):
Spurs system actually more difficult? Pick up the Spurs systems
way more difficult than the triangle. Um, the triangle is
kind of what we ran when I was in Houston.
So different terminology, that's the only thing. Different turnline. But
the end of the day, if you have a background
of plan for a good college team, a good high
school team, you have the i Q to run the
(15:20):
triangle and so and also with with the Spurs, it's
just you have to have the intellectual remember all the
plays and all the signs because Pop had a lot
of hand signals because of all the foreign players. Think
about it, we were we were like an international team.
We had all the foreign players on it, so there
was sometimes a language barrier there. So, but so we
just had like dive role and all these kind of
(15:41):
things and you know, fist and the fist down, you know,
you know floppy, you know. It's all these plays that
we had that all had hand signals, and so that's
what we had to do as a team. And you
had to learn all these plays and it was a lot.
I can imagine that. Honestly, you haven't watched you guys,
I absolutely can't imagine, all right, so wrapping this one up.
They even after you made that huge three, Rip wind's
(16:04):
up getting a nice look on the other end. You know,
obviously you know it doesn't go down. You guys end
up winning. But you remember the look that he got. Oh,
I remember the look. Man. He had a drive and
he got in the mid range. We know Rip is
the mid range master at the time. You know, he
took the took a playbook out of what Reggie Miller
used to do and just was always on the move.
(16:25):
And I was a little shocked, to be honest with that.
They didn't go to Chauncey and Rip kind of took
it upon himself to go to the hole and you know,
he got the bump and he was looking for the file,
but it wasn't a file, it was you know, verticality.
He went up and he missed the shot. He was
able to secure the rebound and we went on to
win Game five. Looking inside finds Hamilton's posting up on
poker ball make away. He got the back, puts on
(16:46):
the shot, nod rebound tip out top by throwing this
tall game was over this first of one Game five.
You took Game five you're heading home up three too.
And this one that should be noted. Duncan was really
fantastic at twenty six and nineteen. Manu was great again
at fifteen nine and six. Uh, you know detro from
(17:07):
Detroit side of things, they were pretty balanced. All five
starters scored and double figures, with Chauncey leading away with
thirty four. But how do you know what what what's
the feeling when you're headed back. You're heading back and
you're up three too. We talked about threes in this game.
You know, Chauncey hit two threes and they were only
with two for nine for three. That's show you how
many threes that they would shooting. And we were with
(17:28):
eight for twenty. Not a lot of three shots. But
you know, we was like, okay, we got them right
where we wanted. We stole a game in their building.
We're gonna go home and we just gotta win one.
We want to win the first one, but we just
gotta win one. And but we also was saying, you
know what, they're gonna come out hard. They're there, they're
the previous champion. They got their backs against the wall.
Don't take anything like they go home, get off your feet,
(17:50):
get some rests, and get ready to come out and
play game six. Brob let's go ahead and get into it.
Story time with Big Shot time. Oh, story time. So
we mentioned about me and Bruce having a little competition
with threes. It was like Bruce and I were seatmates,
meaning on the planes, were sitting next to each other,
and we would talk about, um, you know, the game,
our families and whatnot. And in this series, I was like, Bruce,
(18:12):
you know you're knocking that jay down from You're knocking
that three down from the corner. I said, but you
know what, so am I? So I guarantee you I
end up with more threes and the funds than you
do the win against Dinner. So we had too little.
We had that little inside thing going. And and then
after game five, Bruce was looking at me like, dude,
what did you say to yourself in the corner? And
(18:33):
what I mean by that is at halftime of game five,
you know Detroit has one of those amazing locker rooms.
Not it's terrible. So I'm in the corner, it's game five.
I know the importance of Game five. I'm literally talking
to myself and I ain't gonna tell you what I
was saying to myself. I was literally cussing myself out
in the corner, and Bruce was looking at me with
like that weird looked like this dude crazy, right, So
(18:56):
and and so, when I go out in the second half,
I'm telling myself, dude, you suck man, you gotta come on,
you gotta play this game five. I'm giving myself pep
talk because you know, there's so many guys out there
that give pep talks, and I don't listen to him
because I'm the only one that knows how to motivate me,
you know. So I'm trying to motivate myself to go
out there and play good. And I went out and
(19:17):
had a great second half and Bruce, and Bruce will
say to me, so, why don't you talk to yourself
more often? Like the only worse once? Man, It's like
you can only pull that out of the hat once,
you know, so exactly, And I pulled it out in
game five. And that's that's one of the things that
Bruce Born, he and I always laugh about to this
day that I was talking to myself and I amped
(19:39):
myself up to pull a Robert Roy slash big shot
moment in game game five. You know, Tim Duncan was like, yeah,
Rob doesn't never show up, you know, he sits on
the sideline. He does. In the interview with Tim after
this was so funny because I was the next guy
coming up. And it's a funny a little a little
chuckle that he and I gets because he's like, Rob
(20:00):
doesn't play. He waited, sits on the side and all
season and then he waits for a big game to
show up. So that's that's the legend of big Shot
Bob right there. It's best. That was probably the greatest
performance I've ever been a part of. I'll tell you
the deal with Rob. Rob just hangs out the entire game.
He does it all season long. He doesn't do anything.
He doesn't feel like playing. He shows up sometimes and
(20:23):
then you put him in the fourth quarter in a
big game and he's like, Okay, it's time to play now.
I've been hanging out the entire season. It's time to
play now, and and he just turns it on. And
as funny as that seems, it's just how it is. Uh,
he doesn't want to show up, he doesn't feel like playing.
Huntil it's a big game, Thank you, Robert or We'll
be next. So I have to ask that that's a
(20:51):
fantastic story. So but I have to ask you, where'd
you get your steak? Where? Where did where? Did? Where
did Bruce take you for your know? Because you you
you made fifteen to his thirteen in this seer? Where
did he take you to dinner? Doo still owes me dinner?
So yeah, we had, you know, we had. We hadn't
had a chance to go to Dinny yet, you know,
because during the Susan seasons, so was I was out
(21:12):
of San Antonio, I was missing my family, had to
go home and see my my wife, my daughter, and
my son and hang out with them. So Bruce is
never he's never paid up on that bet, Bruce missing up.
We're coming for you, mad. When we promo this show,
I'm gonna absolutely have to mention that it's like my
sister repeaters, champions don't have to win Game six and
seven on the road, something that no team down three
(21:34):
two has ever done in the NBA Finals. So that
actually kind of goes into where I was gonna start
off Game six with because obviously, you know, Detroit's fighting
to stay alive, once again, and to borrow a quote
from you know, a great coach that you're fully familiar with,
you can never underestimate the heart of a champion. The Pistons,
they simply weren't ready to go home. And I'm not
saying in any way that you were underestimating them, but
(21:56):
was there a part of you that said, hey, look
we're up three too. We like where we're at, know
we at least know that we got two shots at this.
No no, no, no, no, no, not at all, because
injury can always come into play. Um and that's the
one thing as players, you want to end it as
soon as possible. You want to act like this is
game seven. And you know, you gotta give the Pistons credit.
(22:16):
They came out and played a heck of a game there.
All these starters contributed. It wasn't like before it was
just maybe one here or two there, three that, but
they all came out and they contributed, had a good
you know, a good outing from the bench again. So
it was a complete team effort by the Pistons. They
felt like they in the driver see right now, But
they still got a knockers out and you know, we
still got a couple of rounds left in this thing.
(22:38):
It's like a heavyweight fight. We're coming to work, man,
We come to work tonight. Absolutely. I mean in the
first half it was the usual suspects doing the bulk
of the damage for both teams. For a trade that's
somebody trace. I want a way to start that. I'm
gonna try to drive on Bros. To the faint pull
up jumper. That shot is good. You know, you guys
battle back and forth, you know, it was it was.
It was actually a really good first half, but the
(22:58):
second half and it actually actually had a weirdly similar
feeling to those first two home games for Detroit where
they really turned it up defensively and made life difficult
for you guys without you know, without even really turning
you over that much. We're gonna write the Generals keta
on a drive along the baseline, nothing there, pitched it
away swaite by Rashi. It's another forced turnover by Detroit.
(23:20):
I should mention they did have six second half blocks,
you know, in order to make things more difficult for you,
but the spurs and your your spurs would up shot
in the second half compared to almost in the first.
Did you notice or do you remember any specific adjustments
that would you know, would account for such a you know,
it's such a swing. I think they amped up their defense.
They try to pick us up at half court. They
try to get us out of our sets because, like
(23:41):
I said, San Antonio is a set oriented team. We
have to run sets. We have to run down place A, B, C,
and D with the movement, and they kind of got
us out of that position. You get any better than this,
both teams playing with great intensity. Sometimes as a team,
to get a team out of their rotations, you amp
up of defense and you pushed the ball offense because
(24:02):
sometimes when you push the ball, that makes the other
team hurry up. Also because it becomes a fast paced game.
Allat Loyola Merrimont back in the day. So this is
one of those things that we had to do and understand, Yo,
don't play at their pace, play at our pace and
keep getting the ball inside to Tim Duncan, because in
this game, Tim was very efficient. He played very well,
(24:22):
but we didn't use him enough. Now that you look
back on that game, and speaking of this ultimately, you
know Duncan, menu and and Tony they were each solid.
You know, you guys kept on fighting throughout, but it
just wasn't quite enough. The Pistons end up tying things
up at three three with a eight six, winning Game six.
She's got dunking on him, drives it down the lane,
Finger rolls No, but she'd taped to them, and there'll
(24:44):
be no parade in San Antone. On Thursday, the Pistons
put San Antonio away Night six, setting up a Game
seven for all the marbles. Johncey ripped and she'd seemed
to kind of take turns making big, you know play.
He's down the stretch for this one, and you're honestly,
we're at this game seven situation where we know anything
(25:05):
can happen. Rip Hamilton's had his best game. He had
twenty three points in that game. He was on fire.
He was nine for nineteen, and you know, like I said,
Ben Wallace, even though he was four for six, he
was out scoring points eight points and grabbing rebounds, grabbing
blocks and getting steals. If Ben is able to get
blocks and steals, you're gonna be in trouble. And he
had three blocks and two steals. You have to keep
(25:25):
that great defensive players at Bay because defensive players like
Ben Wallace. When they get their blocks, they get their steals.
That's almost like again a slam dunk for the team.
It hypes them up. They go out and they play well,
and they played extremely well in game six, So you
can't take anything away from them. They came out, they
beat us. Hats off to them because their true champion.
Can you just talk about the satisfaction of of forcing
(25:47):
this game seven? Yeah, I mean it means everything. You
know what I mean. We go back to the hotel
instead of to the airplane, you know. So I think
that this is what it's all about. Man, You're in
the finals. It's a game seven. You know, the two
best teams in the league. Um, don't get no better
(26:07):
than this. All right, so let's take a break here,
but coming up next seven. All right, we're back here
on NBA Finals File with Robert Range Bari Davis. So
let's go ahead and kick the game seven. Welcome to
(26:31):
seven of the last two chefs here for all then, Yo,
you have an opportunity to get your six. This is
gonna be Duncan's third, So Rob, it's winning time. What's
the message from Pop and what's the vibe in the locker? Room.
You know, it's so weird. You have so many coaches
that come out and be like, we gotta do this,
(26:53):
we gotta do that, and Pop says, you know what's
at stake. We've been here, we know what we need
to do. We lost the opportunity if in game six,
just come out, run out schemes, play good defense, keep
them off the offensive boards, and we'll come out on top.
And that's what Pop said. You know, sometimes when you
have a veteran team, like we had, all these guys
(27:15):
that one rings been there before, he said, you know,
we know what we need to do. You know, physically,
we're ready, mentally, be ready. Go out and do your
job simple and to the point. And I honestly, if
you do the work in advance, you don't have to
worry about trying to scramble and do it at the end.
So I can appreciate that mindset. It seems it sounds
like it was kind of similar to Fils like in
(27:37):
that and I'm not, you know, you know, comparing it too,
but it's interesting that it sounds like they both had
that same type of approach. I think all great coaches
have that type of approach, especially when you have um
superstar players on your team thinking about the field. Had
M J. Kobe, Shack Scotty. Now we got Tony Tim
and many So we had superstar status type players who
(27:59):
have been there before and to sit the stakes, and
guys that you know, you know, guys in support of them,
like yourself that obviously been there many times. So I
get it, okay, So you know, to no one's surprise,
the two defenses, they battled back and forth for the
first three quarters of of Game seven, long scoring game,
but it is tight, it is tense, and its defensive minded.
You actually got off to a nice starting this one
(28:19):
with eight points in the first quarter. Barry, I'll put
the junk and top of the gig inside the oory
left hand upside it over Fred Wallace. But neither team,
you know, held more than the six point lead throughout
the first half, and we actually had a finals half
time scored a thirty nine thirty eight. We have reached
half time with a score Detroit thirty nine, San Antonio eight.
This has been all you can hope for in the
(28:41):
game seven. I can't even imagine what folks because folks
will be losing their mind if that happens in today's game.
I know, right, I'm like, first quarter was three f four.
I was rolling on like pop rumes and plays. Man,
let me carry you to the promised land. I could
do this, man. But now you know that's that's the
testament to to our team. You know, my Stefan Brent
Berry came out and had a good first quarter and
at ten points, you know, off the bench, and so
(29:03):
it's takes a team. It's not just the start. It
it's the team. It's the guys who can come off
the bench, who can contribute. And that's what Ben Baron
I did. We were smart enough to understand the stakes.
We're smart enough to you know, know our role and
were smart enough to have a good first quarter. So
the Pistons they put together a nine oh run near
the start of the third to take the game's biggest
lead of forty eight thirty nine. And again you know,
we're just under seven forty five to go in the quarter. Again,
(29:25):
that's always gonna just sound crazy nine Detroit, but your
your big three. You know. They took turn scoring buckets
the next few trips down, including in the and one
from Duncan, and it was back to just a two
point game. By the six eight mark of the third,
tip Duncan down again. Crazy to say, tied it fifty
(29:49):
seven heading into the fourth. So Rob, there's one player
that I you know, that I want to talk about
at the start of the fourth. I don't think you're
in the game at this stage, but Manu, he splits
the defense up top cross you know, crosses, and he
ex actually going to his right. He jumps and it
looks like he's going to dunk it with his customary
left hand, but no, he he jumps off his right
foot and dunks it with his right hand. O. God
(30:14):
was so clever. He hesitated and drug and as soon
as he saw lut that's an explosion. He attacked that
craft and that's the time of thing he did in games.
Wanted to when he remember that play, Oh, I remember
that play. It was bananas because I don't know if
it's the Latin flare or what maybe, but the fans
(30:36):
in San Antonio, I think they love Monty. Monty loved
Tim Duncan. And when Mono did this dunk, we're on
the bitch, like did he just do that? Because he's
such a left handed plan you know, I'm not gonna
compared to the moment when Michael Jordan went down in
the air and switches from his right to lay it
up with his left, But this was similar. They said,
my new got up so high and he dumped that,
(30:58):
And I'm like, I would love to have talked to monitor.
Do you remember that, because as a player, you do
a lot of things off the instinct and off the bounce,
off the moment, And I wonder if he did that
off the moment, because I don't ever remember him dunking
with his right hand throughout the course of the season,
but in that moment, the big moments, big time players
shine and Manu, we forget. It's a Gold Mellist, NBA
(31:21):
champion and he was able to come through in Game
seven big time. And no, honestly, and you know, on
that note, that's why it was wild to me when
I saw people, you know, and and I should I
should consider the source because social media it's a place
that folks are always just gonna say anything and everything.
But I saw folks that were questioning Minu would be
in the Hall of Famer, and it's like, guys, first
(31:42):
of all, it's the Basketball Hall of Fames, But to
be honest with you, he would have deserved to get
there just off the strength of his NBA career. But
when you factor in his international play, you know, fact
he's a gold medalist. You know, my mine Wu was
one of the one of the greats of his generation. Yeah,
you know he won sixth Man of the Year. Um.
I think anytime you win some type of award in
the NBA is that you should be in the Hall
(32:03):
of Fame. And there's a lot of guys I know
that one awards like Michael Cooper Defensive Player of the Year,
then in the Hall of Fame. That should be in
the Hall of Fame. And Monu should be first about
the Hall of Fame because he was an outstanding player
both internationally and in the NBA. You know, it's like
hating up to me when you mentioned Michael Cooper and uh,
I know that's not this series, but one percent agreed.
Anytime you're an eight time All Defensive Player that you know,
(32:26):
All Defensive Player, five of those times being first team
you know, six times with five or six time champion
Defensive Player of the Year as well as multiple time
champion as a coach in the w n b A
as well as in the G League. I would agree
you deserve to be there, all right, and then pushing
it forward just a little bit more in the action
right around the eight thirty mark, I think it was
man who find you know, man who's probing. He finds
(32:48):
you in the corner, you know, four or three. The
three put you guys up five, and to be honest
with you, you kind of had control after that point.
You remember that shot. I remember that play a big
time because you know, as a player, you know when
you're feeling good. Um, I was feeling good in this game.
You know, the ocean wan as big as it was
(33:10):
in game five, but it was a pond, so to say.
But for me, when you're in that moment um, you
know what's at stake, and my new the competitor, he
is the smart guy is you know, being able to
collapse the defense and finding me in the corner. You
know I had moved Brue side of that corner and
I was in that corner, so I was able to
knock down that three and to put us up five.
(33:30):
And I think for me, you know, knocking down that
shot was so important for us because when you in
this day and age in this area. When you get
a three like that in a big time situation, is
demoralized into a team because as you can see throughout
this series, a lot of threes weren't made by each team.
You know, we out we out shot the Pistons from
the three market. That's probably why we run this series.
(33:52):
But for me knocking down that shot at that moment
kind of let them know that, uh, we tried. But
it's the night's not our night, Bob doing big shot
Bob things. Here we go, driving in for the right
to know the late late today and Tigers and hard
Tart Chris he fires a threat that shots so good
(34:12):
just gave us over. The Saint Antonio Spurs have won
their third NBA World Championship. Larry Brown and Gregg Popabit's
longtime friends embraced here mid parton the Spurs have the
prawn they did try testings in a classic seven game series.
(34:37):
Is it the best championship? Um V Just because of
all the ups and downs that we went through all
year long, ticket all the way to Game seven, to
play the absolute last possible basketball game in the year,
and to win it in that fourth quarter, it was
just everything that everything together, it just makes it so special.
So Duncan in mind combined for forty game points and
you provided what they needed with fifteen off the bench
(34:59):
again other than you another another big game off the bench.
And then now you're officially a significant part of title
teams with three different organizations. Now I asked you, you
know at the start, you know, like if you have
thought about it in you and you acknowledge that you
didn't necessarily you know, think about it heading in. And
I also have asked you, you know what the different
rings meant to you, But what does this one mean
to you, given the fact that now you've contributed to
(35:21):
three different dynasties. For me, it was it was so gratifying. Um.
I know when I held up at five, I never
thought I'd be holding up six fingers to represent six championships,
but to do it with the San Antonio Spurs. And
you know, and sometimes as a as a player, you
you you think a little bit selflessly, and I think about, man,
I killed it in game five. You know I would
(35:42):
just killed it in game seven. Two big games, even
though Games six is a big game, and I didn't
have the game that I wanted to have, but those
two games, to me, I look back at like man,
I was able to complish something in the NBA that
a lot of guys would never be able to accomplish.
And so I was very excited. You know, it's very
excited to ship that championship with with Brent Berry. Was
(36:02):
thinking about Brent Berry and I came off the bench
and we will plus thirty one. Yeah, and that's huge
for a team. You got two guys that will plus
combined plus thirty one. And for us to step up
in a big time moment and for me to win
my sixth ring. For Brent and win his first ring,
it was huge for us. And you know, and you
think about the San Antonio organization, they're a team that
(36:24):
just flies by under the radar. Nobody talks about him
until his playoff time. Like San Antonio has the best record. Oh,
they win another championship, and I wanted to be a
part of that. I was happy that I was there
to be a part of that because I had won
a championship in Houston, I had won a championship in
San Antonio. There's three teams in Texas and I was
part of championship with two of them, so I was
(36:44):
I was very excited about that, you know, I know
I actually never thought about that. You know, was there
ever a part of you that maybe wanted to tack
on a final run with the MAVs to see if
you could pull off the trifector interest. In fact, Mark
Cuban tried to sign me after the two thousand and
five seasons because, as I told you, I only signed
(37:06):
a one year deal because I was so mad at
myself for having a bad year that first year. Because
I signed a one year deal my first year with
the Spurs. I signed another one year deal and so
I redeemed myself to me in two thousand five. So
Mark Cuban saw in the series that I had. He
offered me a contract, which I had to say, was
more money than the Spurs offered me. And a part
(37:29):
of me said, hey, it's still Texas and no tax taking.
But I felt comfortable with the Spurs. I felt like
we had a chance to repeat, and so I stayed
with San Antonio and eventually Dallas went on to win
a championship in that time period where I would have
been with them, but we won one another one to
two in two thousand and seven, So I was happy
with my decision. Yeah, I was just gonna say, I
feel like you made the right choice, and I'm not.
And honestly, I'm not mad at Mark for dirty mackin
(37:51):
because I would have done the same exactly. Hey, you
thinking about it wherever I go. The Championships followed, so
it's in the Phoenix. I wasn't there Longe enough, But hey,
I'm a champion man. That's why all I have to
say relations to Peter and Julietta Hall, to this extraordinary team,
to the city. I'm San Antonio. Here's the trophy. This
(38:19):
was the Swedest school. This was this was the hardness.
It was a hell of a grind. We played great
teams and it was the Swedest no doubt. And on
that notice, time for our last break. When we come back,
it's our finals follow awards, and I think Rob might
have to give himself one of the m v P
met Hey say it, say it with your chest, say
it with your chest. Everywhere goes to me. That's right,
(38:52):
all right, we're back here on the NBA Finals follow
and here's my favorite part. We get to your awards.
Let's go ahead and break them down. What Who's Who's
the m v P? Me just so game five alone? Me? No,
But I'm serious though, I think you know, Tim has
always been that catalysty, He's always been an inside presence.
He did so much damage for us in the paint
(39:12):
and everything. He had twenty five points in that last game.
You know, it could be a close tie between Tim,
nobody and me. So okay, honestly smiles aside. I thought
I thought for sure you were going to, you know,
you shout me down because I was gonna say, taking
nothing away from Duncan and his incredible greatness. I think
(39:33):
a case could be made for myn who to be
the the m v P of this of this finals,
and again taking nothing away from him. He deserved it,
he earned it. All I'm saying is man who was
also special with this finals. You know, the thing that
we don't talk about because we're so interested in offense,
Myne who held Tashan Prince and check and even though
he was like big deal, Tayshan is a guy who
(39:56):
averaged between eleven and fifteen points a game, and for
him to keep him under that is huge, you know,
because he just took totally took take shot out of
the game and at times we need a bigger body.
He was able to guard Chauncey. He was able to
guard Rip. So there were so many things that would
go unheard over. And for Manu, you know, he deserved
to have his name put up there as m v
(40:17):
P for this series. So you know now that we
say it out loud, Okay, my m v P goes
to Mono Genobli. Okay, Hey, you know what, I'm gonna
take it. I'm gonna take it a run. So keeping
keeping it going. Who is your best role player in
this series? There were a lot of great ones, but
I don't honestly, don't be honest. You know, I'm not
gonna put me in that book because I'm gonna go
(40:38):
back to you know, Antonio mcdice. I think he provide
a huge spark for them. I think he averaged ten
points in this series, eleven points in this series. And
for him, he was a great role player coming on
that team, even though you know he because I say
that because he didn't win a championship with them the
previous season. He came to them the next season trying
(40:59):
to get them to repeat, and he was a great
role player for them, him and Ben Even and Ben Wallace.
And then you know, I'm not going to give myself
this accolade as the best role player that because I
considered myself a star. Okay, you know, honestly, you're smiling
about it. I don't. I respect, I respect, all right.
And and and honestly, you know you shouts to mc
dice because he was fantastic for them. He respectacular. You know,
(41:22):
all right, what about the coaching matchup? I give it
to Pop And I look at the way Pop coach
this series. He went with his core rotation. He inserted
Brent Bury at times, he inserted Banno Udrich at times
would need to be so he made some some great
pieces and great moves and and and because you don't
don't get me wrong, Land Brown did a hell of
(41:43):
a job. You know, if they win, you give the
lad Brown. And since we wanted, you have to give
it to Pop. He just you know, he made some
right moves at the right time. And by starting Mono Genoboli,
and you know, keeping him as a starter throughout that series,
and you're not bringing him off the bench, which is
what his normally role is. We is big for us.
I cannot disagree in any way. Um, I'll be honest
(42:04):
with you. While it's not a criticism, had you know
Coach Brown rude the sheet train a little bit more,
or actually a lot more, maybe it goes a different
way both with this award as well as with the series.
But in this one, absolutely respect to both of you know,
both of those legends, and Pop deserves it, all right.
You know what time it is? Who's getting the Big
(42:25):
Shot Bob Award? And and don't even don't play with me, man,
don't don't play with me. Who's a big Shot Bob
Award in this series? This is the one time I
had to pat myself on the back dog just for
Game five and Game seven is along where I was
able to step up and knock down Jay's I have
to give myself the big Shot Award. Yeah, hell, this
name not to me, So you know, I have to say, man,
(42:47):
because I look back at the games in this series,
it's about making adjustments and for me personally, I made
adjustments from game ones and one and two who I
wasn't shooting the ball in the correct form. I made
that adjustment and I was able to knock down some
big shots. Um, having an extraordinary second half for a
guy that didn't have any place ran for him, you know,
(43:09):
and then to go in Game seven and to come
out in the first quarter and have eight points. For me,
I have to give myself the big shot at one,
you know, even though I could probably slide it over
to one of my favorite players all time, Brent Berry,
but I'll signed him. So I'm giving the award to me. Hey,
I was gonna say, you can be not yet you
can be nice and be cute with it. Rob, you
won this award fair and square. You're right. The award
(43:32):
is named after you, and it's specifically because of these
types of moments, in these types of you know, your
your greatness in these moments, so I think it's well deserved.
I would like to say, in the words of Rudy King,
Nicking Nicking absolutely absolutely, absolutely fantastic time breaking this series
down with you, Rob. I know it's not your favorite
(43:53):
thing to talk about yourself, but you know what, it's
one of my favorite things. So I appreciate your bearing
with me. But you know, the great thing about this
series is it was two defensive Juggernauts going out and balance.
I know people want to see the sexiness of no
knocking down Jay's and hitting threes and the dunks. But
if you look at this, just this game as a whole,
in this series as a whole, it was too defensive
(44:15):
minded teams going out and playing for a championship and
the team that had not the best defense but the
best offensive output because good defense it's sometimes great, but
great offense is always better. Fair Enough, and we will
leave it on that note. Make sure you tune in
next week. We got a absolute classic m the Jay
(44:38):
in Parker
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