SAD NEWS : Spurs legend Tony Parker confirm dead at 41

What we learned from the Spurs’ loss to the Grizzlies
It’s the garbage time of the season, and the Spurs had a garbage game against a garbage team.

announcers I’m familiar with. They were poor in the nineties, and it’s been downhill ever since. It’s vocal accompaniment rather than actual commentary, unintentionally comical most of the time. They can hardly get an idiom, metaphor, or proverb right, in fact, they’re sometimes misusing them to the extent that wrong becomes right.

One of the most popular idioms among them is “starker Tobak” (strong tobacco), an idiom normally used to describe an infamous or outrageous action. They make inflationary use of it, for pretty much anything they don’t like. It’s just that they’ve been saying “harter Tobak” (hard tobacco) now for years – which makes no sense whatsoever, since tobacco might very well be strong, but it certainly isn’t hard. And that’s just one example.

(“Strong tobacco”, by the way, goes back to an old tale in which a hunter makes a fool of the devil. The devil has never seen a gun before. The hunter deceitfully pretends it’s a pipe and offers him a puff. The devil cannot resist – and is rewarded with a load of lead from the gun. While the hunter is delighted, the devil is surprised at the “strong tobacco” that shoots out of the “pipe”.)

As a consequence of all that nonsense-spouting, I sometimes find myself wearing headphones and listening to music when I’m watching a game of soccer on German TV. It’s a completely different level of quality when it comes to play-by-play announcers on German radio, though.

In the nineties, only one Bundesliga game per weekend was shown live on television – on a pay TV channel hardly anyone was content to pay for. The vast majority of the fans had to wait until after 6 pm when the game recaps were broadcast on national TV. So what did you do while the games took place? You listened to it on the radio, you were practically glued to the radio, I certainly was.

Many people still are, because many Germans still don’t like pay TV, and also because the “ARD Schlusskonferenz” on the radio is quite simply among the most legendary German live broadcasting programs ever, maybe it’s the most legendary. And to many above the age of 60 it’s quite simply tradition to listen to it. My father is in his early 70s, and if the Bundesliga wasn’t on break today, I can tell you he’d be listening to it three hours from now (it’s 13:56 as I type this). He’d be standing around in the kitchen, sipping on a spritzer. (He will be next week.)

The “ARD Schlusskonferenz” starts around 4.55pm on Saturday afternoons, goes on for about 25 minutes, while switching from Bundesliga game to Bundesliga game until every game is over. Some of the commentary provided in these broadcasts has gone down in history. To this day, the announcers make you see what’s happening on the court, and they make you feel the atmosphere in the stadium. (The greatest of them all to me is the now-retired Günther Koch, who used to cover home games of 1. FC Nürnberg, including the crazy relegation fight in 1999.)

Why am I telling you this? Well, some years ago I realized that on NBA league pass you cannot only watch but also listen to games. Ever since, for one reason or another, I sometimes listen to (parts of) Spurs games live before I watch the footage in the morning. The reason is the absolute masterclass of play-by-play commentary Bill Schoening provides. That guy is so good I can’t wait for each game interruption to be over!

Last night, I chose to watch the game live, since it started around 1pm CET. After the first quarter, though, I decided I’m not going to bother trying to keep myself awake watching a game that looked non-competitive to me. In fact, the first quarter was one of the few instances this season in which the Spurs looked like the team that clearly had the talent edge over their competitor – because the Grizzlies were shockingly poor. “There’s nothing to learn from that game”, I thought.

So I put on Spurs Radio and went to the bathroom. I was brushing my teeth when Bill Schoening said: “The Spurs now have missed their seventh shot in a row.” I was in bed and falling asleep by the end of the second quarter, only barely noticing the Spurs managed to have an even worse quarter than the Grizzlies had in the first. I then watched – or rather: sat through – the game this morning.

Takeaways:

The Spurs have two starting-calibre guys, as well as one back-up caliber guy, who are really good: Victor Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, and Tre Jones – and the chemistry between the three is also really good.

They also have Keldon Johnson whose role on a winning team I still can’t figure out (due to deficiencies on D and as a creator). Anyone else right now is not (yet) a reliable contributor in the NBA.
The Spurs have a severe lack of firepower: Champagnie 0 from 2 in 16 minutes, Osman 0 from 3 in 17, Wesley 0 from 4 in 9, Sochan 3 from 13 in 30 – it can’t go on like that in the future. These guys need to become significantly more reliable as scorers. The Wesley/Branham backcourt that started the second quarter looked like a recipe for taking bad shots.

It pains me to no end to see Sochan struggle so much (for three quarters). He was my favorite Spur 12 months ago. He looks like a lesser player now. It’s sophomore slump rather than sophomore jump. The latter so often happens for guys that see significant playing time in their second year, but it just hasn’t happened for him. Still, it’s way too early to give up.

For a guy who’s supposed to be a connector, there must be guys he can connect with – and there just aren’t enough of those. (Let’s keep in mind Draymond Green’s career is unimaginable on most teams other than the Warriors. Let’s keep in mind Aaron Gordon’s career was seen by many as a disappointment before he joined the Nuggets.)

The Spurs need another backup big: It’s multiple points in the paint or trips to the line for the opposition as soon as Collins is on the court. It happens every game. The guy is good on offense: the hook shots, the layups, the pocket passes – beautiful! But it’s just not enough to make up for his massive deficiencies on the other end.

I personally need this season to be over: The Spurs are participating in games that don’t mean anything at all. We know the guys who have proved their worth, and those who haven’t won’t be able to prove it in the remaining games.

It’s garbage time, and the game last night was a garbage game – “starker Tobak”, some might say.