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좀 길긴 하지만(--;) 스퍼스팬이시라면 한번쯤 읽어보실만 합니다. HEADLINE: Spicing Up the Spurs; A point guard from France, an Argentine rookie and a hoops nomad have added flavor to once-bland San Antonio BYLINE: Jack McCallum BODY: If one were to put a face on the San Antonio Spurs of recent vintage, it would be either the expression‎less mask worn by superstar forward Tim Duncan or the choirboy countenances of Good Guy Hall of Famers such as David Robinson, Avery Johnson and Steve Smith. The last team not named the Los Angeles Lakers to win an NBA championship, the Spurs had been too good for too long (first or second in the Midwest Division in 12 of the last 13 seasons) to be dismissed as bland, but consider: Their spiciest character was coach Gregg Popovich, a former Air Force captain whose unadorned style and choleric outbursts suggest a gym teacher just plain fed up with the lack of discipline in that eighth-period class. The current Spurs, who had won 15 of 17 games at week's end to creep to within five games of the Dallas Mavericks for the best record in the league, have ingredients more in keeping with salsa-flavored San Antone. They have a sly smile, flashed by 20-year-old point guard Tony Parker, who even in the heat of battle looks as if he just got away with planting a whoopee cushion--or whatever form of mischief they favor in France, where he was raised as that country's best-known gym rat. They have end-to-end energy, supplied by Emanuel (Manu) Ginobili, a 25-year-old Argentine guard whose gung-ho antics prompt Popovich to shake his head and say, "He's quite a strange young man." And they have some street, provided by 6'8" swingman Stephen Jackson, the self-described "third-best-known person from Port Arthur, Texas" (behind Janis Joplin and Jimmy Johnson), a basketball gypsy who has been cut more times than a prelim palooka but whose rambunctiousness leads assistant coach P.J. Carlesimo to call him "the anti-Spur." The salient question, of course, is whether the de-vanillazation of the Spurs makes them better equipped to overcome the formidable playoff obstacles in the Western Conference--primarily the Lakers, who have eliminated them two years in a row. The answer is yes. In three of their four playoff losses to L.A. last year, the Spurs blew fourth-period leads, partly because they were unproductive on offense once the Lakers marshaled their forces to stop Duncan. Now, San Antonio is better in transition, better able to break down a team in the half-court, quicker on defense, gnarlier in spirit and generally more unpredictable. "Wild and crazy in a good way," as Carlesimo puts it. While the Spurs believe they can win their second championship in five seasons, they are also quietly washing the china and thinking about setting next year's table. Several years ago Popovich (then the G.M. as well) hatched a plan to have beaucoup cash available after this season for getting Duncan a high-priced sidekick, and, lo and behold, the money (about $ 14 million) is there. When the New Jersey Nets came to the new SBC Center last Thursday, the game seemed not so much a possible preview of the NBA Finals as a getting-to-know-you recruiting trip for point guard Jason Kidd, the most prized free agent on the market if, as expected, he opts out of his contract. (Duncan will likely exercise his one-year option this summer to stay in San Antonio and become a free agent after next season, when he's expected to re-sign for the long term with the Spurs.) One young fan held up a sign that said S.A. KIDS WANT KIDD. An older fan countered with a sign bearing a diagonal line through Kidd's name, meaning S.A. Doesn't Want Kidd. The incumbent S.A. point guard doesn't seem at all affected by the prattle about Kidd. The 28th pick in the 2001 draft, Parker surprised the NBA when he took charge of the veteran Spurs five games into his rookie season. Through Sunday, his shooting from the field (45.6%), from beyond the arc (35.2%) and from the free throw line (74.8%) had improved from last season, the result of daily summer workouts. He's also a better passer, a better defender and, most important, a better leader. He'll move the reigning MVP, whose name he pronounces "Teem," when he thinks Duncan should be moved, and he'll question Popovich, who he says is "like a second father to me," about strategy. From time to time Parker will still get his slender 6'2", 180-pound body into seemingly dire predicaments--his assist-to-turnover ratio at week's end was 2.26, 41st in the league--but he's able to get off a variety of half-hooks, teardrop runners and scoop shots, the kind of French pastry a smallish playmaker needs in traffic. The best thing about Parker is that he combines youthful zest with an eagerness to learn. He and Popovich have more whispered conferences than a couple of lovelorn middle-schoolers, getting together for a consult at almost every free throw break. "It makes me feel comfortable," says Parker. Coach and quarterback also have a one-on-one strategy session for about five minutes before every game. The subject of their pre-Nets tete-a-tete was offensive output. "I want you to get up 26 shots," Pop said. (How he came up with 26 instead of, say, 25, is a mystery.) "Really?" said Parker. "Really," said the coach. "If you take that many, it'll mean you stayed aggressive and didn't get caught up in this Kidd thing." So Parker went out and took a game-high 23 shots, making 10 of them. More important, he hit five of nine in the fourth quarter, when the Spurs pulled away for a 92-78 victory. "Whatever Pop wants," says Parker, "I try to give him." Ginobili gives Pop so much that the coach calls him "our Doug Christie," referring to the do-everything Sacramento Kings guard. A glance at the 6'6" Ginobili's stat line against the Nets reveals his value: 18 points, seven assists, six rebounds, five steals. A few of the thefts were works of art (not to mention the steal he almost made when, with his back to the ball, he sensed a pass was being thrown over his head, threw up his hands at the last moment and made a deflection). When Kidd fell asleep for a moment, Ginobili flicked the ball out of his hands. When Kidd stormed downcourt against Parker, Ginobili leaped out and knocked the rock away. Rodney Rogers thought he saw an open Kidd; Ginobili jumped into the passing lane and picked off the pass. "I have always been a--do you say it this way?--good stealer," he said. Yes, Manu, you can say it that way. Ginobili, who speaks English fluently even though it's his third language (behind his native Spanish and Italian, which he picked up during his three years as a pro in Italy), almost can't believe his good fortune in landing in the NBA, never mind with a contender. "I heard I got drafted, and my first response was, 'Me? You sure?'" says Ginobili, whom the Spurs took with the 57th pick in 1999. "Nobody was thinking about me as an NBA player at the time." He limped into camp with a right-ankle injury suffered at the world championships last summer and sat out most of December. By the time he had healed, Popovich was comfortable starting Jackson and small forward Bruce Bowen. Ginobili has since found his niche as a reserve swingman who can ignite the Spurs with his defense, his passing or his snaking, southpaw forays to the hoop. To a certain extent, Ginobili feels as if he's playing for his homeland, which is beset with political and economic problems. "When you do something good, my people really attach themselves to you," he says. "They're looking for somebody to be proud of. I feel good that it's me." He gets about 50 hits per day on his website (manuginobili.com), and double that after he plays well. Ginobili looks around at the Spurs' spacious new training facility in suburban San Antonio (built, not coincidentally, a five-minute drive from Duncan's house), spreads his hands and beams. At that moment Carlesimo breaks into the conversation, points to Ginobili and says, "Major league a------." Manu smiles. "You see how they treat me?" he says. Jackson may feel even more relieved than Ginobili to have found a home (he hopes) in San Antonio. He's lived a lifetime since he played in the 1996 McDonald's All-American game with future pros Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O'Neal, Mike Bibby and Tim Thomas. Jack, as the Spurs call their third-leading scorer (11.7 points per game), admits that he was "a kid who knew everything and wasn't as coachable as those other guys." After skipping college he was taken in the second round by the Phoenix Suns, who waived him. Jackson played in Australia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, and at two CBA stops, La Crosse, Wis., and Fort Wayne, Ind. He has also been cut by four NBA teams and was soundly dissed by Nets coach Byron Scott after he spent an unhappy and unproductive 2000-01 season in Jersey. Jackson almost climbed off the merry-go-round in '98. Three days after returning to Port Arthur following his release by the Timberwolves, his brother, Donald Buckner, was beaten to death in a quarrel over a woman, his head split open by a pipe. "A little bit of me died with him," says the 24-year-old Jackson, "and playing didn't seem worth it. But then I thought, I don't know anything but basketball." Catching on with the Spurs, a quality franchise 300 miles west of his hometown, has been a dream. For all his travels, Jackson has never forgotten Port Arthur. He plans to reopen Jackson & Company, the defunct soul food restaurant owned by his late grandfather, and raise his profile in the town. "Janis has some stuff in a museum and Jimmy has a boulevard named after him," said Jackson. "Me? I'd like a boulevard." An eponymous San Antonio street--Tim & Tony Lane has a nice ring to it--might one day honor Duncan and Parker should they continue as the Spurs' top twosome. Considering that Duncan is only 26 (even though it seems as if he's been around forever), they have the potential to become the second coming of Stockton & Malone, a tandem that can beat teams in transition ("Many people don't realize how Teem loves to run the floor," says Parker) or torture them with pick-and-rolls. Parker has played so well that lately the idea has taken hold around San Antonio that the team should not go after Kidd, an understandable but hopelessly quaint sentiment. (Career triple double scoreboard: Kidd 49, Parker 0). Another theory is that Parker and Kidd could coexist in the backcourt. They could share the playmaking chores, and, on defense, Parker could check the whippets while the 6'4", 215-pound Kidd handles what Carlesimo calls "the big-ass guards." San Antonio has met the Kidd Question head on, as one would expect of Team No Turmoil. Popovich, who because of NBA tampering rules can't talk specifically about free agents, has told his team, "This is a business. Any damn thing can happen." Translation: Of course we might go after Jason Kidd. Parker has heard the same thing in his private talks with Pop and has gotten the message. "Who knows what happens in the future?" Parker said last week, sounding like a 10-year veteran. "Maybe we win the championship and everything's fine. But maybe we lose in the conference finals or earlier and we're mad and we want to make some changes. Jason Kidd is the best point guard in the league. Every team he's gone to has gotten better." Could he envision them in the same backcourt? "Of course," Parker says. "We both know how to play the game. We would know how to stay out of each other's way." As for right now, though, the Spurs could hardly be more delighted with the performance of all three of Teem's young playmates. With or without Kidd, these kids appear to be all right. BOX STORY: Road To PERDITION Teams traveling to Texas these days in search of wins often come up empty Ah, a road trip through Texas--it used to be so much fun for NBA players. A stroll along San Antonio's picturesque Riverwalk. A quiet dinner in a ritzy North Dallas eatery. A clandestine excursion to one of those high-class "gentlemen's clubs" in Houston. You could stretch the legs, pamper the palate, unleash the libido and still come away with at least one win, maybe two. Not anymore. Texas has become a perilous place for guests; just ask the Nets. Last year's Eastern champs arrived on March 3 with a conference-best record of 38-22. They lost to the Mavericks 88-79 the next night, got ambushed by the Spurs 92-78 last Thursday and wrapped up a painful Texas Three-Step by being stomped by the Rockets 83-71 last Saturday. After recovering to beat the Hornets in New Orleans on Sunday 102-92, the Nets limped home with a tenuous 1 1/2-game lead in the Atlantic Division. "Any road trip, you're happy to get it over with," says New Jersey guard Lucious Harris. "But this one, we're especially happy." The Nets aren't the first visitors from the East to get Texas-barbecued this season: At week's end Eastern teams had gone 4-32 in the Lone Star State. Even the better Western clubs have taken some licks in Texas. The Kings and the Timberwolves have lost both of their games in Houston and one each in San Antonio. The T-Wolves have also gone down in Big D. The Lakers were 0-3 in Texas, and the Trail Blazers have lost in both Dallas and Houston. The combined record of those Western powers on trips to the state: 5-12. Not since 1989-90, the last season in which all three Texas teams qualified for the playoffs, have so many been bushwhacked. During much of the '90s the Mavericks were one of the league's doormats; their 48-14 record through Sunday was the best in the NBA. San Antonio's 43-18 mark was third best. And in the middle of the struggle for a playoff spot were the Rockets, who, at 32-30, had already won four more games than they did last year. Each member of the Texas trio boasts an All-Star skyscraper: 7-footers Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas and Tim Duncan in San Antonio and 7'5" Yao Ming in Houston. All three teams have a certain frenetic element, too, the Mavs' supplied by the whirligig shot making of point guard Steve Nash, the Spurs' by the derring-do of Argentine swingman Manu Ginobili and the Rockets' by the unpredictable racehorse backcourt of Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley. Then, too, the Texas teams have distinct styles, making multistop trips to the state even more difficult; teams that have hit all three cities in one swing are a combined 2-13. Dallas, the NBA's highest-scoring outfit (102.6 points per game at week's end), runs opponents into submission and bewilders them with a mixture of zones. The Spurs are a hard-nosed bunch who rely on man-to-man D and the shot blocking of Duncan and, when he's healthy, David Robinson to hold opponents to a league-low shooting percentage (41.9). The Rockets are an amalgam of their Texas rivals, still trying to find a balance between Francis's open-court brilliance and Yao's blossoming low-post presence; they're not nearly as consistent as the other two, but when they're on, they're as good as anyone. Says a weary Harris, "I guess that's why they say, Don't mess with Texas." --J.M. For NBA news plus analysis from Jack McCallum go to si.com/basketball.