Some have said the fallen deal between New Oklahomas JR Smith for Brent Barry that *fell thru* a half hour before the deadline was a psyche ploy by the Spurs to motivate Barry. Others say it was merely the Spurs wanting to get younger.
While I dont think so, it has been nice to see Barry finally get some quality minutes and compare how he has done in the 2nd half of the season compared to "Bricks" Finley.
83-80 win vs Memphis
Barry then Bricks.
21 min [span style=\'color:red\']27
3-5 fg's 3-12
1-2 treys 1-5
5 boards 2
3 assists 1
3 steals 0
0 turnovers[/span] 1
Tonite 92-75 win vs Golden State
Barry then Finley
18 min 20
10 pts zero points for Bricks
3-6 fg's0-4
3-5 treys 0-1
7 boards 3
2 assists 3
Ya lets hope "Bricks" picks it up. Lame excuse that he needs *more time to fit in* -yeah like 50 games isn't enough.
Barry should never have been the one on the hot seat but if this Spurs him on then great.
Some quotes:
"It's a privilege to be playing in the NBA, but to be part of this team goes above and beyond that," Barry said. "Regardless of what happened or what didn't happen, I'm still here and I want to win games."
From the moment he learned he might be traded to the time Popovich phoned back to tell him the deal was off, Barry had almost four hours to wonder about his future.
"I wish there had been a local bar that was open," he said, "but it was 10 in the morning."
On Friday morning, Popovich said he wasn't worried how Barry would respond.
"If he can turn it the right way in his head and make a motivation, it can be a positive," Popovich said. "I think he's going to be fine."
Barry's 20 minutes were his most in almost a month. For the past few weeks, he has had to scrap for time behind Manu Ginobili, Michael Finley and Bruce Bowen. The near trade, he said, made a difficult situation "that much more difficult."
For now, he'll try to stay positive. And stay ready.
"It's obviously been a tough 48 hours, but ... I'm just going to fight," he said. "Anybody who's a professional athlete is a competitor. At this point, that's what it's about for me: competing and trying to take advantage of every opportunity I get."
