<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Nike execs will gather today, and David Stern might sit in. They will open with a question. Is this the best way to promote a Global Icon? They will come to a couple of quick business conclusions. This will be the first: Forget trying to produce a poster from Game 1. The Global Icon didn't dunk. Not even once. Oh, there's a moment worth a large, glossy photo. It even involves the Global Icon. Then, halfway through the opening quarter, he drove, and Tim Duncan stretched out for the kind of block he's made once or twice in his postseason career. The Global Icon retreated backward for the basketball, and Duncan followed him as if he had his scent. Duncan flexed his legs, pulling up the shorts at the knees for a looser feel. He then challenged the Global Icon into a 3-point miss. At that point, with eyes intent under his freshly shaved scalp, Duncan looked as if he remembered talk of another poster that came out of a November game. The execs will move on. No need to dwell on the negative. Someone in the meeting will then emphasize the positive. Didn't the Global Icon start this series the same way he started against Detroit? He did, with only 10 points against the Pistons. He also took severe criticism for passing up a final shot. And that worked out, didn't it? The Global Icon sure wasn't concerned Thursday night, just as Duncan wouldn't have been had he struggled. "I feel good," he said. "A lot of the shots I took are shots that I make. They felt pretty good. Things like that happen." But most in the meeting will understand there are several differences between Detroit and San Antonio. For one, the Spurs sent two and three defenders at the Global Icon, and one of them was Bruce Bowen. </div> Source: MySA
