Loss to Mavericks especially disappointing to Spurs' Finley Web Posted: 05/24/2006 12:00 AM CDT Mike Monroe Express-News Staff Writer Michael Finley met the media Tuesday at the Spurs' practice facility, forthright and thoughtful as always. His five minutes of playoff postmortem completed, Finley opened the door to the Spurs' inner sanctum, about to leave inquiring minds behind for four months, when he turned back to the cameras, recorders and notepads. "I apologize for not talking to you guys after the game last night," Finley said. "It was kind of a tough night." No Spurs player seemed to take Monday's loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals harder than Finley, and the reasons were as apparent as the uniforms worn by the team that sent the Spurs to an early vacation. Finley played eight-plus seasons for the Mavericks, who waived him last summer in a cost-cutting move that, while fiscally understandable, hurt him nonetheless. While numerous Spurs players, coaches and minority owner David Robinson congratulated Avery Johnson, the former Spurs point guard who coached the Mavericks to the conference finals, Finley walked quickly toward the tunnel that leads to the team's locker room at the AT&T Center. Before he made his way off the court, Mavericks guard Jason Terry approached Finley and gave him a quick hug, putting behind him the ugliness of his Game 5 punch to Finley's groin. That incident was a flashpoint in a series that needed no help capturing the imagination of basketball fans everywhere. It got Terry suspended for Game6 and turned Finley into a villain on the American Airlines Center court on which he once was admired. That, too, turned the sting of the Mavericks' triumph into a searing burn for Finley. Finley said only a few words to Terry after Monday's game, eager to leave the court and slip into the relative solitude of the Spurs' team room. Finley has no championship ring, which means he has been eliminated from the playoffs each of the six times he has played in them in his 11 seasons. Losing to the Mavericks made this elimination the most painful. "I'm not going to sit here and lie. I would love to have beaten those guys," Finley said. "But my goal coming here was to make it to the championship, no matter who was in our way. Dallas was one of the teams that was in our way to us accomplishing that goal, and we were unable to get to that point. "From that standpoint, on both of those, that was very disappointing." Finley found little solace in the airtight nature of the series, being called one of the best in NBA playoff history. "It's disappointing because I felt we had a chance to win," said Finley, who finished the series as a starter, playing no fewer than 44 minutes in the final four games. "Not just in Game 7 but in the previous games. We put ourselves in position to win. The ball just didn't bounce our way. Dallas got a lot of bounces and a lot of breaks. You have to tip your hat to them. Maybe they're destined to do something good. You never know." Finley had one goal when he decided to sign with the Spurs last summer after the Mavericks cut him loose: win a championship. Two other teams that courted Finley, the Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat, are in their respective conference finals, but Finley is not second-guessing himself. "I'm sticking with my decision, 100 percent," he said. "Unfortunately, we were unable to get into the NBA Finals. So be it. I'm happy. I'm with a great group of guys, a great coaching staff, and I'm happy."
