Popovich frustrated with Udrih

[CRL]

I suspect the kid didn't train like he should have during the offseason, and the "injury" is the result of improper stretching/training. Also, Beno may be trying to "play" Pop, and that dog won't hunt. If he's trying to wage psycological warfare against Pop, he's toting a knife to a gun fight.

[Jones]

On the court Beno definetely seems to deserve more playing time. But it seems obvious that it is the off the court behavior (things that fans aren't aware of) that pisses off Pop.

Pop wouldn't be so mad if he didn't have such high hopes I would imagine.

[elchiv]

Maybe Pop is trying to catch ESPN's attention with a little bit of drama. He is sick of no one paying attention to us outside of People mag with tony and eva.

[curiousspirit]

Originally Posted by Vito Corleone

If Beno were truely injured I could not see Pop calling him out. My guess is this is Pop's way of letting the kid know that he needs to be tougher and take a more serious approach to his trade.

Beno has talent but he is not very tough.

Originally Posted by alpineballer

again, IMO the problem was not his poor play in the finals 2005.
the reason that drives Pop crazy must be the same that also caused problems in the past in Europe.
i guess there is nothing a coach hates more than a talented player, who refuses to dedicate himself to the game and the team.
as mentioned, if it was just because of the current injury, Pop would not call him out. this injuries happen. Pop must be very unhappy with what Beno did during the offseason. if Beno had worked hard during the summer, Pop would not act like this right now.

Originally Posted by Uwe Blab

When your Superstar plays the majority of a season with plantar fascitis, you expect a backup PG to play with a sore hamstring after only 4 days of practice. I support Pop in this case. I like Beno, but man up.

Originally Posted by Supernatural Anesthetist

Usually you don't publicly rip a guy for this sort of thing if you've already committed to trading him as you only hurt his market value. Pop is definitely serving notice to Beno that he will have to earn his way back up the ranks the hard way and shouldn't expect any particular role to be handed him just because he's healthy. I look for Beno to respond. If he can't then he will be moved eventually. MHO.

Agree with all of this.

[Cup Plate]

Can you guys read? wheres the love for brent barry? people seem to give a **** about this vaughn character but dont even think about barry. do you realize how awesome this is going to make our line up? barry, finley, manu, tim, who cares. its going to be sweet. all those weapons. I just dont like how the center position is looking and I definately care way more about that more than stupid beano, if he wants to leave I hope we get something good for him. then he can loose a limb for all I care. but the key here people is brent barry. might as well call him elmer since hes going to be holding us together this season.

[Cup Plate]

in a good or bad way? keeping in mind that your toally disreguarding my prior statements about your avitar. because come on, its ugly. with that being said: yay or neigh?

[Bryhn]

To Be Named Later,

I agree. I can never recall Pop making such point blank critical comments. He's usually much more diplomatic about his approach.

I don't know if it's a good idea, but it must say something about Beno to draw that kind of response from Pop.

BTW, the team looked great last night.

[dunkman]

Pop wants to cut Beno from the roster and pick one of the summer league players instead. He's warning Beno. 4-th PG is not needed.

[Spurs50_]

Am I the only one who thinks Beno has talent? If he could only stay healthy....and the Van Exel signing last year didn't help him at all............Didn't get to read all the posts, so maybe there are some Beno supporters in here

[Bryhn]

^^^No, I like Beno. I haven't really noticed him being injured a lot, but maybe what injuries he has had were just minor and shouldn't have kept him out. Who knows?

Pop though, is obviously not happy about something. As awful as NVE played last year, something must have been wrong for Beno to not get those minutes. I was very surprised Beno didn't win the back up spot over VE last year.


The only thing I can think of is how Beno played in the finals against Detroit. Granted he was only a rookie and Lindsey Hunter is a great defender, but I am sure there is more to it than any of us will ever know.

[alpineballer]

Originally Posted by Spurs50_

Am I the only one who thinks Beno has talent? If he could only stay healthy....and the Van Exel signing last year didn't help him at all............Didn't get to read all the posts, so maybe there are some Beno supporters in here

no, you are not the only one.
in fact all here think that Beno has a lot of talent, at least enough to develope into a decent NBA PG.
if he would just try.
that's the point, why Pop is upset with him and why so many of the fans are disappointed about him.
that's why most of the Beno supporters gave up on him (including myself).

[FamousJames]

I'm not dropping the 'I told you so'...but I did mention at the end of the season that Beno would be gone...naturally it was 'insider' information...but it looks like Beno is on his way outo! Honestly, I'll probably not loose any sleep over him being gone.

[bnwhuxley]

Originally Posted by alpineballer

no, you are not the only one.
in fact all here think that Beno has a lot of talent, at least enough to develope into a decent NBA PG.
if he would just try.
that's the point, why Pop is upset with him and why so many of the fans are disappointed about him.
that's why most of the Beno supporters gave up on him (including myself).

But we are all only guessing about it.

What is it? Beno is lazy? Won't listen to his coach? What? Beno isn't saying anything. Pop only mentions him getting injured too often and being inconsistent.

What else is there behind the scenes? We don't really know. But we know there has to be more, since Beno wasn't hurt much at all last season. He just didn't get much playtime despite NVE sucking all season long.

Of course, people trust Pop a lot and he deserves that, but it is not like he hasn't made mistakes before.

And at the end of the day, lets say Beno is gone.

Do we need to find a backup PG? YES. Is Barry and Vaughn enough? NO.

Barry can certainly run the offense. But can he bring the ball up successfully against good defensive PGs who are smaller and quicker? Can he guard them? I'd say no to both. When Barry comes in, expect to see Manu bring the ball up.

Vaughn? I could be wrong, but he doesn't have much footspeed either.

[alpineballer]

Originally Posted by bnwhuxley

But we are all only guessing about it.

What is it? Beno is lazy? Won't listen to his coach? What? Beno isn't saying anything. Pop only mentions him getting injured too often and being inconsistent.

What else is there behind the scenes? We don't really know. But we know there has to be more, since Beno wasn't hurt much at all last season. He just didn't get much playtime despite NVE sucking all season long.

yes , we are only guessing. that's why i wrote some words about Benos's history. this also does not give an answer, but it gives an idea what could the real reason (better: reasons).
during his whole career Beno found some reasons, why he wasn't totally happy with the situations he was in.
and whenever he was unhappy, it didn't take long till one or another injury happened.
(in fact many belive that he never was injured when he left Avtodor Saratov after only five games with a twisted ankle as he claims. there were some controversies about his contract and the salary and immediatly Beno twisted his ankle,left the team and didn't return).

One of the main reasons Maccabi scored only once more than 80 points in the last 8 games is Beno Udrih's shape. The young Slovenian still didn't adjust to the team, and lately spent a lot of minutes on the bench. Maccabi doesn't play with a dominating PG for a long time now, but still manage to survive. On one thing there's no doubt. When Udrih is in shape, Maccabi is playing very well.
http://www.eurobasket.com/events/eluleb/02-03/f.asp

this is a bit like the summary of Beno's year with Maccabi. they also knew, that he's a great talent, but were unhappy with his commitment and work ethic.
when Maccabi aquired Jasikevicius, Beno just wanted out, as he tells in the interview below.
at that time Maccabi was becomming the best team in Europe and Jasikevicus was the best PG in Europe.
(in other words, Maccabi was in Europe, what the Spurs are in the NBA)
an ambitious young player would see it as a great opportunity to play for a contender and to learn from a player like Jasikevicius. but Beno only cared for his minutes.

Charlie Bury: Tell me about your European career, particularly the last couple of years. You played three or four teams over a two year span, right?
Beno Udrih: Yes. When I was twenty, I was still playing in Slovenia. Then I signed a one year contract with Maccabi, I was there for one year. Then they signed another point guard at my position (Sarunas Jasikevicius) and I knew I wasn’t going to play because he was much more experienced, and at that point he was a better player. So I decided to go somewhere else because I was already 21 and I knew that the next year I would go to the draft. So I needed to play, I needed to be on a team where I can have some minutes and get ready for the draft. I went to Russia because I had some problems with my Italian agent back in Europe. And then I hired another agent, Danko Drakulic who actually connected me with Marc [Cornstein]. Then I went to Russia, I was there for two months and I twisted my ankle and went back home, then I broke the contract with them and I tried to go to Greece, but they didn’t change the rule, and that’s when I decided to go to Milano. That’s why I had that big year where I was on three teams.
Charlie Bury: You mentioned twisting your ankle. Do you think your injury problems caused you to slip off of NBA team’s draft radar?
Beno Udrih: Well that wasn’t really the truth, that was just the media talking. You know, I was playing a lot of minutes and I wasn’t as strong as I am now, so every time I got bumped I needed more muscle, I twisted my ankle. Because you never know what’s going to happen when you’re in the game. You try to jump after the ball you land on somebody’s ankle and twist it. But I was playing in all of the games; I was never out for more than four days, five days. There were just small injuries, but the media was saying that I had big problems with my ankles or whatever. That wasn’t really the truth. I was just young and I got bumped a lot.

http://www.draftexpress.com/viewarti...d=print&a=1313

In five games with Avtodor Saratov, Udrih starred in Russian Superleague play, averaging 19.6 points and 4.7 assists. However, the club was defaulting on payments, and Udrih was
forced to move on, this time to Olympiacos in Greece.
http://www.pinnaclehoops.com/news.php?article=50

if there is one thing we can be sure about, it's that Pop and RC know very well everything about Beno's past and the questions about his attitude.
so they will have observed very well how Beno is working and if he's willing to mature and become a real pro.
it seems as if Beno didn't change much during his years with the Spurs.