Reader's Digest: San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan
Duncan is the only son of Ione, a midwife, and William Duncan, a mason, and has two older sisters, Cheryl and Tricia. He was born and raised in Christiansted, a town on Saint Croix, one of the main islands composing the United States Virgin Islands. In school, Duncan was a bright pupil and dreamt of becoming an Olympic-level swimmer like his sister, Tricia.[6][7] His parents were very supportive and Duncan excelled at swimming, becoming a teenage standout in the 50, 100 and 400 meters freestyle and aiming to make the 1992 Olympic Games as a member of the United States Team.[6]
When Hurricane Hugo destroyed the island’s only Olympic-sized swimming pool in 1989, Duncan was forced to swim in the ocean and he quickly lost his enthusiasm for swimming because of his fear of sharks.
Kawhi Leonard
Leonard attended Martin Luther King High School in his hometown Riverside, California, where he, along with Tony Snell (currently with the Chicago Bulls), led the Wolves to a 30-3 season and a national rank of seventh in the MaxPreps/National Guard computer rankings. Leonard’s father, Mark, was shot and killed at a Compton car wash he owned in January 2008.[23] The murderer has still not been identified.[24][25] In 2009, as a senior, he was named Mr. Basketball California,[1] and was ranked the #48 prospect in the nation by Rivals.com.[2]
Manu Ginóbili
Ginóbili comes from an Italian Argentine family of basketball players. His oldest brother, Leandro, retired in 2003 after seven years in the Argentine basketball league, while brother Sebastián has played in both the local league and the Spanish Liga Española de Baloncesto. Their father Jorge was a coach at a club in Bahía Blanca, where Ginóbili learned to play the game.[3]
On 31 October 2009, in a game against the Sacramento Kings, a bat descended onto the court at the AT&T Center, causing a stoppage of play. As the bat flew past, Ginóbili swatted the bat to the ground with his hand. He then carried the creature off the court, earning the applause of the crowd.[32] On 9 April 2010, the Spurs and Ginóbili agreed to a three-year, $39 million contract extension through the 2012–13 season.[33]
Danny Green
Green was the sixth man in his freshman year at the University of North Carolina. Green’s brother Rashad played for Manhattan College in 2007–08 and the University of San Francisco from 2009 to 2012.[29] His second cousin is NBA player Gerald Green.[30]
After Green’s freshman season at UNC in 2006 his father, Danny Green Sr., was arrested on drug trafficking charges along with 13 other people.[5] Police confiscated 462 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated street value of $40 million, as well as $5 million in cash, marijuana and assorted firearms.[31] Danny Green was well known for dancing to pump up the crowd before most of the University of North Carolina home games.[32]
Paddy Mills
Mills’ father is a Torres Strait Islander and his mother is an Aborigine from the Ynunga people of South Australia. He was first exposed to basketball as a four-year-old with The Shadows, an Indigenous Australian team that his parents established.[4] Mills attended Marist College Canberra where he played a variety of sports in addition to basketball, such as Australian football and athletics. He served as ball boy for the Canberra Cannons of the NBL around 2000.[5]
During the 2010–11 NBA season, Mills and then-teammate Rudy Fernandez created a trend in which certain Blazers formed the “A-OK” sign with each hand and placed them over their eyes after making a three-point shot. The gesture was meant to resemble a pair of goggles with three fingers in the air to reference the shot just made. When Fernandez would struggle with his three-pointers, Mills used to joke that he needed help seeing. After knocking down threes, Fernandez would put on the goggles as if to say, “I can see with these on.” [44]
Tony Parker
Parker was born in Bruges, Belgium, but raised in France.[4][5] His father, Tony Parker Sr., an African-American, played basketball at Loyola University Chicago as well as professionally overseas.[6][7] His mother, Pamela Firestone, is a Dutch model.[5]
Parker’s parents continue to remain influential in his life even after their divorce. His mother, a health-food coach, gives him tips on healthy eating, while he discusses his performance after each game with his father over the phone.[8] Fellow Frenchman and NBA player Boris Diaw was Parker’s best man at his wedding to actress Eva Longoria, which ended in divorce.
Boris Diaw
Boris Babacar Diaw-Riffiod, better known as Boris Diaw (born April 16, 1982), is a French professional basketball player who currently plays for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) and 250 lbs (113 kg). He played for Pau Orthez, in the top French League, before joining the NBA.
At the end of the 2005–06 NBA season, Diaw was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy.
