May 22, 2007 1:23 pm US/Central
NBA Fines Spurs Organization $50,000
NEW YORK (AP) ―
The San Antonio Spurs were fined $50,000 by the NBA on Tuesday for failing to make the full team available for interviews the previous day.
The Spurs already had been warned for doing something similar earlier this postseason, but team officials were willing to risk a fine to let players rest Monday. They were coming off five games in nine days, including Game 6 of a physical series against Phoenix and Game 1 of the Western Conference finals less than 40 hours apart.
"You do what you think is best for your team and whatever comes about, comes about, and you move forward," coach Gregg Popovich said Tuesday. "That's nothing we'll spend a lot of time thinking about."
The team announced after Game 1 that only Popovich would be available Monday. However, Tony Parker, Robert Horry and Jacque Vaughn were at the team's training facility while reporters were there and all agreed to be interviewed.
After a shootaround Tuesday morning, Manu Ginobili said he appreciated his day off. San Antonio led the Utah Jazz 1-0 entering Game 2 of the conference finals Tuesday night.
"We were pretty tired after the game, so it was good to have that day off to accumulate some energy for tonight," he said.
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