Whenever he wants to feel humbled, LeBron James pops in the tapes of the 2007 NBA finals.

No matter what, the outcome never changes. He got swept. San Antonio simply outclassed Cleveland four years ago in the title series, and that still serves as a colossal source of motivation for James—who makes no secret that he’s fueled by slights and disappointments.

“I think about it all the time,” James said of that 2007 series. “I even go back and watch some of those games and see how I wasn’t that good of a player, especially on both ends of the floor. You just try to use those moments. I feel like there’s no way I should be out on the floor and the team that I’m on can’t win a game in a series. I use that as motivation. … I’ve got a lot of motivation.”

Splitter’s summer itinerary includes a mid-July return to Brazil to join the national team in training for the FIBA Americas tournament. Even that plan must await the results of CBA talks.

“This is one of the crazy summers I’m going to have,” said Splitter, the 26-year-old whose rookie season was a series of injury-plagued stops and starts. “We don’t know what it’s going to be. It is hard to plan something because it all depends on what is going to happen with the lockout. You can be on vacation until December or January. Nobody knows.”

Though he has committed to play for Brazil, Splitter won’t play unless his contract with the Spurs can be insured.

“I told (Brazilian team officials) that of course there is a problem,” Splitter said. “Most important is the insurance. If the NBA is in lockout, I don’t have insurance to play with them. They have to figure out how to deal (with) that. If not, I’m not playing.”
Under the current CBA, teams can’t prohibit players from competing in FIBA events. However, NBA teams must be indemnified against injury incurred in international competition

Manu Ginobili’s elbow injury appears to be more extensive than might have first been reported.

Ginobili told the Argentine website Noticiasmdq.com that he sustained a small fracture of the right humerus, the long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. The injury occurred in the final game of the regular season on April 13 when he was trapped in a collision between Tim Duncan and Phoenix’s Grant Hill.

The Spurs originally announced that Ginobili sustained a sprained elbow. He missed the first game of the playoffs and then played the remaining five games with the injury in the six-game series loss to Memphis. He averaged a team-leading 20.6 points per game against the Grizzlies despite playing with a balky brace.

“Last Wednesday, the medical staff of San Antonio I had the last MRI,” Ginobili said. “The liquid has been absorbed and small fracture in the humerus is welded at 85 percent. I have to be doing nothing for 3 weeks and then begin slowly.”

Spurs general manager R.C. Buford was at the NBA’s pre-draft combine in Chicago on Thursday when he heard that point guard Tony Parker this week said the Spurs, as constituted, aren’t capable of contending for an NBA championship.

“Who knows what the motivation is to say something like that,” Buford said. “I’m not going to get caught up in comments. All I can say is that we’re going to continue to build our team and try to be as good as we can be in the future.”

At a press conference in Paris early this week Parker was asked about the Spurs and their disappointing finish to a 61-win season.
The French sports publication L’Equipe quoted Parker on his concern about the team’s ability to remain among the NBA’s legitimate title contenders.

Tony Parker says that age has finally caught up with the Spurs.

"At the start of the season I said this was our last chance," he said.

"Tim and Gino (Manu Ginobili) are getting old. It's going to be tough to regenerate ourselves.

"We will always have a good team but we can no longer say that we're playing for a championship."

The Golden State Warriors had  interest in San Antonio assistant coach Mike Budenholzer, but Budenholzer indicated at the end of the Spurs' playoff series that while he wanted to be a head coach some day, the time was not now.

There is a belief among some around the league that Budenholzer is likely to replace Gregg Popovich when Popovich eventually steps down.

Antonio McDyess is leaning towards retiring after playing for the Spurs for the past two seasons.

"This was not at all how I wanted it to end, but signing here was one of the best things I did in my career," he said. "I wouldn't trade these two years for the world."

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is going to miss McDyess and will respect his decision.

"We're not going to fight him," Popovich said. "If he does retire, as much as a player, we would miss him more as a person. He's one of the finest human beings I've ever been associated with. He commands huge, huge buckets of respect from his teammates, just from the way he conducts himself."

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich envisions Tiago Splitter starting at center next season.

“I think Tiago has to be a linchpin for our future here, because he has the size, the length, the toughness, the grit, the consistency,” Popovich said. “He’s going to be a stalwart of this team going forward.”

Though Splitter did not spend much time paired with Duncan this season, and doesn’t have a jumper to spread the floor as McDyess did, Popovich thinks the two could coexist. For proof, he points to Fabricio Oberto, a player similar to Splitter who started next to Duncan on the Spurs’ 2007 championship team.

“We played with two bigs before, when Fab was here,” Popovich said. “Fab and Timmy were the starters, and we got it done.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich expects Tim Duncan to return next season, he told the San Antonio Express-News Friday.

"Timmy’s given me no indication he’s considering retiring, or anything like that," Popovich said.

Asked if he thinks Duncan will opt out this summer and restructure a new deal, Popovich said: "I did mention to him, as an aside more than anything because I’m not prepared, either, but I said, “Hey, we’ve got to talk about your contract. Are you going to play? Are you going to opt out? Are you going to play nine more years? What?

"He said, 'Yeah, my agent is talking to me about that,' and I said we had to get together to talk about it. That’s as far as it’s gone."

A mark of the struggling Spurs defense could be detected Monday when the NBA released its first and second All-Defensive teams.

For the first time since 1998 and only the second time since 1985, no Spurs player was picked for either first or second team in the balloting of the NBA coaches for the league’s best defensive players.

The balloting snapped a 13-season streak for Tim Duncan of being picked on either the first or second team All-Defensive team.

The lack of a San Antonio presence on the roster is a result of the Spurs’ struggles on defense this season. The Spurs permitted opponents to shoot 47.5 percent from the field — the highest ever on a team coached by Gregg Popovich and the highest opponents’ percentage against the Spurs since the 1995-96 season when they allowed 47.7 percent.