Spurs Dynasty Falling?

n the Love & Basketball season preview, it was mentioned that one team on the decline in 2008-09 could be the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs are winless after 3 games, lending to the notion that an aging roster could spell trouble for their chances at NBA gold. The last time San Antonio was 0-3 was about 35 years ago in their pre-NBA days with the ABA. While there's many many more games left, it's definitely an early warning sign.

Currently, the Spurs have about 3/4 of their roster in the 30 years or older category. Duncan's 32, Bowen's a startling 37, Michael Finlay's 35, Ginobli's 31 and so forth..In the case of last year's champions, the Boston Celtics, they added two players in the similar age range, but two guys hungry for a title and ready to give everything that had. Before KG was added to that mix there was initial anger at adding an aging Ray Allen who had ankle problems. That anger quickly dissipated when the Big Ticket was put into the mixture. The Spurs have been there done that, and everyone knows that the hunters become the hunted once they've added plenty of trophies. The Spurs made very little in terms of big trades or roster moves to bolster their aging roster.

To their credit or defense, the Spurs were without Manu Ginobli in all 3 games this season. He's been recovering from ankle surgery and will be back in about a month. In this young season, Duncan and Parker have consistently given their types of numbers to the team, while the rest of the team is adding just 40 points. Manu may be the lifeline... Center Fransisco Oberto also missed 2 games due to the discovery of an irregular heartbeat. The only real offseason free agent the Spurs added to their roster was Roger Mason Jr, far from a talented explosion of youth.

So the Spurs used to intimidate most teams but now are in search of a magic elixir of youth. Perhaps a mid-season trade will occur to bring in fresh legs, but that will most likely disrupt team unity and the Spurs will be set back further. Don't count them out of the playoffs just yet, but if they continue to play like they have, the Finals will be out of the question. Then again, the Spurs seem to thrive when they're forgotten about, so this might be another trick up their Ol' Pop's sleeve.

The NBA Player Wives List

Who's your favorite NBA star married to, or are they even married? The most famous of NBA wives today may be the Desperate Housewives star herself, Eva Longoria-Parker. Eva and Tony married just last year with a fancy ceremony in Paris. Another well known wife is Vanessa Bryant, who's married to LA Laker Kobe. Vanessa was in headlines quite a bit after Kobe admitted to having an extra-marital affair. Kobe's wife stood by him throughout the ordeal and they are happily married still. Grant Hill is married to R&B singer, Tamia.

For many ballers, marriage is short-lived, while others stay happily married. Recent divorcees included Shaq, Vince Carter and Jason Kidd. There's also many baller bachelors in the league.

Here's a look at some of your other favorite NBA stars' wives, with notes next to each.

NBA Players Wives

Chauncey Billups - Piper Billups

Elton Brand - Shahara Simmons (longtime girlfriend from Duke)

Caron Butler - Andrea Butler


Kobe Bryant - Vanessa Laine Bryant (model)

Tim Duncan - Amy (ex-cheerleader from Wake Forest)


Kevin Garnett - Brandi Padilla (sister of Jimmy Jam Harris, music producer)

Manu Ginobili - Marianela Orono


Grant Hill - Tamia (R&B singer)

Allen Iverson - Tawanna Iverson

Tracy McGrady - CleRenda Harris (dated 10 years)

Yao Ming - Ye Li (Chinese women's basketball player)

Dikembe Mutombo - Rose Mutombo

Steve Nash - Alejandra Amarilla (personal trainer from Paraguay)


Tony Parker - Eva Longoria-Parker (model, Desperate Housewives star)


Peja Stoyakovic - Aléka Kamilá (Greek fashion model)

Dwyane Wade - Siohvaughn Funches* (highschool sweethearts)

*Note: Siohvaughn Funches-Dwyane Wade began divorce proceedings in 2007 and are trying to work things out in terms of their two children, Zaire and Zion.

Back to latest Love & Basketball NBA blog entry

NBA Player Wives: Eva Longoria-Parker

image courtesy of: Maxim.com)

Name: Eva Longoria

Birthdate: March 15, 1975
Birthplace: Corpus Christi, TX
Occupation: Actress/model
Height: 5' 3"

Former Miss Corpus Christi, Eva Longoria-Parker, is the wife of current NBA star, Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs. The couple wed in Paris, France in 2007 at a beautiful ceremony with friends and family. Her former marriage was in 2002 to Tyler Christopher. Eva is currently the star of ABC's hit drama series, Desperate Housewives, where she plays the role of Gabrielle Solis, a seductive temptress. Her past roles have included roles on the soap opera Young & the Restless, LA Dragnet and a cameo on the George Lopez show. Eva has starred in a role opposite Kiefer Sutherland in 2006's The Sentinel, as well as several other movies such as the Direct to video Señorita Justice.

The good news for Tony is that Eva's a very avid sports fan according to Maxim.com. She's frequently seen at Spurs games rooting on her hubby from the stands, and has celebrated with him and the team on the court after NBA championship victories.

“I really love sports. There´s something so sexy and masculine when guys rattle off names and statistics. I can listen to them all day long. But if a guy doesn´t like boxing, that´s grounds for a breakup.”

Hopefully Tony enjoys boxing or has learned to! More info about the ultra-hot Longoria at the links below..

See more wives of NBA Ballers at The NBA Player Wives List!

Desperate Housewives DVDs at Amazon.com!

See more of Eva at Maxim Online and Coed Magazine.

Eva Longoria official website

Eva Longoria Wikipedia entry

Eva Longoria IMDB entry

ESPN Who's Now: Final 8

Here's the Final 8 for ESPN's "Who's Now" athlete tournament:

July 25: Jordan final: Tiger Woods vs. LaDainian Tomlinson
July 26: Ali final: Peyton Manning vs. Alex Rodriguez
July 27: King final: LeBron James vs. Derek Jeter
July 28: Ruth final: Shaquille O'Neal vs. Tom Brady

My guess will be that this comes down to Tiger Woods vs Lebron James, but A-Rod has an outside shot. Lebron was recently the host of the ESPY's, just propelled his team into the NBA Finals, and will be hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. (I'm also biased towards the NBA, hence the blog).

Tiger Woods is constantly in the news as he dominates many golf tournaments. He and his wife had a new baby recently. Tiger has a ton of good endorsement deals with various products ranging from golf accessories to automobiles. He's considered to have made golf fun to watch again and encouraged people to play the sport more.

I feel Lebron is the future though and can continue to amaze spectators and put fans into seats at games. The question of the recent ref scandal and will it affect this vote should be interesting. The fans had no choice but to vote for an NBA player in Shaq vs Tony Parker, but now it will get interesting.

The champion of the Who's Now tournament will be decided on July 31, 2007.

Check out the ESPN Who's Now tournament here.

Shaq vs. Tony Parker

The ESPN Who's Now tournament is down to the final rounds. Today voting continues for a head-to-head battle of two NBA stars, Shaquille O'Neal and Tony Parker.

Parker is the newer of the Who's Now star athletes. He's fresh off a recent championship win and a wedding to actress Eva Longoria. Some say he's the envy of many men with his Desperate Housewives star. They also mentioned on ESPN that Parker released a rap album in French.

On the other side you have Shaq, who you see just about everywhere. Shaq has movies, rap albums, has appeared on MTV Cribs, and has his own reality show. If that's not enough if you commit a crime in Miami, he just might be the guy to arrest you. I think comparing the resumes of these two stars it's obvious who's more now.


Vote on the Shaq vs. Parker matchup here (until 6PM EST).

Who's Now: Shaq, Lebron, Parker?

ESPN has been running a "Who's Now" of sports tournament for the past several weeks, which will determine what athlete is the most "Now" on the planet. It features head-to-head matchups which a panel of 3 on ESPN discusses and votes on, followed by audience voting to determine who's more now. The tournament has included several NBA ballers in the competition so far; Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, and Shaquille O'Neal.

So far Steve Nash has fallen, losing to LaDainian Tomlinson, Kobe Bryant was dethroned by Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees, and Dwyane Wade was taken out by Tiger Woods. Those all would make sense to most sports fans.

Remaining from the NBA nation are Shaq, Tony Parker and Lebron James. Shaq and Parker are in a head to head which starts tomorrow. Lebron will face the winner of Derek Jeter vs Reggie Bush, decided today. The panel was unanimously in favor of Derek Jeter winning that match, which would make a very interesting Lebron vs. Jeter debate.

The question comes down to who is more now between the 3 remaining ballers, and I'd have to go with Lebron. As much as Shaq has meant to the game, Lebron is the "it guy" right now for the league He seems to be the posterchild for the greatness of the league today. Of course I'm presuming Shaq defeats Tony Parker, but Parker does have the Eva Longoria marriage and another title win, which could have thrust him more into the public eye.

To vote in the ESPN Who's Now tournament head over to the site:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=whosnow

Parker & Eva Tie the Knot

Tony Parker added yet another ring to his collection on this past Friday; a wedding ring. Parker married Desperate Housewives star, Eva Longoria in Paris with many Paparazzi and spectators looking on as the couple arrived. From TheStar.com:

" Longoria, 32, showed up first in a white stretch limo, wearing a short pink Chanel dress with striped black and white straps. She was accompanied by about eight guests in cream, pink and purple dresses, most carrying small shopping bags. She turned, smiled and waved for the crowd of waiting photographers and reporters who were kept well back behind two rows of police barriers.

Longoria then changed into a short white dress for the ceremony, said Bertinotti – whose office acted as the dressing room.

Parker, the 25-year-old San Antonio Spurs star who was born in Belgium and grew up playing basketball in France, arrived about 10 minutes later, wearing a dark suit. He went straight in without waving. French soccer star Thierry Henry was in his group.

In between, other guests arrived in a Humvee stretch limo that, strangely, had California licence plates.

The ceremony, in a salon with blue-and-white trimmed walls, a French flag and a portrait of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, lasted about 45 minutes. Bertinotti said there was a small reception afterward that lasted also about 45 minutes."

Great to see Parker add another trophy and ring to his growing collection. Parker also indicated he is anxious to have kids, so we just might see a Parker, Jr. ballin' in the NBA in the future..