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n Conference with 20 points, that 1-2-4 ro
in Pony-Like Screenshots Sun Nov 10, 2019 9:44 amby chenwen121314 • 609 Posts
D. Off White Vapormax Clearance .C. United is embarking on a four-game road trip, and playing on enemy soil has been an issue for the MLS team all season.D.C. United visits Real Salt Lake on Friday in Sandy, Utah, to start a stretch in which it doesnt play at home again until July 31.Though the club is fifth in the Eastern Conference with 20 points, that 1-2-4 road mark is preventing D.C. United (5-6-5) from moving higher up the division ledger.We have to switch our mentality a little bit, D.C. United coach Ben Olsen told reporters. Its still about moving forward and trusting in the process. Considering we have four away games over the next month, everybodys going to have to do their part.I believe in our character, spirit and our soccer ability, and well be fine.Beating Real Salt Lake (8-5-3) could be an arduous task. Not only is the club third in the Western Conference with 27 points, but Real Salt Lake is unbeaten at home with a 5-0-1 mark at Rio Tinto Stadium.Real Salt Lakes last MLS contest was a frustrating affair, as it fell 2-0 at FC Dallas. The outing marked the fourth time in five games that the club allowed two or more goals.I dont care about winning 5-0 or 6-0, but if we win 1-0, that feels the best, defender Tony Beltran told the Salt Lake Tribune. Those are the games where you really have to earn it.You have to focus for 90 minutes and not give them an inch. We havent done that this year.Veteran RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando has only two shutouts so far this season after recording eight last season. Rimando has 179 career MLS victories, one off the record set by Kevin Hartman, who retired after the 2013 campaign.Real Salt Lakes offense has been led by the trio of forwards Yura Movsisyan, Joao Plata and Juan Manuel Martinez.Movsisyan has scored a team-best six goals, while Plata (team-leading six assists) and Martinez have scored five apiece.Alvaro Saborio leads D.C. United with four goals. Standout defender Steve Birnbaum is back with the team after being away to play for the U.S. national team in the Copa America Centenario.Birnbaum is the stalwart of a back unit that has allowed just 16 goals, the second-lowest total in MLS.D.C. United goalkeeper Bill Hamid returned from knee surgery in late May and also missed time due to U.S. national team duty. He has an 0.50 goals-against average in four MLS matches this season. Vapormax 2020 Clearance . Having already announced that the race will start May 9 with three stages in Northern Ireland and Ireland and finish in Trieste on June 1, the rest of the route was unveiled Monday. Vapormax 2 Clearance . -- Arizona knocked off some quality opponents, rolled over a few overmatched ones and grinded out victories even when things didnt go so well. http://www.clearancevapormax.com/cheap-v...-clearance.html . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. The magnitude of Tim Duncans contributions over his 19-year career are every bit as remarkable as the announcement of his retirement on Monday was understated: Duncan collected five titles with the San Antonio Spurs and 1,001 regular-season victories, all with the same team in a small basketball outpost held over from the ABA-NBA merger.In an era defined by athleticism, Duncan was a master of mechanics. While contemporaries built careers on defying gravity, Timmy deked opponents with jab steps, shoulder fakes and line-drive bank shots, with both feet on the ground. He didnt captivate fans or sponsors with his exploits or charm them with charisma. He was wholly uninterested in the salesmanship required to build a personal brand and didnt give the NBA and its marketers much to work with as the league harnessed its star power to expand its global reach.For Duncan, the postgame podium wasnt a platform, but a sentence.Yet something improbable happened while he was slinking out of the Spurs locker room and dodging the spotlight:Inside the league, Tim Duncan became the most influential player of his generation. Though he had little public appeal outside central Texas over his two decades in the league, Duncan ushered in cultural change in NBA practice facilities, locker rooms and executive suites.The present-day NBA has become singularly consumed with the adoption and implementation of organizational culture. Forever looking for competitive advantages, franchises have turned to workplace culture as a bulwark. We might not be able to attract a top-line free agent, or hit the jackpot in the draft, but there are 44 games in an NBA season that can be won if we value the right things.This is the leagues guiding principle in 2016, from Atlanta and Salt Lake City to Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, where disciples of the Tim Duncan era learned the art and science of team-building in San Antonio. Theyve applied the findings and sculpted them to suit a particular roster or market. Some have enjoyed modest success while others are just getting started. But try as they might to replicate the Spurs recipe, all of them are forced to concede at a certain juncture that theyre missing one essential ingredient:They dont have Tim Duncan.We walk into our houses and thank Tim Duncan, Atlanta Hawks head coach and longtime Spurs assistant Mike Budenholzer says. You think about all the coaches and all the GMs and even the assistant video guys who are now assistant coaches, all the people who have climbed the NBA ladder -- we all owe our success, our place in the league to Timmy.The magnitude of that, the number of people in this league who have enjoyed opportunity or found fortunate spots in the league, you can trace it back to this one guy -- to the way Timmy played ball and the conducted himself. The culture is Timmy.Kevin Durant was a credible leader during his tenure with the Thunder -- a founding father of the program, in the words of general manager Sam Presti. Begrudging a first-rate star like Durant the opportunity to forge his own professional path is unwarranted, but his departure from Oklahoma City underscores a truth that owners and execs learn sooner or later. An organizations culture can shield it from disaster, but that culture is only as strong as its leading player.Thats why more measured voices in the Golden State Warriors wince when they read about their owner taking a victory lap for an organizational structure thats light yyears ahead. Fake Vapormax 2020. Its why every Spurs alum now in a senior managerial role elsewhere understands theres a limit to what infrastructure can do for a team absent a transcendent leader on the roster.And its why Gregg Popovich said a couple of years ago, Before you start handing out applause and credit to anyone else in this organization for anything thats been accomplished, remember it all starts with and goes through Timmy. As soon as he [retires], Ill be 10 steps behind. Because Im not stupid.Theres an ethic of reticence in San Antonio, where Duncan managed to shroud himself in mystery for 19 years. I dont feel comfortable putting myself out there, he told me in 2013. Im just a basketball player. I play the game. I go home. Confidants describe the public relations part of the job as torture for Duncan, an affront to the game. The periphery of the NBA life, everything outside the practice facility, is nonsense.Trying to be something that youre not gets you out of your comfort zone, Duncan said then. Im not that guy. I did a little bit of that. Ive done my share of it, but Im just not that guy. I dont think of myself in that respect. I love playing basketball and thats what I want to do. I dont need the extra stuff.But in the Spurs day-to-day operations, Duncans emotional intelligence was the connective tissue that held together Popovichs disciplined structure. Duncan would readily pass the mantle to Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, then celebrate their success as if it was his own.The thing that amazed me about how Timmy built relationships was how subtle it was -- the touch, the arm around the shoulder, the thing that would look like little or nothing to outsiders, Budenholzer says. It affected people, maybe because it was subtle and under-the-radar.Blake Griffin, who has admired the way Duncan carries himself, sought out Duncans counsel a few years back. Griffin was part of a Los Angeles Clippers team that now had several loud voices and wanted to glean how quiet leadership could make a difference. The thing I took away the most was this idea that a leader isnt the guy whos pounding the chest, or huddles or giving motivational speech, Griffin says. It was really reassuring to me as a younger guy, that you dont have to be something youre not. Of many things you can say about him, thats the thing that sets him apart -- he never tried to see who wasnt. And it works.At any time, theres always the one guy theyll use as an example. Maybe its Russell Wilson for a year or two. Then they move on to Tom Brady or [Kevin Garnett]. But [Duncan] has been the guy you constantly hear about whos constantly doing it right. Hes the guy who deserved the shine, but was riding underneath it.For a man who was so inaccessible to those looking in from the outside, Tim Duncan was an everyman. Most of our lives and careers emulate Duncans: We do the work quietly and diligently and dont have much cause to glory-hound. The job is the job, and if youre lucky, you do it because you love it, but not for any external affirmation, other than you want your partner, family and friends to be proud because its nice to be admired by the people in the world you care most about.Tim Duncan invented the NBAs modern vision of team culture. Now the rest of basketball is trying to imitate the guy nobody found fashionable. ' ' '
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