ABCDE
D
SOCCER
The goal is goals
With an 0-5 record and just two goals in MLS play, D.C. United wants a victory by any means. D6
REDSKINS
Fumbled return
Franchise blocks a homecoming story, then hands it off. Style, C1
t was silly to think the San Antonio Spurs were really gone. Even when Tim Duncan looked old and Manu Ginóbili and Tony Parker limped in and out of the lineup, the Spurs were always in the rear-view mirror, where objects are closer than they appear to be. There were times even as midseason approached when the Spurs were hanging on to the eighth spot, occasionally slipping below the playoff qualifying line. Gregg Popovich, always accustomed
I
to getting his veteran team primed late, started to think it was too late. “I
Like it or not, the Spurs are right back where they always are
MICHAEL WILBON
phoenix
and the playoffs in general . . . as usual. The Spurs probably played the best first round of any of the 16 playoff teams. They entered the postseason as the seventh seed in the Western Conference but took out Dallas, the No. 2 seed and a team many thought could beat the defending champion Lakers, in six games.
And a Game 1 loss in Phoenix
But of course it happened; of course the Spurs sprang back to life in time, like a bogeyman in a horror flick. They’re baaaack, haunting opponents
Monday night in the conference semis does nothing to change that, considering the Spurs own the Suns in the postseason, and considering Duncan, Ginóbili, Parker and Popovich are healthy and have all their wits
wondered,” the Spurs coach said in a recent conversation, “if it was going to happen this year.”
SPORTS
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wednesday, may 5, 2010
BLOGS, MULTIMEDIA AND CHATS
washingtonpost.com/sports
First Things First Today, 9:30 a.m. Tracee Hamilton discusses the Nats, TaserGate and all things baseball. The LeagueWhich NFL team has improved the most this offseason? Join the debate.
AllMetSports.comSubmit nominations and vote for players of the week in spring sports.
COLLEGES
Details in U-Va. case
Accounts of lacrosse players at center of killing show a caring young woman and an angry young man. A1
I, too, was drawn to the Fortune 6 like a moth to a flame.” Andrew Beyer, on a wager
offered by a small Ohio track that generated more than $1 million on Kentucky Derby day. D2
Spurs vs. Suns
When: 9 p.m. TV: TNT. Where: U.S. Airways Center, Phoenix. Series: Suns lead best-of-seven, 1-0.
about them. The guys with four NBA championship rings seem to be in their usual state of greatness, or menacing, depending on your point of view. Well after the Suns’ 111-102 victory here, a game in which the Spurs erased a 14-point deficit to take the lead, Phoenix Coach Alvin Gentry tried to
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HOME AND AWAY
ROGER MASON JR. AND KEITH BOGANS
Common ground
Nationals make up for recent losses
Washington downs Atlanta, 6-3, to prevent season’s first three-game skid
by Adam Kilgore
Once consumed by losing, the Wash-
ington Nationals have avoided it enough this year that they’ve become preoccu- pied when it happens. The baseball news that rippled out of the District on Tues- day was Stephen Strasburg’s promotion to Class AAA. The Nationals, stuck in a two-game skid in the afternoon, hardly noticed. “I’m more, like the ballclub, irritated
that we lost the last couple more so than excited about the buzz,” Manager Jim Riggleman said. “I’m very happy our players are not thrilled with losing two out of three in Florida.” Ornery about defeat rather than ac- cepting of it, the Nationals continued a rare streak with their 6-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves before 17,098 at Nationals Park. Liván Hernández gutted out 123 pitches, the Nationals’ offense mashed three solo home runs and their clip-n- save bullpen dashed another comeback. Added together, the Nationals preserved a mark of resilience.
By snapping their mini-slump, the Na- tionals remained one of six major league
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S
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST
The Nationals’ Josh Willingham hit one of the team’s three solo home runs.
D. CLARKE EVANS/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Roger Mason Jr., who left the Washington Wizards to sign a two-year, $7.3 million contract with the Spurs, has been limited to spot duty in this, his second season.
Years removed from the DeMatha-Good Counsel rivalry, Mason and Bogans team up in San Antonio
by Michael Lee
hey had a rivalry at age 12. Roger Mason Jr. and Keith Bogans have known each other for nearly two- thirds of their lives and had such intense battles in high school that their head-to- head matchups were moved to Amer- ican University or George Washington to accommodate the crowds. From AAU to high school — where Bogans teamed with Joe Forte at DeMatha and Mason was at Good Counsel — to the NBA, the objective was always the same when Ma- son and Bogans got on the court togeth- er.
T
MIKE STONE/REUTERS
“We wanted to beat the crap out of each other,” Bogans said with a laugh. “It wasn’t no secret.” The rivalry morphed into a mutual re-
spect and later became a friendship as the two shared careers in professional
Still going: Keith Bogans has forged a seven-year NBA career with five teams.
basketball and some of the same ac- quaintances, but they could not have imagined that they would one day be- come teammates. The idea remained
outlandish to Mason, even after Bogans hung out with Mason in Florida last summer and called a few days later with a question.
“I was like, ‘Where should I move at in San Antonio?’ Rog was like, ‘What you talking about?’ ” said Bogans, who signed with the Spurs as a free agent last September. Shortly thereafter, Mason was driving Bogans around San Antonio, helping him get acclimated to the city he had learned the year before, when he left the Washington Wizards to sign a two-year, $7.3 million contract with the Spurs. Now the duo is hoping to help the Spurs advance to the conference finals for the first time in two years. San Antonio, which became the first No. 7 seed to win a seven-game first-round playoff series, trails the Phoenix Suns 1-0 in the best-of- seven conference semifinals, with Game 2on Wednesday at US Airways Center. “There is a lot of history between me and Boges,” Mason said. “It’s weird, just
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The last two standing
The 1999 class of basketball players from metro D.C. produced five NBA players and two lottery picks. But the only two left in the league — Keith Bogans and Roger Mason Jr. — were second-rounders.
DerMarr Johnson
Former standout from Newport School, Johnson was drafted sixth overall out of Cincinnati in 2000. Averaged 6.2 points in seven NBA seasons.
Rodney White
Another Newport School standout was drafted ninth overall
out of Charlotte in 2001. Averaged 7.1 points in four NBA seasons.
Joe Forte
The 1999 All-Met Player of the Year at DeMatha, Forte was
selected 21st overall out of North Carolina in 2001. Averaged 1.2 points in two NBA seasons.
Keith Bogans
Former DeMatha star was selected out of Kentucky by Milwaukee with the 43rd pick in 2003. Has averaged 7.1 points in seven NBA seasons.
Roger Mason Jr.
Former Good Counsel standout, Mason Jr. was taken 30th overall out of Virginia by Chicago in 2002. Has averaged 7.2 points in six NBA seasons.
Strasburg moves a step from majors
Heralded prospect called up
to Class AAA Syracuse, may join Nationals in June
by Dave Sheinin and Adam Kilgore
The second phase of the Washington
Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg Plan was executed Tuesday morning when the 21- year-old flame-throwing right-hander was promoted from Class AA Harrisburg to Class AAA Syracuse, where he is expec- ted to make up to six starts for the Chiefs before arriving in Washington by early June.
“I think that he’s excited for the new challenge,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said. “It’s a step in the direction that he wants to be in. Obviously, his confidence level is high. He believes that he can be pitching in the big leagues right now, and that’s the confidence level we want him to be at. But he understands we’re doing what’s best for him and what’s best for the franchise and the organization. He’s on board with every step.” Strasburg, who signed a record-setting
$15.1 million contract after being selected with the No. 1 overall pick of the June 2009 draft, received word of the promo- tion after throwing a previously sched-
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