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Bruce Bowen made it so easy
Published July 2, 2009
Here’s why it’s easy to root for Bruce Bowen.
He doesn’t look like an NBA stud, for one thing.
He is listed at 6-foot-7, but anyone who has stood next to him finds that a dubious number — second only to the 200 pounds listed as his weight.
Certainly, for someone 38 years of age, he is in amazing shape, but for someone who has to play 82 games against competition rife with genetically imposing specimens, he does not appear a physical equal.
He was not a high-priced, early round, multi-million-dollar draft bonus baby. In fact, his route to the NBA took detours through Europe and the CBA before landing (briefly) with the Heat in Miami late in the 1997 season.
He played in one game during that stint on a 10-day contract, for one minute, and recorded no points. He did, however, make one block.
From simple beginnings …
That was followed by a season in Boston, then a quick pass throughs Philadelphia and Chicago before landing in Miami.
All of that before he showed up in a Spurs uniform.
Yes, it seems like Bowen has ALWAYS been a Spur, but no. Like everything else in his life — including, he once said, being raised by a mother who sold once sold the family’s TV to feed her drug habit — nothing came easy.
And that’s why it’s easy to root for Bruce Bowen.
Nothing in his 13-year fulltime NBA career ever came easy.
That’s not always the case, and too often not appreciated.
Rest assured, Bruce Bowen has NEVER taken the privilege of putting an NBA uniform on for granted. And, rest assured, Bruce Bowen understands the responsibility that comes with that, both to his teammates and the community that supports the team.
The myriad causes he has supported and the time he has given and the money he has spent in that process during eight seasons in San Antonio speaks as reticent testimony to that.
And, no doubt, were it up to Bruce Bowen, his final moments on an NBA floor would have been spent in a Spurs uniform.
In a perfect world, that would have happened. But, in fact, the NBA is not a perfect world — it is a competitive enterprise, and in those circumstances, tough decisions have to be made.
The Spurs, in an effort to be competitive at a championship level, needed to make changes this offseason — needed firepower and youth and options while Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili are still viable threats and while Tony Parker is in his prime.
And that meant dealing Bruce Bowen to Milwaukee for Richard Jefferson.
That’s a shame, really, because is anyone embodied the “Spurs way” it was the team-first, defensive-maven, hard-working Bowen. It is what made him more valuable than his 6.1 points-per-game career average.
It is why he will be missed in many, many ways in this coming NBA season.
There was a pride in that workmanship, and that pride will drive Bowen to do what he can, as best he can, with his new team. Believe it, the Spurs do not relish the idea of Bowen’s relentless harassing when the Bucks and San Antonio meet next season.
And, no doubt, more than a few of the Spurs faithful will be rooting for Bruce Bowen when that happens. Rightfully so. Who he was and is, and what he did while in San Antonio, will make that easy to do.
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