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Popovich 'very disappointed' in point guard's comments

Associated Press

When Tony Parker popped off about not wanting to play with Jason Kidd, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was livid.

"He was fine with everything, and then he changed his tune. I thought it made him look a little bit weaker than he was during the whole season," Popovich said Thursday. "So I was very disappointed in that, and I expressed that to him."

A few days before Kidd visited San Antonio earlier this month to be recruited by the Spurs, Parker said publicly he had no desire to play with the point guard he defeated during the NBA Finals.

The comments came as a shock to San Antonio's coaching staff and management, who had been upfront with Parker for months about who their No. 1 free agent choice would be.

Upon reading the comments, Popovich phoned Parker in the Caribbean and gave him an earful.

"If you have a chance to talk to the No. 1 point guard in the whole league, you've got to do it. We didn't think the chances were great, but you still do it," Popovich said. "And Tony was on board."

Kidd visited San Antonio for two days, dined with Popovich and Tim Duncan and toured the team's practice facility. Later that week, however, he decided to remain with the New Jersey Nets and agreed to a six-year, $103 million contract.

That left the Spurs to turn to a backup rebuilding plan. San Antonio signed free agent center Rasho Nesterovic on Wednesday and still has more than $10 million in salary cap space available.

"From what I saw and heard, I think I can fit better in San Antonio than anywhere else," Nesterovic said Thursday.

But the Spurs also have the internal issue of trying to patch things up with Parker, who said he believed the team's free agent priorities would change if they won the championship.

"For every player the possibilities always are that we can add more talent and it could change your position, or you could be here forever, or you could get traded. It happens for every player, and we've tried to school him in his two years in all these areas," Popovich said.

"We thought we made him understand."

Popovich, speaking to The Associated Press, said the Spurs are now looking at one or two trades to upgrade their offensive talent, then will add a backup point guard and an additional big man.

Because the Spurs are so far under the salary cap, they have flexibility in trade talks because they do not have to take an equal amount of salary in return.

"Yeah, I think there are some bodies out there, but other teams have to be willing," he said. "We need people to fit the way we play, and that's what we're really looking for more than anything."

Popovich said there was no truth to reports that the New York Knicks offered Latrell Sprewell for Manu Ginobili, going so far as to say Ginobili is all but untouchable.

He said the Spurs were resigned to losing backup point guard Speedy Claxton through free agency, and he indicated that a sign-and-trade scenario involving shooting guard Stephen Jackson is a possibility.

As for the 21-year-old Parker, Popovich said a trade is out of the question despite his disappointment with Parker's comments.

"I think he'll learn from it. If he is who I think he is, he's probably embarrassed right now that he did that, and he probably should be angry at whoever talked him into that because I think it hurt him," Popovich said. "In the end, if we handle this right, he'll be stronger for this and much, much wiser."