SAN ANTONIO — There is Death Valley. There are some dry-as-parchment lands around the equator. There was the cramp- and dehydration-inducing environment of AT&T Center for Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday.
But if you want to talk hot, try some gyms in Argentina around Christmas and New Year’s.
“I played in Argentina in December and January and you won’t believe what it is like to play there,” San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili said. “Of course, it happened when I was 20 and I kind of forgot about it. But I played in hotter and more humid gyms and with people throwing stuff.”
If the Spurs had a secret weapon in their 110-95 Game 1 victory in which LeBron James was sidelined for all but 5:03 of the fourth quarter with horrific cramps, it might have been their array of international stars, including Tony Parker and Boris Diaw (France), Tiago Splitter (Brazil), Ginobili (Argentina) and Marco Belinelli (Italy). While acknowledging the atrocious conditions Thursday, when temperatures neared 100 degrees because of malfunctioning air conditioning, most of the players thought it has been as bad, if not worse, overseas.
“I’ve played in more heat than that before,” Diaw, who had 10 Game 1 rebounds, said Friday. “I played games where it was hotter, way worse. When I go back and do basketball camps in Africa and you play outside in the sun, it’s warmer than that. But, yeah, it’s not the ideal condition to play Finals. But it was hard for both teams.”
Yeah, but for some of the Spurs, the arena seemed chilly. After the game, Parker claimed, “Felt like in Europe, felt like I was playing in the European Championship. We never have AC in Europe.”
“Everything is an individual thing. It’s difficult to judge or paint things with too big a brush,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who cautioned about anyone questioning the “toughness” of any of the involved players. “Individual players have their own individual qualities and traits. Some players are softer than others, some are tougher than others.”
But maybe playing in cramped, hot gyms overseas where crowd behavior is legendarily bad, can better prep a guy for melting and dissolving on national TV.
“The European Championship or many times in the summer when we were in training camp with the national team, we practiced in the gym [with] no [air conditioning] and it was really tough,” Belinelli said.
So score one for the foreign gang. Temperatures to melt paint were just a minor inconvenience.
“It’s something our foreign guys are used to,” said Danny Green, who delivered 11 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter. “We have guys who are used to those conditions, more prepared. We’re playing in great NBA arenas all year with 18,000 fans. Obviously it gets hotter, but they’re more used to it because they’ve played in those conditions overseas which is probably in our favor.”
But enough is enough.
“I want the AC to come back. I want to play the real Miami Heat, the two‑-time champs, with LeBron back,” Parker said. “I hope he’s going to be 100 percent on Sunday. Because as a competitor you want to play against the best and that’s how I feel.”