Battier: ‘We knew that we had a favorable matchup in the Spurs’

If Shane Battier becomes a member of the San Antonio Spurs next season – which isn’t as likely thanks to the Kawhi Leonard draft – he’ll have some ‘splaining to do for his latest comments. Here’s what the defensive ace said to WFAN in New York City.

“We knew that we had a favorable matchup in the Spurs. Did we think we could beat them and take the Thunder in second round to seven games? I’d be lying to say I knew that was going to happen. We knew we had a chance against the Spurs. We felt that we matched up great against them. We were younger and we were more athletic. After we won that first game in San Antonio, we all looked at each other and said ‘hey guys we can do this.’ We went on a magical run, the city was behind us, it was simply electric, and it was a fantastic lightning in a bottle run for us.”

Thanks Shane, thanks a lot for reminding everyone that happened! Actually, it’s fine, you didn’t say anything wrong. You neglected to mention you were fortunate Manu Ginobili was playing with a broken wing, but overall, you’re right, you had a favorable matchup and went on a magical run.

The rest of the interview is pretty good too. Battier talked about Zack Randolph’s maturation and even called him wait for it… wait for it… a great locker room guy! Battier also had this to say about LeBron’s struggles in the Finals.

“I thought that, first of all you have to give Erik Spoelstra a lot of credit because it is tough to have to coach two of the top three players in the league because there is only one basketball. I think you saw it in the Chicago series, whoever had the hot hand that’s who had the ball in the fourth quarter. In the Chicago series it was LeBron. LeBron played great. Then in the Dallas series Dwyane Wade had it going and so with those two guys one of them is going to be standing looking at the other going to work. I think that’s what happened. LeBron is tough. I mean come on. For me he is a top two player in the league, right there with Kobe as the toughest player to defend in the league. I thought the criticism was a little unfair, but he’ll be back. He’ll be back and the Heat are going to be there to contend the next five or six years.”

The Duke grad also talked about the NBA Lockout, but I don’t want this article to turn in to a giant buzzkill. Anywho, are Spurs fans cool with what Shane Battier had to say about the first round upset victory for Memphis? Seemed fair.

(photo: daylife.com)