The biggest question on opening night was whether David Stern would present the defending champs with their commemorative rings and turn around and fine the San Antonio Spurs for being in violation of the new dress code.
Then Brent Barry jogged out to midcourt and planted a big, sloppy kiss on the cheek of the NBA commissioner. As if to say that the Spurs, winners of three titles in the past seven seasons, are less about the bling-bling and more about embracing everything that is right about the game.
Barely 4 months after they closed out a hard-fought, seven-game victory over the Detroit Pistons, the Spurs were back on the floor at the SBC Center on Tuesday night to start writing the next chapter in their how-to-do-it-right manual with a 102-91 victory over the Denver Nuggets.
"That's for other people to decide," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. "We approach it exactly as every other year. Our big mantra is boring as hell. We don't want to skip any steps."
The basic steps, of course, are in the core of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, as diverse and dynamic a trio as exists in the game and yet a group that won't live off outside expectations that it should cruise back to the NBA Finals.
"It's been pretty easy in the sense that I have a group that knows exactly who they are and what they've accomplished," Pop-ovich said. "We haven't reached some mythical, rarefied level where everybody's afraid of us and they can't touch us. That doesn't exist."
The next rung, it would seem, in the Spurs stamping this as their dynasty is to win back-to-back championships, a feat that eluded them after titles in 1999 and 2003. To take that step, this team that was already close to complete added 22 years of veteran NBA experience in Nick Van Exel and Michael Finley. It then cast out its wide international net to bring in 30-year-old Fabricio Oberto of Argentina's Olympic gold-medal team.
San Antonio has a roster that is now as deep as any in recent memory and one that seems to fit like matching puzzle pieces. Where that Lakers' so-called "Dream Team" two years ago brought in Karl Malone and Gary Payton to join Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and looked more like a makeshift all-star squad that eventually broke down, the Spurs appear ready for the long haul.
In Van Exel, the Spurs get a point guard who can come off the bench to spell Parker and not have the team suffer a drop-off in speed or the ability to run the offense. In Finley, they get a confident, fearless outside shooter to come off the bench to spread defenses, one area that was lacking last season.
"I told them both they should only come here for the right reasons," Popovich said. "But hey, look, it all starts with Tim."
Indeed, Duncan is a two-time winner of the MVP award in the regular season and has been named Finals MVP in each of the championship climbs. He is the most complete and unselfish player in the league.
"He helps people to be better, and he allows people to reach their highest level, because roles can be fit around him very easily," Popovich said.
Bucks 117, 76ers 108, OT
Michael Redd hit the game-tying 3-pointer in regulation Tuesday and scored 30 points to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 117-108 overtime win over the Philadelphia 76ers in the season opener.
Redd's 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left tied the game at 102-102, brought the Bucks back from seven points down with three minutes left and helped make Terry Stotts a winner in his Milwaukee coaching debut.
T.J. Ford scored 16 points and had 14 assists in his first game after cervical spine surgery cost him all of last season. Australia's Andrew Bogut, the NBA's No. 1 draft pick who was college player of the year at Utah last season, started for the Bucks and added 13 points and nine rebounds.
Allen Iverson scored 35 points and had nine assists, and Chris Webber added 32 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Sixers.
The loss spoiled the return of Maurice Cheeks in his Philadelphia coaching debut. One of the most popular players in franchise history, Cheeks has a retired No. 10 jersey and a 1983 championship banner hanging in the rafters.
Hornets 93, Kings 67
At Oklahoma City, J.R. Smith scored 19 points and had two electrifying dunks as New Orleans beat Sacramento to mark the first of 35 Hornets home games in Oklahoma City.
The celebration began with a street party outside the Ford Center, then got even more lively inside the sold-out arena as the Hornets, 18-64 last season, beat a Kings team expected to contend.
P.J. Brown finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, Speedy Claxton added 17 and Chris Paul, the team's No. 1 pick in this year's draft, added 13.
Peja Stojakovic scored 18 and Shareef Abdur-Rahim added 14 for the Kings.
Mavericks 111, Suns 108, 2 OT
At Phoenix, Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and Dallas erased a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Phoenix.
The late-starting season-opener Tuesday ended just after midnight, local time.
Nowitzki sank a pair of long jumpers and Keith Van Horn made a 3-pointer in the second overtime. After Van Horn made one of two free throws with 23.7 seconds to play, Steve Nash missed what would have been a game-tying 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
Jason Terry added 23 points for Dallas, including the game-tying layup at the end of the first overtime. Josh Howard added 16 points and 11 rebounds. Van Horn scored 15 and Marquis Daniels 13.
Nash scored 30, the same he averaged against his former Dallas team in last season's Western Conference semifinals.
Atlanta Hawks center Jason Collier died from a sudden heart rhythm disturbance caused by an abnormally enlarged heart, an autopsy showed.
The state of Georgia's chief medical examiner, Dr. Kris Sperry, said Tuesday his testing showed that electrocardiograms administered to Collier in 2003 and this year showed "some indication of electrical abnormalities."
"Looking at them now, and in retrospect in knowing what's going on with his heart, the abnormalities may have been associated with what we found in examining his heart," Sperry said.
He said that he had no evidence that the 28-year-old Collier was informed there was anything wrong with his heart. Collier's wife said he had never been told of a reason for concern, Sperry said.
Collier was with the Hawks for two years after spending three years with the Houston Rockets.
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