THE WASHINGTON TIMES

June 11,2007

A Role Model

By Tom Knott

SAN ANTONIO. -- Bruce Bowen has saved us from the national love-in with LeBron James, if only momentarily. This is refreshing. This is amusing.

This is the Serf trumping the King

.
Bowen is the consummate role player with the modest basketball pedigree.

From Cal State Fullerton to France, from two stints in the Continental Basketball Association to the Heat, Celtics, 76ers and back to the Heat, Bowen lived out of a suitcase the first eight seasons of his professional life.

Bowen was one of the bottom feeders of the NBA, the antithesis of the 22-year-old James, the anointed one who graces the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, his seventh appearance there.

Bowen, who turns 36 years old next week, never imagined that his odyssey could turn out so sweetly, with two championship rings in tow, a potential third one on the way, and a multitude of All-Defensive team honors.

Bowen signed with the Spurs as a free agent six years ago, and the one-time vagabond offers a modicum of hope to every player kicking around in pedestrian venues, to every player looking for that next situation, that next opportunity, that next stop that could become home.

Bowen has chased Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash and Deron Williams in these playoffs, and now he has been entrusted with the assignment of shadowing the one who has been showered with praise since his 48-point gem against the Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. Bowen listened to all the overwrought talk on James coming into the NBA Finals.

He was asked what, if anything, he possibly could do against James, as if he were a neophyte unaccustomed to meeting the challenge of the game's best offensive players.

Bowen did not have the temerity to point this out. Or gloat after the Spurs defeated the Cavaliers 85-76 in Game 1 and a Bowen-led defense limited James to 14 points.
He merely stuck to the company line, the proclivity of all the Spurs.