Why Does Everyone Hate This Man?
Bruce Bowen is the NBA's most tenacious defender, which isn't winning him any popularity contests.
By Mike Monroe
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Bruce Bowen smiles as he recalls the encounter: The heckler had gray hair and a leathery tan from too much retirement golf. A whitehaired lady sat next to him in the expensive seats at Phoenix’s U.S. Airways Center. “Bowen, you’re a thug,” the heckler screamed. “Bowen, you’re a thug!”
“I looked right at the little old lady and said, ‘Lady, are you really with him?’” Bowen says one late summer afternoon. “The look on his face was funny, and then people around him started chuckling, because they saw that I’m having fun with this and this was not getting to me. I just said, ‘Wow, does he even know what a thug is?’
” Bowen, the San Antonio Spurs’ physical, defensive-minded forward, is accustomed to insults. Undrafted after an unspectacular career at Cal State– Fullerton, he may not be the most hated man in the NBA, but he’s certainly Why Does Everyone Hate This Man? mentioned in the conversation. He is one of the most vital and versatile players in the NBA. First and foremost, he is a dogged defender, maybe the best perimeter player in the game. But he’s also capable of hitting the dagger-J from beyond the arc, as he’s done numerous times. His persistent, aggressive—and annoying—style has earned him selection to the NBA’s All-Defensive team each of the past seven seasons. Twice he has been runner-up in voting for Defensive Player of the Year. Routinely, he has limited the production of such oensive stars as the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, Boston’s Ray Allen, Phoenix’s two-time MVP Steve Nash, Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, and New Jersey’s Vince Carter.
But Bowen’s aggressive defensive persona also has brought charges of dirty play, along with a dash of insults and side orders of odium.
Allen, an all-star traded from Seattle in the o-season, termed Bowen’s style “coward’s basketball.” Carter contended Bowen once intentionally tried to injure him by stepping underneath him as he elevated for a shot. Suns all-star center Amaré Stoudemire accused Bowen of purposefully kicking his Achilles tendon.
New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, never one to manage his tongue, insisted last season that if Bowen had defended him with tactics he deemed dirty he would have “beat the shit out ofhim.” During a game on Nov. 11, 2006, Thomas instructed his players to “break his fuckin’ foot” if Bowen stepped underneath a Knicks shooter, a practice Bowen steadfastly denies employing.
What riled the aged Phoenix heckler was Bowen’s knee to Suns star Steve Nash’s groin during Game 3 of the 2007 NBA Western Conference semifinals, yet another act Bowen says was unintentional and unfortunate.
Bowen responds with equanimity to the thuggery charges. Though he calls himself sensitive, he acknowledges his skin has thickened as the level of viu-peration has increased with his success. He understands that malice comes with the territory when you have made your living being a pest. “As a basketball player, you want to be respected for what you do,” he says. “You want everyone to notice that you play hard. So the first time I heard someone heckling me I said, ‘Whoa, what is happening here?’ But the negative stuff has turned out to be such a positive in my case I probably couldn’t have planned it better.”
Just as villains are the stars of pro wrestling, Bowen knows that despite a pedestrian oensive game (he’s deadly from long range at crunch time, but he possesses a paltry 6.5 points per game scoring average) he has box oce appeal. And that can translate into greater recognition, accolades, and even bigger bucks come contract time. But he does not want to be known as the NBA’s most hated man. Not in Phoenix, nor anywhere else. “Most hated?” Bowen says. “That’s harsh. I guess when you’ve achieved certain things, it sort of comes with the territory. I can’t expect everybody to love me.” Suns coach Mike D’Antoni understands why his team’s fans will not be sending bouquets to Bowen. “He’s one of those players you hate if he’s not on your team,” says D’Antoni. “You love him if he’s on your team, because he gets everything out of his ability, plays as hard as he can, and he’s a proven winner. Our guys don’t like going against him, but I’m sure they respect him off the court.”
Not surprisingly, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a fan. After NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson phoned Bowen following the incident involving the Knicks and warned him to curtail some of his defensive tactics, Popovich was furious. He decried Jackson’s warning and instructed Bowen to ignore his directive. “I told Bruce, ‘You be Bruce Bowen,’” Popovich told the San Antonio Express- News. “‘You’re the best defender in this league. You will not change the way you play defense.’”
Popovich is the architect of a Spurs team that has won four NBA titles in nine seasons. One tactic: Emphasize the hardnosed defense Bowen typifies. Future Hall of Fame center David Robinson and two-time MVP Tim Duncan, a 10-time selection to the NBA’s All-Defensive team, formed the basis for Popovich’s aggressive defensive scheme. The muscular and fit 6'7", 200-pound Bowen fit perfectly when he signed with the team as a free agent in 2001. Instantly he became the team’s go-to defender for the opposition’s best player—no matter the player’s position. And don’t even think about oering double-team help. “I’m competitive,” Bowen says. “I don’t like backing down to anybody. It’s not arrogance. It’s just something that grows out of the competition. Even if you are getting the best of me, I have to try and limit you in some way, shape, or form.”
Nearly every NBA player is fiercely competitive, but Bowen has combined his spirited nature with dedication to conditioning (he’s a yoga enthusiast—see sidebar) and mental preparation. “I’ve heard it said I’m a freak of nature,” Bowen says. “I’ve never considered myself that, but I do think I’m genetically gifted. But defense is more about desire.
“I always talk to kids about how important desire is. If I have the desire to do something, I’ll get it done. We set our minds to things, and it’s that desire that lets us accomplish those goals.”
What is most remarkable about Bowen’s ability to defend the likes of Bryant, Nash, Carter, and LeBron James is the fact he turned 36 a few hours after the Spurs won their fourth NBA championship in June. Perimeter players in their mid-30s aren’t supposed to keep up with young guns. Bowen is the exception.
“There were times last season when I would watch Bruce and think, ‘Yeah, he may be losing a half step,’” says Spurs strength and conditioning coach Mike Brungardt, the engineer of Bowen’s training the past six years. “Then, when he would go against somebody like Carmelo or LeBron—especially in the playoffs—I would think, ‘Wow, he hasn’t lost a thing.’”
There is no secret to Bowen’s ageless athleticism and agility.
“I’m not going to tell you I eat broccoli and fresh fruit all day,” he says. Bowen does, however, avoid fast food and alcohol, and he takes vitamins and nutritional supplements under Brungardt’s supervision.
Brungardt learned about Bowen’s dedication to training soon after Bowen joined the team and wanted to work out before sunrise in South Texas to avoid the oppressive heat and humidity. “I told him I’d meet him at Alamo Stadium as early as he wanted,” Brungardt said. “He said, ‘OK, I’ll see you there at 5:30.’” The two met at the stadium at that ungodly hour all summer.
It’s not just training that has made Bowen a great defender. Though he is not one of the league’s high fliers, he has exceptional agility, quick hands and feet, and great hand-eye coordination. Combined with his competitive nature and dogged determination, those traits enable him to lock up some of basketball’s best scorers.
“It’s just part of athleticism, like being a sprinter,” Bowen says of his physical gifts. “Everybody can’t sprint. Some people have to do that 1,500-meter run.”
Two years ago, Bowen added Bikram yoga to his routine for added flexibility, plus deep-tissue massage to deal with the wear and tear of the grueling NBA season. Remarkably, he has not missed a game since Feb. 26, 2002.
Though he has been one of the NBA’s most accurate three-point shooters for much of his career—he made 33 of 74 three-pointers in the Spurs’ playoff run last spring—Bowen understands that on a team with Duncan, Tony Parker, and all-star guard Manu Ginobili, his role is not to score points but to deny them.
“Everybody is blessed with different talents,” Bowen says. “One of my talents is defense, and I’m not ashamed of that. It doesn’t get the glory oense does, but you still have opportunities to let people know what you do. They say, ‘That guy wasn’t able to do anything tonight. I wonder why?’”
“Well, there it is.”
And there Bruce Bowen is: on an island, guarding the most gifted scorers in basketball night after night, and doing it better than anyone. Don’t hate.
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