Richard Jefferson: Rejuvenated

Just about everyone (including yours truly) slammed the Spurs‘ front-office when they re-signed the forward last season, but they’re proving once again that doubting them only makes you look silly. From the Express-News: “A crowd of reporters surged toward his locker at Phoenix’s US Airways Center late Wednesday night, and Richard Jefferson began to laugh. He poked his head out from the scrum, briefly locking eyes with Manu Ginobili in the stall next door. Ginobili laughed, too. This has been a running joke between the two since the preseason. Every time Jefferson puts together a game somewhere north of decent, scribes flock to his locker as if he’s got the cure for hay fever. ‘Every time I hit a couple of threes, people want to ask about all the work I did over the summer,’ Jefferson said. It’s still early, Jefferson admits. But if he can extend his personal reclamation project over six more months, the once-maligned Spurs small forward can brace for the same line of questioning at every NBA stop. Given a second chance to make a first impression, and boosted by an offseason regimen rapidly becoming the stuff of lore, Jefferson suddenly appears reborn at age 30. Four games into his second San Antonio season, Jefferson leads the Spurs in scoring at 20 points per game, and is shooting a sizzling 65.9 percent, including 8 of 15 on 3-pointers.”