WAS THAT GOODBYE FOR MANU GINOBILI?
Hall of Fame-level sixth man’s 1,205th NBA game brings cheers, questions.
— Manu Ginobili will turn 40 in July.
Will he do it as an active NBA player or as a new retiree?
“I do feel I can still play,” he said.
He showed as much in the Western Conference finals, with games of 17, 21 and 15 points during the brief series. He shot just under 59 percent from the field and gave us some glimpses of the player who was a huge cog while the Spurs were winning four of their five NBA titles.
With team MVP Kawhi Leonard and point guard Tony Parker on the shelf, San Antonio had no answers for Golden State, which will be favored to win its second title in three seasons. For Spurs Nation, Game 4 was an unsatisfying conclusion to a series that bore so much promise before Leonard limped off in the
third quarter of Game 1. The fans saw the handwriting on the wall after the Game 3 loss and seized the moment to honor their team as the season finale crept to a close.
The “Manu! Manu!” chants began midway through the fourth quarter. After Warriors guard Stephen Curry scored on a drive while being fouled, they grew louder. Gregg Popovich is just like the rest of us. He doesn’t know if Ginobili will be back for a 16th season, and the longtime Spurs coach said he won’t try to influence Manu’s approach to the decision. But Popovich also didn’t want to miss an opportunity to honor one of the most selfless players he has ever coached.
On Monday night, Pop replaced him with Kyle Anderson, and the final 2 minutes and 25 seconds of San Antonio’s season became an extended Ginobili tribute. Not lost in the moment was Curry respectfully stepping away from the free-throw line to clap along with a houseful of Spurs fans as Ginobili checked out of his 1,205th NBA game, maybe his last.
Curry explained his gesture by simply saying, “I’m a Manu Ginobili fan.”
As Curry waited, 18,466 fans rose in unison. The cheering didn’t stop until seconds after Ginobili waved to the crowd and took that familiar walk through the tunnel to the home team’s locker room. He said it felt as if the fans wanted him to retire, but nothing could be further from the truth. Manu is everything the Spurs were built to represent: team play, excellence and class. Just like Pop, they wanted to show him the ultimate love, just in case this was his final game.
The Ginobili who walked off the AT&T Center court after enduring a postseason sweep for only the second time has a tough decision on his hands, much tougher than it appeared to be when he missed his first 15 field-goal attempts over four first-round games against Memphis. Against the Grizzlies, Manu looked every bit of his 39 years, appearing at least two steps slower than the Euro-stepping blur whom Spurs general manager R.C. Buford once described as a “wild colt” in his first couple of seasons.
Despite his team being overmatched sans Kawhi, Ginobili rediscovered his stroke against the Warriors, got to the rim and regained his sagging confidence thanks to six double-digit performances in his last six playoff games. When asked if he had more gas left in the tank, Ginobili was trademark honest.
“You know, for moments I felt like I didn’t in the Memphis series,” he said. “This series I played better. I felt more energetic, more needed and more useful to the team, so I ended up feeling better than the way I started.”
Ginobili got the Warriors’ attention, for sure.
“He kind of worked us pretty hard these four games, so I think he’s got quite a bit left in the tank,” Draymond Green said. “Obviously, it’s up to him how much longer he wants to go, but one thing about it, he’s definitely not a liability on the floor. He can still defend and he can still score buckets with the best of them.”
“First-ballot Hall of Famer for sure,” Green added.
If this is the end, Ginobili will go down as a surefire Hall of Famer, not only because of what he did in the NBA but also because of his accomplishments in international play: He won an Olympic gold medal, remember, and a EuroLeague championship. Just as significant, he sacrificed personal statistics for the greater goal. Ginobili could have started for most of the teams in this league, averaged more than 20 points per game and played in more than two all-star games, but he agreed to come off the bench for the Spurs, making him one of the top sixth men ever. He started only 349 of 992 regular-season games, drastically reducing the number of minutes he could have played during his career.
“It helped set a trend going forward because I know I’ve used it,” said Golden State’s acting head coach, Mike Brown, a former Spurs assistant. “I’m sure other coaches have used it. But you can always look back and say, ‘Hey, remember that guy named Manu Ginobili?’ He graciously did it, and they won umpteen titles because of it. That just embodies who that guy is from Day One.”
The guess here is Ginobili will join Tim Duncan in retirement, leaving Tony Parker as the lone remaining member of the famed Big Three. He will walk away as that rare athlete who played a long time without a significant injury. While the desire to compete still burns inside him, he’s also excited about spending more time with his wife and his three boys.
“Whatever I decide to do, I will be a happy camper,” he said.
A happy camper who will be missed.