Ginobili likes camaraderie of his job

Manu Ginobili doesn’t miss all the “hits, bumps and surgeries” he accumulated in his lengthy career, but the newly minted

Hall of Famer said Saturday he does yearn at times for “the locker room, the pregame, the postgame, the dinners in which you celebrate or mourn the game together.”

Fortunately for Ginobili, his role as the Spurs special adviser to basketball operations has restored some of the camaraderie he lost when he retired in August 2018.

“I love it,” Ginobili said at the news conference the Spurs hosted for him after the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of

Fame announced he would be inducted in September as part of its Class of 2022.

“I love being around because it has been such a big part of my life. I still enjoy that camaraderie even though I am not in the locker room. You start to create a camaraderie and a team feeling with the staff, with the front office, with analytics, with the trainers. Even though you are not part of the core group of players, you’re still part of the organization. You enjoy the wins and you struggle a little bit — not as much — with the losses. So, it’s fun.”

Ginobili rejoined the franchise last summer after given a role that puts him in contact with the team’s young players as a tutor, a sounding board and, perhaps most importantly, a life coach of sorts as they mature.

“I’m super-new in that,” Ginobili said. “I’m just learning, so I just try to share some of the experiences I went through. But I’m also with the front office, sometimes with the coaches, trying to witness and understand how all the behind-the-scenes work. I’m just trying to be a fly on the wall and hear and learn as much as I can while trying to share the experiences I lived.”

One lesson Ginobili, 44, has tried to impart to the youngsters is that things aren’t always going to go their way and that they need to learn to compromise, something he and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did during their 16 years together.

“It wasn’t like a red carpet (where) we knew it was going to be a 16-year love story. It wasn’t,” said Ginobili, whose unorthodox style sometimes exasperated his coach, especially when he was a young player.

“The first two years were a little rough,” Ginobili said with a laugh. “It wasn’t easy to adapt to having a coach like him or the way the team played. So it took me (about) two years or a year and half before I started to feel more appreciated for what I brought to the game . ... We both started to respect the other one and appreciate what (each other’s) true mission and goals were and why I was playing like that and why he was coaching me like that and we started to make compromises and then it became great.”

Team aims to keep the hammer down

Popovich feels for Chauncey Billups as the first-year NBA head coach heads into the final week of the regular season with a Portland team severely depleted by injuries.

But Popovich’s sympathy will end with the opening tip Sunday.

“They are undermanned, for sure,” Popovich said after Friday’s 130-111 win over the Trail Blazers. “But you still take any win any way you get it, right?”

The victory, coupled with the Los Angeles Lakers’ 114-111 loss to New Orleans, moved the Spurs (32-45) into 10th place in the Western Conference, positioning them for the final berth in the play-in tournament. The Spurs’ magic number to clinch a spot in the tourney as at least the 10th seed — and for the Lakers to be eliminated — is four.

The loss eliminated Portland (27-50) from playoff contention, placing them in the draft lottery.

Sunday’s meeting is the fourth and final one this season between the Spurs and Blazers.

The Spurs won the first three by a combined 83 points.

It pleased Popovich that his young team passed what he called the “mental test” Friday of beating a squad it blasted by 37 points March 23.

“They got a lot of guys out and that’s obvious,” Popovich said. “We understand that, but we still want to play well. We still want to win. Mentally, our guys were very focused under the circumstances and did a good job.

We’ve got another one on Sunday and we’ve got to do the same thing.”

Jones picks up start in place of Murray

Tre Jones came close to posting a double-double Friday after replacing point guard Dejounte Murray in the starting lineup.

The Spurs on Saturday upgraded Murray from out to questionable after he missed Friday’s game with an upper respiratory illness.

With Murray out, Jones notched his seventh start of the season and finished with nine points on 4-of-8 shooting, nine assists and two steals in 33 minutes.

“You have a lot of confidence in him to make the right play, and he does a great job in transition of attacking when the defense is on its heals and finding the open guy,” said Zach Collins, who had 15 points, nine rebounds, a career-best five assists, two steals and a block against his former team.

In other injury news, guard Romeo Langford will be available Sunday after missing the last 12 games with a right hamstring strain.

Walker continues to shake off rust

Spurs sixth man Lonnie Walker said after Friday’s game he still feels a “step slower” after missing four games in a row with a lower back injury.

Walker scored 12 points in 22 minutes against the Blazers. His field goals included two gravitydefying drives for layins and a rim-rattling slam.

Despite those athletic feats, Walker said he still doesn’t feel like himself.

“I’m still knocking off the rust a little bit,” he said.

Ronald Cortes / Contributor Working with the Spurs’ young players and other staffers has provided Manu Ginobili, speaking at his Hall of Fame press conference, with a sense of camaraderie he enjoyed in his long career.