Always Ready, Manu Ginobili Saves Spurs with a Performance Few Could Muster

SAN ANTONIO — Kawhi Leonard had limped to the bench due to pain he was unable to hide.

While all eyes settled on the San Antonio Spurs' writhing star during the timeout, Manu Ginobili quickly turned away from his teammate, setting off on a couple quick sprints across the court.

To get himself ready.

To show yet again how much he wants to step into any moment.

Y'know, just the stuff that has made him a future Hall of Famer despite otherwise unspectacular, unconventional skills.

It was certainly not the first time Ginobili has run those sorts of warm-up sprints. It was almost the last.

He turns 40 this summer and has put off retirement already a time or two, so it's somewhere between questionable and probable that this, his 15th season, is it.

Tuesday night could've been his final game in San Antonio if the Spurs had lost Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, except Ginobili seized the moment in a way that we can only hope current players half his age will do to sustain the future of this league. When Leonard couldn't play, old man Ginobili still could—and the Spurs beat Houston in overtime, 110-107.

Many others would've stood there, frozen with worry, stunned to see Leonard in such a weakened state. If some with the opposite character of Ginobili had taken off running as he did, they might have never come back.

Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images

Leonard's supposed co-star, LaMarcus Aldridge, sure looked like someone who didn't want the responsibility, struggling down the stretch precisely the way Portland fans and Damian Lillard have seen before. Aldridge, who missed two free throws and his one and only field-goal attempt in overtime, is not much in the clutch, but then again, many guys aren't…and they exist to allow us fully to appreciate those who relish the competition.

They are the players who inspire fans to trust and believe that all of us are and should be capable of more.

"He makes game-winning plays," Pau Gasol said of Ginobili in an understatement of praise.

This is the reason Manu is beloved, and it's reassuring any time you see that old age can't break the spirit of a great sportsman.

His 12-point performance didn't jump out of the box score, but it felt true to Ginobili's own legend. Mostly a sixth man in his career, Ginobili came in, as he has so many times before, to save his team in a critical playoff game with crucial plays both big and little.

Late-game drives to the basket that motivated his teammates not to be timid without Leonard. Perfectly timed passes for Patty Mills and Danny Green to make big plays. A plus-eight rating, tied for the game's best with Mills.

With Tony Parker already out with a ruptured quadriceps, Ginobili delivered five assists against no turnovers. He logged 32 minutes after averaging 15.5 minutes in the first 10 playoff games.

Most memorably, there was the block at the buzzer of James Harden's attempt at a game-tying three-point shot.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

You might've heard Ginobili's postgame quote about it being "risky" to go for the block, but it has been his nature in the NBA to take risks.

"So I went for it," he said.

That's part of his greatness. The other part goes back to those quick sprints right after Leonard hurt his ankle. It's preparation.

"I know where his shot releases from," Ginobili said of Harden.

He was ready for the moment in every way, including a willingness to switch over to defend Harden and go chest-to-chest with him in the final seconds.

Ginobili has spent his career being ready for whatever role Gregg Popovich and the Spurs have needed: playmaker, shooter, scorer off the bench, Game 5 savior.

The wrong-hand, off-foot dunk in traffic earlier was a great example. Aldridge told him it was such a magnificent and meaningful slam that it was worth three dunks in Ginobili's season-long competition tally with 6'0" Mills and former Spur Boris Diaw.

"That was very unexpected," Ginobili said of his dunk. "I just wanted to go hard at the rim and found myself pretty close—and I went for it."

Indeed, he always goes for it, and that's a confidence born of being prepared—for anything.

The Spurs' Jonathan Simmons, who defended Harden admirably, said afterward about his breakout game: "I've been waiting for this my whole life."

It's striking that after his whole life and all his successes, Ginobili still wants it just as much.

"He's an animal," Simmons said of Ginobili before also noting the work ethic behind the fearlessness of his veteran teammate.

Most of the guys on the floor with him probably have no idea he ever played in the NBA with a full head of hair at one point. What they do know is that no one has owned balding better than Ginobili, because the guy is so comfortable in his own skin and so believes in himself.

That is attractive, whatever your gender or appearance, and that's why Ginobili has in many ways been more approachable than the best one, Tim Duncan; the flashy one, Parker; the next great one, Leonard; and the one responsible for it all, Popovich.

Come to any random Spurs game a couple of hours before tipoff and you'll see Ginobili greeting and hugging all the fans the other Spurs ignore—and especially the diehards who come draped in his native country's flag or a replica of the blue-striped No. 5 jersey he wore in capturing the impossible 2004 Olympic gold medal for Argentina.

He's practically more a team mascot than the coyote, and Ginobili will sometimes share his pregame shooting session with his whole family. His three sons wear the most fly Nikes even when they're just reading Dr. Seuss books courtside, but the openness with which they hop on their father here, there and everywhere drives home Popovich's notion of the Spurs' family.

Ronald Cortes/Getty Images

It's amazing enough that an Argentinian immigrant so seamlessly became the sunshine in San Antonio.

Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said his team played well enough to win but didn't, which made it just like all those other crucial games in D'Antoni's career that Ginobili has somehow tilted to his side.

Ginobili called himself "lucky" late Tuesday night to get the chance to help his team at such a vital moment in the season.

In many ways, Ginobili has been the embodiment of the oft-quoted proclamation from the Roman philosopher Seneca that "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"—and Ginobili knows it.

"If you have the opportunity," Ginobili said, "you bring everything you have."

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.