Manu Ginobili and Shawne Merriman: Dumb and Dumber

Manu Ginobili hobbled through the playoffs on a bad hip and then injured his ankle against the Lakers. Gregg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, begged and beseeched him not to play for Argentina in the Olympics.

But Ginobili listened to the call of his homeland rather than the urgings of his coach and went off to seek the gold. Ginobili didn’t care that he and his Argentine teammates already had Olympic gold medals, he wanted another one.

What he got instead was a bronze medal and the necessity to undergo immediate arthroscopic surgery for ligament impingement.

He will be out indefinitely, which puts a damper on the Spurs' hopes of getting off to a fast start. If the NBA’s Western Conference is as tight this year as it was last year, the Spurs cannot afford to lose their top playmaker for any length of time.

Ginobili’s decision to forgo surgery in June and play on the damaged ankle throughout the Olympic games was a dumb one.

If the San Diego Chargers’ Shawne Merriman doesn’t learn from Ginobili’s mistake, then he is even dumber. His situation is much worse than Ginobili’s.

His ligaments are not impinged, but torn. Not one, but two of them. And they are knee ligaments. But unlike Gregg Popovich, Chargers head coach Norv Turner thinks he can control any further damage to Merriman’s knee.

He believes that, and Merriman believes that, too. Maybe I can sell them a bridge over in Brooklyn.

They also believe that they can brace up the knee to avoid any further damage. After all, the ligaments are already torn. What more can go wrong? Well, for one thing, the cartilage around the knee can suffer from the instability and pressure. That could be career-threatening and will certainly complicate any surgery that needs to be done in the future.

Even if Merriman is able to play, how effective can he be? Well, how effective was Ginobili? He led the Olympic basketball teams in scoring, but when the ankle finally gave out in the quarterfinal game against Team USA, he was done. Team USA went on to throttle Argentina and win the gold medal.

So, if Merriman eventually goes down midseason, how does that help the Chargers? Is an injured Merriman that much more effective than a healthy backup linebacker? Why not give the backup a chance to play now rather than have to rush him in later?

San Diego got off to a horrible start last year but still won their division with room to spare. The AFC West is one of the weaker divisions in the NFC. So, let the Chargers' backup linebackers have the chance to compete now and get better as the season goes on.

Don’t do this, Shawne. Forget that "warrior" crap that L.T. is spouting off. No one needs you to prove that you are a macho warrior. What Charger fans need you to prove is that you are not stupid.