Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs: NBA Ankles Have Legs?
What does a balding 33-year-old former sky walker have left in him over the course of 82 regular season games?
When said dunk master’s family is full of basketball players, there is reason to believe he knows how to save something for the stretch run of a grinding season.
But this is one individual who cannot help but to give any less than level 110 on the basketball court.
Ginobili is a three-time NBA champion, an All-Star, and a recipient of the Sixth Man of the Year crown in 2008.
San Antonio’s favorite sons were set for a magnificent playoff run.
Then in five games, the Spurs were “ate up” by their fanbase’s most despised rivals. The Lakers dethroned the defending NBA champions in only five games in the Western Conference Finals.
That hurt the ultra-competitive Ginobili to no end.
And to add salt to his wounds, the injuries started to kick in. The next season he only played in 44 games in the regular season.
The Spurs missed him, dearly, in the first round of the 2009 playoffs. The Dallas Mavericks smashed the Spurs 4-1.
The fact that the Mavericks are second to the Lakers in terms of hated rivals for Spurs fans hurt Ginoboli even more.
It was the Spurs first time being eliminated in the first round since Phil Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal, Derek Fisher, and Kobe Bryant helped the Lakers to sweep them in 2001.
Manu signed a three-year, $39 million contract extension this past April that will theoretically keep him with the San Antonio Spurs through 2012-2013.
Will his 33-year-old NBA ankles have legs?
He started to lose lift last season, but with plenty of rest and leg strength training, the father of newborn twins could return to his old self in the short term.
Disappointed with how the bench players with the Phoenix Suns throttled the Spurs in the playoff sweep last season, coming back hungrier is a given for Manu.
He turns 34 next July and going by the history of the league’s mid-30s stars, this season could be the last of the sky walker’s high-flying aerial acts.
