With all the attention given to big trades by the Lakers, Suns and Mavericks that have tightened up the Western Conference to an even greater extreme, it’s been way too easy to ignore the Spurs, who just happen to be leading the Southwest Division and are just a game behind the Lakers for the best record in the West.
They’re the team conducted by Gregg Popovich that has won four of the last nine NBA titles, including the last one in case you’ve forgotten.
And for some reason it’s even easier to just flat-out miss what a great player Manu Ginobili is … you know the shooting guard who draws ire for flopping, don’t you? Well, his hair isn’t quite as long anymore and the hairline is receding as he’s reached the magic number of 30, but he’s still the guy who has been there for three of the Spurs four championships.
I’m not alone in the belief that he should have won the 2005 Finals MVP – if not for a conspiracy of the voters who were allegedly fed up with commissioner David Stern’s constant pronouncement of the Spurs as the “World’s team,” so they opted for the always safe pick of Tim Duncan.
Nonetheless, the 6-foot-6 Ginobili was in the midst of arguably the greatest individual run in international basketball history from 2001 to 2005 – winning the Euroleague championship and MVP award in 2001; the NBA title in 2003, the Olympic gold medal with Argentina in 2004 and another NBA title in 2005 (not to mention 2007).
But that’s not what prompted this shout-out for Manu, and the thought was there even before he was named Western Conference player of the week on Monday. Sure, the shooting guard had an ordinary 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists in Monday’s win over Atlanta – the Spurs’ sixth in a row. It was the first five games of the winning streak that were absolutely stunning and had to make you wonder how the Western Conference coaches missed him for the All-Star Game in what has become a career year perhaps necessitated by point guard Tony Parker’s right heel injury that kept him out more than three weeks.
Consider Ginobili averaged 34.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 2.0 steals, set his career-high with 40 points at Cleveland, then topped it eight days later with 44 against Minnesota — including the game-winning shot. During the run, he shot an amazing 64 percent from the field (59.1 percent from 3-point range) and made 36 of 40 free throws.
However, the numbers — the 20.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.6 assists he’s averaging are all career-highs — never really tell the story of Ginobili anyway. He’s all about providing the energy to win on both ends of the floor. It’s about how he’ll come off bench rather than start because it gives the Spurs a better lift, and be there at the end of the games.
To be sure, the consistently superb play of Duncan is the backbone of the team and Parker, the 2007 Finals MVP, has to regain the confidence and speed for them to win. But Ginobili is the guy who lifts the team to another level. He’s even the guy who had the bad foul on Dirk Nowitzki in Game 7 of the conference semifinals in 2006 that may have been the only reason the Spurs didn’t win that title too.
In other words, he is the lightning rod for the Spurs — good, bad or indifferent. Ginobili is so wiry strong at 210 pounds and his hands so quick that he can be dominant defensively just as often as with the ball in his hands. He’s taught the previously inflexible Popovich that it’s OK to stray from the plan on occasion because that style, too, can take control of a game. He and Parker allowed the Spurs to be able to win by running as well as in the halfcourt offense.
So as we watch what will be as exciting a stretch of NBA basketball as we’ve seen in more than 20 years — seven teams within three games of the best record in the West — it’s been too easy to forget the Spurs are the defending champs and seeking their fifth title in 10 years. And yes, they did get better before the trade deadline by signing veteran point guard Damon Stoudamire, and then trading for tough post player Kurt Thomas. Of course, Duncan and Parker have to stay healthy for them to match the top of the West, and we’ll have to see the hands, arms and feet of Bruce Bowen’s electric saw defense befuddle scorers.
But the difference is always Ginobili, whether it’s in Bologna, Buenos Aires, San Antonio, Cleveland, Detroit, New Jersey, New York, or perhaps this time around … Boston.
