No contract extension for Ginobili?

taken from NBA.com

• Manu Ginobili never thought he'd wear another team's uniform. Now, he has to allow that it is possible.

"I said it many times: if you had asked me a year ago, a year and a half ago, it was basically no question in my mind that I was going to be a Spur, probably, forever," Ginobili said last week. "But it didn't happen. Injuries first, Olympic Games or whatever, it didn't happen, and now I'm three months away from becoming a free agent. So I know it's going to happen. And I owe it to myself. It's probably going to be my last contract. So I'm going to sit, study the offers, see what's out there for me and then make a decision."

The 32-year-old Ginobili now knows that there is no contract extension coming from the Spurs, and that he probably won't be in San Antonio next season. The Spurs' window for paying luxury tax is for this year and next only, and Ginobili isn't going to sign for just one year when there's so much uncertainty about the ongoing labor negotiations. So for now, he plays on, trying to regain the form that made him so important during San Antonio's title runs.

But the numbers don't lie. Ginobili's production has dropped from 19.5 points per game in 2007-08, to 15.5 points last season and 13.2 points this season. He's averaging just 11 points and shooting just 37 percent away from home. And though Ginobili swears he feels great physically and is getting his legs back after being limited the past two seasons with ankle troubles, San Antonio's fear is that the past few years serve as prologue.

Last week's TNT game in Portland crystalized the issue. For much of the game, Ginobili was brilliant, doing all of the things that have made him so valuable for the Spurs and so maddening for opponents. But in the fourth quarter, neither Ginobili nor the Spurs could close the deal, and he missed a wide-open three in the closing seconds that would have tied the score. One game, one shot, I know, and maybe Ginobili does have another great run in him.

But Ginobili's injuries and past commitments to the Argentinian National Team for international competition, which culminated in a gold medal for the Argentines in Athens in 2004, combined with the Spurs' long playoff runs this past decade, have put a lot of mileage on his tires. Ginobili is done with international play now after Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made his displeasure plain. But San Antonio is willing to let him explore free agency -- and willing, it seems, to let him walk.

"It's different," Ginobili said. "I was in this situation after my second year in the league, when I was a free agent. But I didn't think it was going to be at this point. But now it will and now I've got to make up my mind. And I'm going to be ready to change teams if I have to"...

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