FanPost

Manu Ginobili - Greatest Shooting Guard Since Jordan!

Okay, lets get it out of the way right off the bat. Yes, I am biased. HUGELY biased! I was born and raised in SA, and have been a die hard SPURS fan since the 76-77 season. And though I was a humongous Gervin fan back in the day, and have gleefully worshiped the ground Timmy has walked on since he came into the league, it is Manu who is my all time favorite SPUR. Hell, he's my all time favorite sports star, period. ( sorry Earl Campbell ) So when it comes to Ginobili, I am as unabashedly biased a homer as can be, and proud as heck of it! So, that being said, is there a case to be made for our beloved Manu as the greatest shooting guard since Jordan? Well, the easy answer is OF COURSE!!!! But first, lets back up just a wee bit...

Manu retired today... and I still can't quite wrap my head around it. Well, actually my head isn't doing so bad, for I've known this day was inevitable for a few years now. But my heart... yeah, it's my heart that's the problem here. To never get to watch Ginobili play ever again? Truly a sad, sad day in the history of the SPURS, but at the same time, a day for appreciating all that he meant to the SPURS, as well as us SPURS fans. But in recalling Manu, it's so hard to even know where to begin. He was as team first a player as it was possible to be, and at the same time, he might just be responsible for more "WOW!" moments than any other player in NBA history, or at the very least he's in that conversation. And as amazing as he was on the court, he always seemed to be even more so off it. Humble, intelligent, funny, interesting, down to earth, and from all accounts a wonderful and loving husband and father.

But the greatest shooting guard since Jordan? Well, yes, I truly think he was. Why? Well, the number one reason I think so is actually rather simple. Had the SPURS had any other shooting guard in the game instead of him, I am 100% certain that the SPURS would have wound up with less titles, not more. And whoever DID have Manu would have wound up with more titles instead of less. You name a player, and I undoubtedly believe this is true. kobe? Please, you can't be serious! About the only things that could possible give kobe the nod over Manu is that, yeah, kobe could give you more minutes, game in game out, year after year. But in so many ways that matter, especially all those intangibles that winning is truly made of, Manu was the better all around player. Need a key rebound? A crucial steal? A dive to save a loose ball from going out of bounds? An amazing, game winning pass? Manu could be counted on to provide any and all of those things, especially when it mattered most. And then there's perhaps the number one intangible of all, being a good teammate, and Manu was light years better in that regard than kobe could have even pretended to be. Had the SPURS traded Manu for kobe, straight up, back at the start of the 2002-2003 NBA season, the history of the league would have had some major differences. Yeah, the SPURS probably still would've won that 03 title, but how many after that? Imagine a Manu and Shaq combination beginning to terrorize the league, and Shaq being so happy playing with the lakers that he never left for Miami in the first place. And probably Horry would've never left LA either. Any way you slice it, I think that those laker teams would've wound up with more titles than they ended up with, and our beloved SPURS would've had less. And ultimately, if substituting one player for another results in more championships, isn't that kind of what it's all about? And of course, Manu not only had more intangibles than you could stick a shake at, but he also had that rare ability to rise to the biggest occasions in a way only the greatest and most clutch players in NBA history could do. Think of players like Bird, Magic, Jordan, and Lebron. Then think of Manu in Game 7 of the 2005 Finals. That game was tied, that's right, it was friggin' TIED at the start of the 4th quarter of Game 7!!!! How many Game 7's in NBA Finals history have been TIED at the start of the 4th quarter??? I mean, there are tense, clutch moments, and then there are MOMENTS! And Manu absolutely OWNED that 4th quarter and willed us to victory in a way that only a handful of the all time greats ever have. So when it comes to clutch? Yeah, I'd put him right up there with the best to have ever played the game. And there's not a single shooting guard since Jordan who was as great, or as clutch, as our beloved Manu.

I will be telling my grandkids about Manu someday, and probably my great grandkids as well. There will never be another player like him, and there will never be another player I love more! In my 39 years (actually 42 now, I guess) of being a SPURS fan, he's probably provided more exciting moments than the rest of the players we've had combined.

MANU FOREVER!!!!

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