With Manu being inducted to the NBA Hall of Fame soon, I was interacting with fellow Spurs fans on a Chinese Facebook page. We were discussing the "greatness" of Manu, and I quoted this Chinese poem, which apparently has been around for quite a while, and almost all Chinese speaking Spurs fan knows about.

顺境跑车逆境佛

绝境妖刀斩群魔

The literal translation of the poem goes: smooth times sports car adversity times buddha; desperate times demon blade slashes group devils. This is written in relation to the style of play of the Big3, the Spurs are a well-oiled-machine, so when the times are smooth, Tony Parker "the French Sports Car" takes control. When there is adversity, we rely on Tim Duncan "the Rock Buddha". And, in times of desperation, "the Demon Blade" Manu Ginobili will come and slash through all the competition.

The poem is excellently written not only in relation to the Spurs, but also from a Chinese literature sense. Wordplay and structure is very important in Chinese poems, here, we see a tidy 4+3 first line followed by a 4+3 second; the start of each line is 顺境绝境 (smooth times, desperate times), which is an opposite scenario, and then the lines of the poem is wrapped up beautifully with 佛 (Buddha) and 魔 (devil), which is not only an opposite as indicated by the start of the poem, but rhymes, which read "fo" and "mo".

But more than the above, I love that the main character of this poem is Manu. This reflects the love of the Chinese speaking Spurs fans towards Manu, how Manu's style of play is the climax.

I feel that it is a pity if the international Spurs fandom do not know about this poem, and how much the Chinese speaking Spurs fans love Manu. So I'm sharing it here, hope you like it. :)