Emanuel Ginobili...

[victorjets]

...is a gift from heaven !!! There is no other basketball player more fun to watch than Manu.

Buck Harvey: A name game: Hoop language of Spurs leader

Web Posted: 05/18/2005 01:00 AM CDT

San Antonio Express-News

After Game 3 in Denver, when Manu Ginobili first began leading the Spurs as if they all wore Argentina blue, a Spurs exec sat in the back of the interview room tapping at his BlackBerry.

"I'm messaging my wife to tell her we have to have another baby," he kidded. "Boy or girl, the name will be Manu."

Tuesday created a case for twins (Emanuel is still available), as well as a trend. There was no bigger game in the Denver series than that first road game, and there was no bigger game in this series thus far than Game 5.

And who led them again? Who took over as if a future Hall of Fame teammate was just a nice role player?

After Tuesday, babies will be popping up all over San Antonio with the name of the Spurs leader.

As it was, Game 5 had some of the pain of childbirth. The Spurs switched lineups, switched their pick-and-roll defense and still couldn't turn off the Sonics' switch. At halftime the game was tied at 50.

As in 50-50. As in this could go either way. There was naturally some tension, since Ray Allen had gone for 15 points in the second quarter. Gregg Popovich said a few things at halftime, but how important was that?

"I gave the speech in Seattle, too," he said, minimizing his own impact.

What these moments always come down to are players and how they respond. And coming out after scoring 19 points in the first half was Ginobili, ready to do more.

He'd always been a leader for Argentina, and a memorable moment in Athens summed that up. Then, in an early game against Serbia, Ginobili threw in a buzzer-beating shot for the win, and his teammates mobbed him.

Popovich was in the arena that night, and he later went into the Argentina locker room to congratulate him. Popovich kidded Ginobili that night, too.

Was he now good enough to start for the Spurs?

Ginobili turned out to be good enough to be an All-Star. But the leadership role took longer. Ginobili needed time to learn the league, and, besides, English is his second language, if not his third.

When he yells at someone, wouldn't it be easier if they understood him?

But then come games such as Tuesday, when words mean nothing. Ginobili followed his hot first half by having a direct hand in the first 20 points the Spurs scored in the second half.

Ginobili was this good: He made Nazr Mohammed a scorer.

Ginobili threw up one-hand floaters, dove for dunks, went behind his back on the way to the basket, threw in threes and generally played if Ecuador was in Buenos Aires for a showdown.

And when he felt a bump from Antonio Daniels, falling down after missing a three? Naturally Ginobili got the call, and naturally Ginobili made all three free throws.

"Some of that is acting," Nate McMillan said afterward. "He is flopping at times and draws the foul. He knows how to do that."

But then McMillan stopped from going into a George Karl rant. McMillan wasn't derisive of Ginobili's style; he admired it.

It's hard not to. He creates motion and energy, and afterward Popovich was asked how the other Spurs feed off him.

"The same way they feed off of Ray Allen in Seattle and Kevin Garnett in Minnesota," Popovich said.

In any other season, the names of Allen and Garnett would be connected to Tim Duncan.

Duncan has always been the nurturing leader. But not the leader, and the past two championships say as much. Avery Johnson was the voice of the first, Popovich of the second.

Now comes the third. "The most important thing is to attack," Ginobili said, and it's a philosophy that sounds easy enough.

So why can't everyone?

"I knew that today was very important from the beginning," he said. And that's why he wanted "to be contagious," to get the crowd going, "to create that atmosphere."

He did all of that, as well as put up 39 points and six assists.

And at the end, when the Sonics committed a flagrant foul on him just as the Nuggets did in that pivotal game in Denver, Ginobili responded the same way.

Without changing expression, he stood up. And made his free throws.

Leaders aren't named. They are born.

[victorjets]

Man, Manu is clutch!!! What a amazing player!!!

Horry, Ginobili deliver big plays

Mike Monroe

Express-News Staff Writer

PHOENIX

[The Troll]

...and yet I still hate him.