Manu Ginóbili

Family and personal life

Emanuel David Ginóbili was born on the 28th of July 1977 in Bahía Blanca, a city in the southwest region of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, to Jorge Hector Ginóbili and Raquel Maccari. Ginóbili comes from a family of basketball players: Jorge was a coach at Bahiense del Norte, a local basketball club, where Ginóbili learned to play the sport, whereas his older brothers, Leandro and Sebastián, are both former professional players; Leonardo played seven years in the Liga Nacional de Básquetbol before retiring in 2003, and Sebastián has played in both the Argentine local league and in the Spanish 2nd-tier level, Liga Española de Baloncesto.

Ginóbili is of Italian descent, tracing his heritage to the region of Marche. He has both Argentine citizenship and Italian citizenship. In addition to his native Spanish, Ginóbili is fluent in English and Italian. In his spare time, Ginóbili enjoys listening to Latin music, watching movies, and traveling. He also enjoys cycling and playing tennis. Ginóbili's idol growing up was Michael Jordan.

In 2004, Ginobili married fellow Argentine Marianela Oroño. On 16 May 2010, his wife gave birth to twin boys, Dante and Nicola. On 21 April 2014, she gave birth to their third son, Luca.

A documentary based on Ginobili's life was directed by Rodolfo Lamboglia.

Professional career

Andino (1995–1996)

Ginóbili made his professional debut in the Argentine basketball league for the Andino Sport Club of La Rioja in the 1995–96 season.

Estudiantes de Bahía Blanca (1996–1998)

Ginóbili was traded to Estudiantes de Bahía Blanca in 1996. He played with his hometown team until 1998.

Viola Reggio Calabria (1998–2000)

Ginóbili went to Europe to spend the 1998–99 and 1999–2000 seasons with Italian team Basket Viola Reggio Calabria. In 1999, he teamed with Brent Scott, Brian Oliver and Sydney Johnson to earn promotion from the Italian 2nd Division to the Italian 1st Division.

Virtus Bologna (2000–2002)

Ginóbili then entered the 1999 NBA draft and the San Antonio Spurs selected him late in the second round with the 57th overall pick. However, Ginóbili did not sign with the Spurs at this point. Instead, he returned to Italy to play for Kinder Bologna, whom he helped win the 2001 Italian League Championship, the 2001 and 2002 Italian Cups, and the 2001 EuroLeague. In the lattermost, Ginóbili was named the 2001 EuroLeague's Finals MVP. He was also named the Italian League MVP in 2000–01 and 2001–02, and made the Italian League's All-Star Game three times during this period.

While playing with the Argentina national team at the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis, Ginóbili made the All-Tournament Team, alongside future NBA star Yao Ming and established NBA stars Dirk Nowitzki and Peja Stojaković, and helped lead Argentina to a second-place finish.

San Antonio Spurs (2002–2018)

Ginóbili joined the Spurs for the 2002–03 NBA season, where he played backup for veteran guard Steve Smith. Ginóbili spent much of the early season injured, and found it hard to adjust to the NBA's style of play. As his injury improved, so did Ginóbili, winning the Western Conference Rookie of the Month in March, and being named to the All-Rookie Second Team at the end of the season. Still, he only started in five games as the Spurs chalked up a 60–22 regular season win–loss record. The Spurs then entered the playoffs eager to upend the defending champions Los Angeles Lakers, at which point Ginóbili rose to prominence.

In contrast to his regular season, Ginóbili became an integral part of Gregg Popovich's rotation in the playoffs, playing in every game. The Spurs eliminated Phoenix and Los Angeles and in those games, Ginóbili's scoring threat took opponents by surprise, giving them one more thing to cope with against the now highly favored Spurs. He helped guide them past the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals and then the New Jersey Nets in the Finals, securing San Antonio's second championship. After the win, Ginóbili won his first Olimpia de Oro ("Golden Olympia") as Argentina's sportsperson of the year, and met Argentine president Néstor Kirchner. A gym in Bahía Blanca was also dedicated in Ginóbili's honor.

In the 2003–04 season, the Spurs began featuring Ginóbili more prominently, starting him in half of the 77 regular season games in which he played. Ginóbili's statistics improved in all major categories, as he averaged 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game. During the 2004 playoffs, the Spurs lost again to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals. Following Game 5 where Derek Fisher scored a buzzer-beating jump shot, the Spurs lost Game 6 and the series 4–2. While Ginóbili did not start in a single playoff game as he did in 2003, his playoff statistics improved significantly, with 13.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game.

After some initial issues with San Antonio over his contract, Ginóbili re-signed on a 6-year, $52 million contract with the Spurs and started every game during the 2004–05 season. This was his best season yet as he was selected as a reserve by NBA coaches to the 2005 Western Conference All-Star team, marking his debut in the elite mid-season showcase. During the playoffs, Ginóbili's play was pivotal to winning San Antonio's third championship. The Spurs first defeated Phoenix 4–1 in the Conference Finals, before prevailing in a very defense-oriented seven-game series against the Detroit Pistons. Ginóbili recorded career-highs in his playoff numbers, most notably 20.8 ppg and 5.8 rpg, and had the third-highest point total in the entire playoffs. In the NBA Finals MVP Award voting he came in second to Tim Duncan. The former finished the 2004–05 season as the second-leading scorer on the team. During the season, Ginóbili became only the fourth person to win consecutive Olimpia de Oro, this time sharing the award with soccer star Carlos Tevez.

Retirement

On 27 August 2018, Ginóbili announced his retirement from professional basketball, making him the second player that season to complete a career with one team, after Nick Collison of the Oklahoma City Thunder. On 28 March 2019, the Spurs retired Ginóbili's No. 20 jersey.

Career statistics

Source: Basketball Reference.

National team career

Ginóbili was a core member of a successful Argentina national basketball team, which is sometimes referred to as the Golden Generation.

Junior national team

Ginóbili played with the junior Argentina national team at the 1997 FIBA Under-21 World Championship, where his team finished in 4th place.

Senior national team

Ginóbili was a member of the senior Argentina national basketball team, and made his senior debut during the 1998 FIBA World Championship in Athens. He also played at the 2002 FIBA World Championship, where he won a silver medal. Ginóbili's best accomplishment as a member of the national team came at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics when he led Argentina to a gold medal as they became the first team other than Team USA to emerge as the competition's winner in 16 years. The highlight of the tournament was his game-winning buzzer beater with 0.7 seconds remaining, on the opening day of the Olympics, in a game versus Serbia and Montenegro. Ginóbili led the team in both scoring (19.3 points per game) and assists (3.3 assists per game).

Ginóbili played with Argentina at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, where his team finished in 4th place. Ginóbili was the flag bearer for Argentina at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, which was held in Beijing, China. At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics basketball tournament, Argentina defeated Lithuania to win the bronze medal game, although the shooting guard did not play in that match, after sustaining an injury in the tournament's semifinals. In April 2010, Ginóbili announced that he would not participate in the 2010 FIBA World Championship, due to family reasons. However, he competed for the team at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, where Argentina narrowly missed out on winning the bronze medal, in the bronze medal game versus Russia. Ginóbili played his last international games at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, where Argentina finished in 8th place.

Player profile

Ginóbili was listed as 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) in shoes, weighed 205 lb (93 kg), and played left-handed. He established himself as a star shooting guard and became known as one of the greatest sixth men in NBA history. Ginóbili was a relatively late bloomer, entering the NBA at age 25 in a period when entering the NBA as a teenager was very common. He was known as a reliable and versatile backcourt player.

Apart from his up-tempo and aggressive style, Ginóbili was known for his clutch play and his passion for the game. Ginóbili's go-to move was either a three-pointer or a fierce drive to the basket. He often lowered his head when driving to the basket to collapse defenses and create shots or passes to his teammates. Ginobili popularized the Euro step in the NBA, although he was not the first to use the move in the league.

Ginobili was known as a team player. He accepted the Spurs coaches' decision to bring him off the bench for most of his career. He was also known for his difficult-to-defend passes, including the no-look pass. Ginobili was also willing to draw charges on defense. In 2007, he was listed by ESPN writer Thomas Neumann at No. 6 on the list of greatest floppers in NBA history. Five years later, Ian Thomsen, a Sports Illustrated columnist, grouped Ginóbili with fellow European league players Anderson Varejão and Vlade Divac as the players who "made [flopping] famous", by exaggerating contact on the court in a manner analogous to diving in soccer games.

Having traversed the major basketball continents during his career, Ginóbili is one of the few players who enjoyed success under both the physical, one-on-one play of the NBA and the more technical, jump-shooting rule set of FIBA. He is one of only two players in basketball history (along with Bill Bradley) to win the EuroLeague, an Olympic gold medal, and an NBA championship ring. Ginóbili is also the first non-U.S. player to win both the NBA championship ring and the Olympic gold medal, and the second Latin American to be selected to play in an NBA All-Star game (after Panama's Rolando Blackman). The Spurs made the NBA playoffs in each of his 16 NBA seasons.

In 2007, ESPN sportswriter John Hollinger ranked Ginóbili as the sixth-best international player then active in the NBA, describing Ginobili as "one of the great draft heists of all time" and attributing the trend of NBA teams drafting developing European players to the success of the Argentine. The following year, Ginóbili was named by ESPN as one of the best EuroLeague players to have graced the NBA.

Honours

Notes

Post-retirement activities

On 24 September 2021, the San Antonio Spurs announced that they had appointed Ginóbili as special advisor to basketball operations.

On 10 September 2022, Ginóbili became the 12th player to have played for the San Antonio Spurs franchise to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He is one of only four Hall of Famers who played exclusively for San Antonio for their entire NBA careers (the others are George Karl, David Robinson and Tim Duncan). Former teammate Tim Duncan presented Ginóbili at the ceremony.

Since his retirement, Ginobili has remained active in the field of angel investing, mainly focusing on technology startups in Argentina and the Latin American region. Ginobili is a mentor and investor at Newtopia VC, a venture capital firm that manages around $50 million in funds.

In 2021, Ginobili joined the Argentine financial technology unicorn Ualá, founded by Pierpaolo Barbieri. Ginobili has acquired minority shares of Kavak, a used-car marketplace of Mexican origin that operates in Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil.

His other investments include TravelX, an Argentine startup that tokenizes airline tickets using blockchain and NFT technology; Consorcio Abierto, a property management platform for residential properties; Pachama, an environmental technology company based in Silicon Valley that specializes in carbon credit markets; Pura Mente, a Spanish-language meditation app; Waterplan, a water security company founded by Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) graduates; and Properix, a real estate technology company based in Bahía Blanca. Ginóbili has described his investment strategy as focusing on three areas of interest: financial inclusion, mobility, and wellbeing.