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Manu Ginobili has sacrificed more for the Spurs than any man should
Carmelo Anthony recently told reporters that adapting to the triangle offense “was the ultimate sacrifice and adjustment for me and my game.” With all due respect to the New York Knicks forward and the complexities of Phil Jackson’s preferred triple-post attack, though — and while acknowledging that “the ultimate sacrifice” is a phrase that has a very different definition than the one Melo used — Manu Ginobili might have a slightly stronger claim to having made a more significant sacrifice for his squad.
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The Argentine legend and longtime San Antonio Spurs star reminded us as much during a recent interview with Don Harris of News 4 in San Antonio:
Exclusive with Manu: he would only share this with our @DonHarris4 – full interview tomorrow on Sports Sunday. pic.twitter.com/AMijTJq8Fy
— Casey Keirnan (@CaseyKeirnan) October 22, 2016
“I gave my right one,” Ginobili said, with a smile and a laugh, somehow. “I gave it all, I gave it all. I gave my right one for the Spurs, I can say it, I can really say it. It’s true.”
In case you’re not familiar with what Manu’s referring to — you lucky, lucky devil, you — Ginobili suffered a “testicular injury” during a win over the New Orleans Pelicans this past February when then-Pelicans power forward Ryan Anderson inadvertently kneed him really hard in the groin on a drive:
Ginobili wound up needing surgery to repair that injury, sidelining him for a month and earning him all manner of sympathy from male sports fans everywhere. (He did get the stop, though.)
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When he returned to the Spurs in March after 12 games on the shelf, Ginobili offered his perspective on the harrowing-ass experience to Michael Wright of ESPN:
“Bottom line: very unfortunate situation [and] play,” he said. “Got hurt badly, and nobody expected anything like that. I had to sit for a month. It was very painful. The first week was very tough. But after that, I started to get better.
“It was not much experience on this because it never happened before in the franchise. The doctor never had an athlete [suffer such an injury]. So we were just figuring it out. […]
“Usually when that happens, it hurts for a little bit. And then after three minutes, you’re back at it,” Ginobili said. “It was three minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, and I was still in the same level of pain. So when we got to the clinic, once we did an MRI, [the doctors said], ‘We need the surgery, and it’s got to be right now.’ When they told me it was going to take a month or a month and a half, unbelievable. It was a very unfortunate situation. It was a perfect storm for this type of thing.”
There might be some situations in which you’d like to hear the phrase “perfect storm” associated with your testicles; this most certainly was not one.
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Ginobili did return to the court, chipping in 8.3 points and 2.3 assists in 19.2 minutes per game off the Spurs’ bench in his final 15 regular-season appearances, and playing in all 10 of San Antonio’s postseason contests before their second-round knockout at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. After deciding this summer to run it back one more time, even without longtime teammate Tim Duncan, and making his final appearance for Argentina’s national team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Ginobili’s shot is a bit rusty (just 7-for-19 on the season) but he has hit the ground running as playmaker, dishing seven assists against one turnover in 40 minutes to help the Spurs get off to a 2-0 start.
With superstar Kawhi Leonard, emerging sixth man Patty Mills and possibly opening-night revelation Jonathon Simmons taking on larger roles in the Spurs offense, the 39-year-old Ginobili might find his minutes, touches and opportunities curbed a bit in his 15th NBA season. Given what he’s already sacrificed in an effort to help the team, though — and the smile with which he now recalls it — I have a hard time imagining he’ll mind too much.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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