duncan228
11-01-2009, 12:04 AM
Ginobili's swat steals the show (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Ginobilis_swat_steals_the_show.html)
Jeff McDonald
Manu Ginobili's career has been marked by the big moment on the big stage.
He's played in Game 7s, and he's played for Olympic Gold.
Perhaps his greatest athletic achievement, however, came on an otherwise non-descript Saturday night at the AT&T Center, when with the game on the line and only one shot at salvaging it, Ginobili slapped a flying bat out of midair.
The airborne mammal had already interrupted play twice in the first quarter of the Spurs' 113-94 victory over Sacramento. There was no time to call pest control. Nobody else seemed willing to take action. So Ginobili played the Halloween role of Batman, and smacked the animal down with his bare left hand.
“I didn't think it was a big deal,” Ginobili said. “Then the whole arena started chanting my name.”
It was a scene straight out of Circus Maximus, with 16,966 calling for bat blood. Ginobili — perhaps against his own better judgment — whisked the animal up and handed it to a maintenance man for disposal.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich promptly dispatched head athletic trainer Will Sevening with a bottle of hand sanitizer. On Popovich's preseason list of ways the season could go awry, “Ginobili contracts rabies from killing a bat,” likely didn't rank very high.
“He's never ceased to amaze me the years he's been here,” Popovich said. “He just did it again.”
Afterward, Ginobili didn't know that he'd actually killed the bat.
“It was just dizzy,” he said. “We took it safely to the locker room.”
The Kings soon suffered the same fate as the bat.
Behind an easy-does-it night from Tony Parker, and Richard Jefferson's best night with his new team, the Spurs ran away with the game in the second half.
Parker finished with 24 points and seven assists, while Jefferson pumped in a season-high 21 on 7-of-8 shooting. The Spurs led 61-45 at half, and the game was not in doubt again.
“We wanted to bounce back, obviously,” said Parker, who had eight points in Thursday's 92-85 loss at Chicago. “Chicago outplayed us, so we wanted to make sure we came out with a lot of energy.”
All that energy, however, nearly got vampire-sucked out of the building with 41 seconds left in the first quarter. The soon-to-be deceased bat had already impeded the game, once swooping in and nearly causing Kevin Martin to miss a breakaway layup.
Play stopped again after that, and something out of a bad Hollywood camping movie broke out. Referee Courtney Kirkland grabbed a towel to try to wrestle the bat. Another official asked, improbably, for a net. Sacramento coach Paul Westphal grabbed his clipboard.
Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair simply scurried away as if his hair was on fire.
Over on the Spurs bench, they knew what was about to happen.
“If that thing gets anywhere next to Manu,” one veteran Spurs player told the person next to him, “he's swatting it out of the air.”
Seconds later, before anyone else could blink, that's what happened.
“I guess in Argentina, bat hunting is part of everyday life,” Kings center Spencer Hawes said. “Somebody had to do it, and it wasn't going to be me.”
Ginobili seemed unfazed by the flying pest.
“It's just a mouse with wings,” he said.
With the bat disposed of, and Ginobili's future in extermination secure, play was able to resume. With one flick of his left wrist, Ginobili saved the day.
“The legend grows,” Popovich said.
Jeff McDonald
Manu Ginobili's career has been marked by the big moment on the big stage.
He's played in Game 7s, and he's played for Olympic Gold.
Perhaps his greatest athletic achievement, however, came on an otherwise non-descript Saturday night at the AT&T Center, when with the game on the line and only one shot at salvaging it, Ginobili slapped a flying bat out of midair.
The airborne mammal had already interrupted play twice in the first quarter of the Spurs' 113-94 victory over Sacramento. There was no time to call pest control. Nobody else seemed willing to take action. So Ginobili played the Halloween role of Batman, and smacked the animal down with his bare left hand.
“I didn't think it was a big deal,” Ginobili said. “Then the whole arena started chanting my name.”
It was a scene straight out of Circus Maximus, with 16,966 calling for bat blood. Ginobili — perhaps against his own better judgment — whisked the animal up and handed it to a maintenance man for disposal.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich promptly dispatched head athletic trainer Will Sevening with a bottle of hand sanitizer. On Popovich's preseason list of ways the season could go awry, “Ginobili contracts rabies from killing a bat,” likely didn't rank very high.
“He's never ceased to amaze me the years he's been here,” Popovich said. “He just did it again.”
Afterward, Ginobili didn't know that he'd actually killed the bat.
“It was just dizzy,” he said. “We took it safely to the locker room.”
The Kings soon suffered the same fate as the bat.
Behind an easy-does-it night from Tony Parker, and Richard Jefferson's best night with his new team, the Spurs ran away with the game in the second half.
Parker finished with 24 points and seven assists, while Jefferson pumped in a season-high 21 on 7-of-8 shooting. The Spurs led 61-45 at half, and the game was not in doubt again.
“We wanted to bounce back, obviously,” said Parker, who had eight points in Thursday's 92-85 loss at Chicago. “Chicago outplayed us, so we wanted to make sure we came out with a lot of energy.”
All that energy, however, nearly got vampire-sucked out of the building with 41 seconds left in the first quarter. The soon-to-be deceased bat had already impeded the game, once swooping in and nearly causing Kevin Martin to miss a breakaway layup.
Play stopped again after that, and something out of a bad Hollywood camping movie broke out. Referee Courtney Kirkland grabbed a towel to try to wrestle the bat. Another official asked, improbably, for a net. Sacramento coach Paul Westphal grabbed his clipboard.
Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair simply scurried away as if his hair was on fire.
Over on the Spurs bench, they knew what was about to happen.
“If that thing gets anywhere next to Manu,” one veteran Spurs player told the person next to him, “he's swatting it out of the air.”
Seconds later, before anyone else could blink, that's what happened.
“I guess in Argentina, bat hunting is part of everyday life,” Kings center Spencer Hawes said. “Somebody had to do it, and it wasn't going to be me.”
Ginobili seemed unfazed by the flying pest.
“It's just a mouse with wings,” he said.
With the bat disposed of, and Ginobili's future in extermination secure, play was able to resume. With one flick of his left wrist, Ginobili saved the day.
“The legend grows,” Popovich said.