Manu on Twitcam

[WalterBenitez]

I'm slowly learning Spanish but what I really want to see translated is this particular talk:

I'm pretty sure the insight he provides is useful for all one can do.

Okey, okey is Dec 31 st, you know ... not sure if my english is better than your spanish, but here the main points in Manu's video

I was asked to talk about being different…Talking about being different, I am not prepared and not even thinking… How to talk about it?

Anyhow, here I go ... what and how happened everything to me, what were the steps to reach my position?

Until 15 yo I never thought about being a decent star, even compared with Scola, Nocioni (my mates at NT at that age)

The only thing I have was the passion, when I was 15 yo my brothers were profesional and I wouldn’t be any less than that, so I went to gym, started a nutrition program, watched videos and so on, I mirrored a lot plays I watched in videos.

With all those hours I saw progress, at 18 yo I started to be pro moving to La Rioja, 1800 kms to the North of ARG, small province team, I played some games but never imagined I would be successful in the ARG National League.

Next year I moved back to my hometown, slowly improved, but at this year I talk with a foreigner ex-nba, he mentioned (advised) to move to USA and append 4 years in a University and reach NBA, at that time I thought he was trying to be friendly with me. In 1997 I played my first junior WC, I hadn’t had a good tournament, back to ARG my confidence grew up I worked to play the next senior WC and decided to move overseas.

I reached both goals, so I moved to the second division league in Italy, got the tournament to play in first division, but I still be the same, the next year I was acquired for the best team in Europe, there I reached my goal and got a jump, we were champions of Italy, league, Europe.

In that point I said to myself, enough you reached everything you wanted so the next step was NBA, luckily SPURS hired me, so I started there in the world I watched by TV, by the first time in my career I was in trouble not having consistency and not having protagonism I was role player for ¾ month, at the end of that year my mates and coach started to trust on me.

In this level, I finally asked myself (having doubt) If I have what it needs to be an NBA.

The jump was in 2004 Olympics, that was huge and highly emotive, after gold medal I went back to SPURS, defeating USA and have nothing to prove, being calm I started to play like I want, mostly respected me even those who I played against.

What happened this to me? It is about work? It is about talent? But what is talent? With the talent I have at 20 I couldn’t reach the place I got, talent is not the answer, it is necessary, but no in the was many people consider talent, It is more oriented about what the team needs, I or many other players could make 30 point every game, but it is what the team needs?

Another thing is to enjoy playing with your mates, the last good thing is to understand your own limit, I got the luck of playing in many teams with many mates who played with this mindset, not only the personal approach (looking for the TV highlights) but the team approach.

Talent is not only to play beautiful for TV, is more than that, I did this (play BBall) for all my life, this adventure got an overdue date, it is not around 60/65/70 like many pro (accountant, lawyers, etc.) is more near 40s so what to do next, I have many emotions in my body and remembers (Olympics, 7 game against Detroit, moments I cried like a kid) how my life will go on after only reached my halftime (metaphorically speaking) of my life, and the answer is I don’t care at this moment… Thanks.