Street Savvy: Ginobili's flashy style of play belies Argentine roots

[whottt]

Street Savvy: Ginobili's flashy style of play belies Argentine roots
Web Posted: 02/20/2005 12:00 AM CST
Johnny Ludden
San Antonio Express-News

The commercial was shot almost two years ago, after Manu Ginobili's rookie season in the NBA. Ginobili walks out of an elevator to find he has descended into .

The Devil, tatted up and sporting earrings and goatee, challenges him to a game of one-on-one, first to three. If the Spurs' guard wins, the Devil will agree to end world hunger.

Ginobili opens by making a jump shot. The Devil answers by planting a forearm in Ginobili's chest and dunking on him. Twice. Laughing, he asks if Ginobili would prefer to wager something simpler, like saving the whales.

Ginobili throws off his warmup jacket. After driving for a reverse layup to tie the score, he dribbles twice between his legs, s his left wrist and skips the ball between the Devil's legs. The ball caroms off a wall and springs high above the rim. Ginobili times his leap perfectly. He plucks the pass out of the air with his left hand and flushes the dunk.

No one will ever go hungry again. The world — and the whales — are saved.

Ginobili laughed when someone recently mentioned the Gatorade commercial, which aired only in Argentina. Did he actually make the shot?

"Yes, I made the shot!" Ginobili shouts, indignant at the question.

He winks. He is joking.

Maybe.

Even the magic of film is hard-pressed to duplicate some of the between-the-legs-off-the-wall wizardry of Ginobili.

A month ago in Phoenix, he rifled a behind-the-back pass crosscourt to Devin Brown for a last-second 3-pointer at the end of the first half. In overtime, in his 41st minute on the floor, Ginobili left Suns guard Joe Johnson grasping at air with a sweeping left-handed crossover dribble. One stride later, he was hanging on the rim, viciously dunking over Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion.

Last week in Miami, Ginobili drove baseline, was bumped and still contorted his body at such an angle to allow him to make a scoop shot from behind the backboard. It was not unlike something George Gervin would have created — fitting, given the Spurs have not had a player with as much flair as Ginobili since the Iceman was finger-rolling through the smoke of HemisFair Arena.

"You pretty much don't know what he's going to do, ever," Miami guard Dwyane Wade said. "I don't even know if he knows what he's going to do. He's one of the most underrated players in this game. I mean, he's an All-Star, no doubt. That's all you need to say about him."

Ginobili will make his All-Star debut tonight in Denver. Although his improvisational skills are well-suited for the game, which produces dozens of no-look passes and flashy dunks, he is one of the more unique All-Stars in recent memory.

Ginobili's averages of 15.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists fail to rank among the top 35 of their respective categories. His 30.0 minutes per game are the fewest of the 24 players who will be on the court tonight.

And yet the majority of Western Conference coaches saw fit to select Ginobili for the All-Star team over Sacramento's Chris Webber and Mike Bibby, Golden State's Jason Richardson and Memphis' Pau Gasol.

"I think the coaches picking him really honored the all-around game," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He plays defense. He passes the ball. He shoots the three. He scores inside. He takes it to the hole. He adds effort to everything he does. He's one of those guys that any coach would want to coach."

*

Ginobili also is quickly becoming the player everyone loves to watch.

Having long owned the hearts of his countrymen in Argentina, he also has captured the imagination of NBA fans. His player page on NBA.com has tripled in traffic over the past two seasons and now ranks among the Web site's 20 most popular.

Ginobili's peers also have taken notice. During ABC's broadcast of last week's game against Miami, Hall of Fame center Bill Walton claimed he wouldn't trade Ginobili for any other player. Kobe Bryant, far more select in his praise, said the Spurs' guard is his favorite player to watch.

TNT analyst Charles Barkley, perhaps Ginobili's most enthusiastic supporter, threatened to boycott the All-Star Game if Ginobili wasn't named to the West team.

"If you were to put him on a bad team and let him shoot every time," Barkley said, "he'd average 25 points a game."

In a league that often plays follow the leader (nearly every team still has some player wearing Michael Jordan's No. 23), Ginobili's unpredictability has been warmly welcomed. His aggressive style has been called relentless. Reckless. Frenetic. Or, as Spurs teammate Brent Barry described him, "Controlled chaos."

Ginobili, former Spurs player and NBA analyst Steve Kerr once said, is one of the few players in the league who frightens both coaches when he steps onto the floor.edit - He is an Argentine And 1 Tour, leaving observers slack-jawed from city to city. After one practice last season, he nonchalantly drop-kicked the ball through the rim.

From 40 feet away.

During a game in Indiana his rookie season, Ginobili was dribbling at top speed when Pacers point guard Jamaal Tinsley stepped in front of him to take a charge. Without breaking stride, Ginobili sidestepped him while bouncing the ball between Tinsley's legs. Tony Parker, shocked, caught the ball thinking it was a pass.

It wasn't. Ginobili had intended to grab the ball on the bounce himself. And keep dribbling.

"You can guard him two or three dribbles," Wade said, "but you can't guard him seven or eight dribbles in different directions."

Ginobili can't explain how he developed his style of play. He didn't become this way purposefully. It's just what he does, he says. It's what he's always done.

"That's what really separates him from other players," Barry said. "He literally just plays the game by feel."

*

Growing up in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, Ginobili started working on his handle at age 2 by bouncing a ball around chairs his father, Jorge, had strategically positioned in the house. Two decades later, he copied his crossover dribble from Serbian guards Dejan Bodiroga and Sasha Danilovic.

Though some of his moves look like they have been gleaned from the streets of New York or Philadelphia, Ginobili didn't hone his game on playgrounds because Argentina's playgrounds usually were reserved for soccer.

Because Bahia Blanca is the one Argentine city where basketball enjoys near-equal standing with soccer, Ginobili didn't play much of the latter. But he does apply the same passion to his sport that his countrymen bring to the national pastime.

"I don't play like this because I want to look pretty," Ginobili said. "... I think people can really see I love the game."

Being a left-hander, Barry said, adds to Ginobili's "awkwardness." He is wiry, yet strong, particularly in his lower body. His long strides allow him to cover ground quickly. His ability to bend his 6-foot-6 frame at ridiculous angles makes it seem as if he has an elastic spine.

"He just knows how to extend himself," one Western Conference scout said, marveling at how Ginobili managed to wrap himself around Miami's Shaquille O'Neal each time he drove to the basket.

That courage, perhaps more than anything, has earned Ginobili respect. He relentlessly attacks the basket, absorbing whatever contact necessary. This season alone, he has played with a strained neck, sore ribs, a bruised hip and quadriceps contusions on both legs.

Said Ginobili: "I'm not going to change because I'm scared of getting hurt."

*

Even as a skinny teenager, his fearlessness earned him the nickname "Stone Face," said Oscar Huevo Sanchez, a family friend and one of Ginobili's youth coaches.

As a result of his aggressiveness, the Spurs have learned to live with the occasional mistake or turnover. Popovich still shakes his head in frustration when Ginobili throws a one-handed bounce into a crowd of players or shoots a 3-pointer too quickly, but he also has gradually afforded him more freedom each season.

"I've had to force myself to become more tolerant and more patient with his play, and I've done that to some degree," Popovich said. "And he needed to understand if he could use a little less mus , it would be better for him and our team."

Whatever layer of mus Ginobili might apply to his game, he doesn't do it to bring attention to himself. "His motives," Phoenix point guard Steve Nash said, "are pure."

"I've always thought 'winner' is a better word than 'compe or' to describe him," said Spurs general manager R.C. Buford, who drafted Ginobili with the 57th overall pick in 1999. "I don't know how you differentiate between the two, but there is a difference.

"No matter what Manu's doing on the court, it's all for one reason: He's trying to win."

That was never more evident than last month. Ginobili scored a career-best 48 points to rally the Spurs from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit against the Suns.

Two nights later, he took only eight shots to help beat Sacramento. As Kings guard Kevin Martin drove to the basket in the third quarter for what looked like an uncontested layup, Ginobili swooped over him and snatched away the ball, somehow pinning it between his elbow and chest.

A few minutes later, Ginobili flipped in an over-the-shoulder, back-to-the-basket bank shot as Sacramento center Brad Miller fouled him. The acrobatic play surprised even Ginobili, who pumped his fist and screamed.

The shot was shown repeatedly on highlight shows that night. No editing needed.


Ludden

[whottt]

"You pretty much don't know what he's going to do, ever," Miami guard Dwyane Wade said. "I don't even know if he knows what he's going to do. He's one of the most underrated players in this game. I mean, he's an All-Star, no doubt. That's all you need to say about him."

Suck it Sequ and Rascal!

"If you were to put him on a bad team and let him shoot every time," Barkley said, "he'd average 25 points a game."

It's nice of Charles to spell it out for those dip s that STILL don't get it.

"I've had to force myself to become more tolerant and more patient with his play, and I've done that to some degree," Popovich said.

The fact that he got Pop to loosen the reigns says more about how good he is than anything else, that's by far his greatest achievement

[orhe]

where's rascal btw? i miss his hedo>manu comparisons

[Spurs košarka kultura]

Props to Ludden, that's one fine piece of journalism. Makes me enjoy Manu even more (Honestly, I didn't think that was possible.) As well as miss the San Antonio Express News.

[ALVAREZ6]

Thanks whottt.

[Das Texan]

so are there any clips of the commercial?

[E20]

http://www.supergino.com/media/manu_gatorade_90.wmv

That's the commerical.

[Das Texan]

gracias.