So here's another article!!!!
Manu has San Antonio on a string
By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
SAN ANTONIO — His image jumps off the front page of the local paper — that wiry body flying right at you and his thick, dark hair flowing in yet another breeze Manu Ginobili created with hustle.
His picture graces the cover of a national magazine this week under the heading, "What's not to love about Manu and the Spurs?"
San Antonio has the answer: nothing.
His picture is on billboards all over San Antonio. His posters and jerseys hang everywhere.
His words are cherished and aired almost every day in English and Spanish, with women usually cooing over his Argentine accent and Euro-chic good looks.
He's no stiff
On the far northeast side of San Antonio in a neighborhood where some Spurs players and many well-to-do professionals live, a house decorated with silver-and-black streamers has a life-size cutout of Ginobili in the front yard.
A few miles away in a near-town neighborhood of lower-middle-class A-frames, several houses are decorated in familiar "Go Spurs Go" placards. One has poster boards taped across the top of the front porch, on each poster hand-written black letters spelling "M-A-N-U" and "S-P-U-R-S."
At a westside Mexican restaurant, a teenage girl wearing a Spurs T-shirt was talking about why she loves the 27-year-old Ginobili, who is in his third year in San Antonio and his first as the NBA's most appealing new superstar.
"I like the way he does this," the girl said, feigning the motion Ginobili often makes, running his hand through his hair and over his ear, moving his long locks away from his face.
"He's gorrrrrr-geous!" she said.
At Coach's Ice House, a longtime northside haven where San Antonio's old-guard and new generation fans gather for longnecks and sports debate, a group of men were asked what they love about Manu Ginobili. There was no debate.
Gotta have heart
"He plays with heart," said Jimmie Garza, a downtown hotel worker, as two friends nodded in agreement. "Nobody plays with heart like Manu."
And nobody — not Tim Duncan nor Tony Parker nor anyone else on this Spurs team — has this city on a string quite like Manu.
He is everything San Antonio loves, but has not seen in its beloved Spurs since the Bruise Brothers of the early 1980s.
His game is part Fiesta Week frolic, part indefinable passion, part blood-boiling grit.
It is good being Manu Ginobili these days. This city has fallen for him the same way he falls for them every night the silver and black takes the floor.
San Antonio's devotion to its Spurs heroes has never wavered and until the 1999 NBA le often was a kind of blind faith.
But this is different. Ginobili is exactly the unpredictable change this city craved and this team needed from the path The Admiral and The Big Fundamental carved.
He is not the beloved choirboy that were David Robinson and Avery Johnson, always saying the right things, never turning the dial past simmer and stepping deliberately from year to year.
Neither is he Duncan, the acknowledged rock of this franchise but a calm, unassuming and mostly expressionless man.
San Antonio will always love those heroes, of course. But with Ginobili, this town has a reflection of itself and a player that has made this club maybe the most complete, powerful one in the league.
The relationship between San Antonio and Ginobili is more a wild leap into the San Antonio River, kicking and splashing, slamming back margaritas, everyone laughing loudly. The Robinson and Duncan days were more the quiet dinner among friends.
Ginobili's game lives in the moment, not quite sure which way to turn next, but certain that it will be a fun ride. When he throws himself to the floor, thousands of Spurs fans feel the floor burn.
When he spins and contorts himself through the lane, flicking up an off-balance shot and dramatically bouncing off defenders, thousands scream right along with him as he grunts and flails his arms looking for a call.
Duncan is this team's best player, and Parker is its spark, but the unpredictable edge this team has over all others is Ginobili.
No longer can teams double- and triple-team Duncan. No longer do they know exactly what to expect from the Spurs.
It took a while for Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to let loose of the reins, but once he did, Ginobili made this team at times overwhelmingly good. Now, when Popovich compares Ginobili to the Suns' Steve Nash or the 76ers' Allen Iverson, as he did Sunday, no one raises an eyebrow.
Ginobili is coming off his first NBA All-Star season, an Olympic gold medal-winning performance and a season in which he became perhaps the most fun player to watch in the league.
"He plays at a high level of intensity, he likes a little bit of chaos, and he competes well in that environment," Popovich said. "If you slow him down, just make him Mr. Conservative, I think you really lose a lot with him."
At a crucial early moment in Saturday's Game 3 win over
the Suns, Ginobili sprinted into the Suns' defense and wrapped a behind-the-back pass intended for Parker that missed badly.
"I asked him if that pass was to me, to keep me involved, so I felt like I was doing something in the game," Popovich said. "If that happened a year and a half ago, I would have pulled a hamstring jumping off the bench trying to get to him to tell him about that play. I think (Saturday), I just sat there with my chin on my hand, like, 'Oh, well.' "
Moments later, Ginobili had back-to-back steals, including one on which he stripped Amare Stoudemire from behind and raced the length of the court for a huge dunk.
It was the dunk that jumped out at you from the front page under the headline, "Setting Suns."
hahaha, good one pop."I asked him if that pass was to me, to keep me involved, so I felt like I was doing something in the game," Popovich said
It is amazing, in 03, at the beginning of the year when I seemed to be the only one rooting for him, cause everyone was pissed at him cause he wanted number 6, I never dreamed hed be THIS huge!!
Nice Article!!!
"thick, dark hair"
thick? Hardly. Thinnned, thinning inexoraby, "male pattern baldness".
"expressionless"
hmm, how something more positive like "deadpan"
"On the far northeast side of San Antonio"
doesn't he mean northWEST side? Which Spurs live in "far NE SA"? Universal City? Windcrest?Any Spurs live in St. Hedwig?
"to keep me involved .... pulled a hamstring jumping off the bench"
Last edited by boutons; 05-30-2005 at 12:22 PM.
1st off.. I love this article..
I LOVE manu.. he's been my fav Spurs player since his rookie year, Thie guy is just soooo awesome.
doesn't it sound liek in the article tho that JOhn LOpez is basicaly saying:
" Duncan and Robinson are the guys you marry and have 2.5 kids with, while Manu is the Milkman you have crazy sex-capades with." ???
Don't even get me started...doesn't it sound liek in the article tho that JOhn LOpez is basicaly saying:" Duncan and Robinson are the guys you marry and have 2.5 kids with, while Manu is the Milkman you have crazy sex-capades with." ???
It is a lovely thought isn;t it....
G'reat article, It shows not only info about Manu, but how POP is more adapted to Manu's style, lol, it must be hard, isnt it?
HMMM, that's interesting. Do all the Spurs live near eachother or like on the same street? I never thought about that before. Don't they get tired of eachother?
He first wanted #6 but then he was listed as #13 and he even took pictures for magazines with the #13 jersey. What happened to #13? Why did he change that to #20.
I read that he said "I want #21, but everyone laughing" ...
because he wanted his shot to fall so he picked a lucky number duh.
May 30, 2005, 1:14AM
Manu has San Antonio on a string
By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
SAN ANTONIO — His image jumps off the front page of the local paper — that wiry body flying right at you and his thick, dark hair flowing in yet another breeze Manu Ginobili created with hustle.
His picture graces the cover of a national magazine this week under the heading, "What's not to love about Manu and the Spurs?"
San Antonio has the answer: nothing.
His picture is on billboards all over San Antonio. His posters and jerseys hang everywhere.
His words are cherished and aired almost every day in English and Spanish, with women usually cooing over his Argentine accent and Euro-chic good looks.
He's no stiff
On the far northeast side of San Antonio in a neighborhood where some Spurs players and many well-to-do professionals live, a house decorated with silver-and-black streamers has a life-size cutout of Ginobili in the front yard.
A few miles away in a near-town neighborhood of lower-middle-class A-frames, several houses are decorated in familiar "Go Spurs Go" placards. One has poster boards taped across the top of the front porch, on each poster hand-written black letters spelling "M-A-N-U" and "S-P-U-R-S."
At a westside Mexican restaurant, a teenage girl wearing a Spurs T-shirt was talking about why she loves the 27-year-old Ginobili, who is in his third year in San Antonio and his first as the NBA's most appealing new superstar.
"I like the way he does this," the girl said, feigning the motion Ginobili often makes, running his hand through his hair and over his ear, moving his long locks away from his face.
"He's gorrrrrr-geous!" she said.
At Coach's Ice House, a longtime northside haven where San Antonio's old-guard and new generation fans gather for longnecks and sports debate, a group of men were asked what they love about Manu Ginobili. There was no debate.
Gotta have heart
"He plays with heart," said Jimmie Garza, a downtown hotel worker, as two friends nodded in agreement. "Nobody plays with heart like Manu."
And nobody — not Tim Duncan nor Tony Parker nor anyone else on this Spurs team — has this city on a string quite like Manu.
He is everything San Antonio loves, but has not seen in its beloved Spurs since the Bruise Brothers of the early 1980s.
His game is part Fiesta Week frolic, part indefinable passion, part blood-boiling grit.
It is good being Manu Ginobili these days. This city has fallen for him the same way he falls for them every night the silver and black takes the floor.
San Antonio's devotion to its Spurs heroes has never wavered and until the 1999 NBA le often was a kind of blind faith.
But this is different. Ginobili is exactly the unpredictable change this city craved and this team needed from the path The Admiral and The Big Fundamental carved.
He is not the beloved choirboy that were David Robinson and Avery Johnson, always saying the right things, never turning the dial past simmer and stepping deliberately from year to year.
Neither is he Duncan, the acknowledged rock of this franchise but a calm, unassuming and mostly expressionless man.
San Antonio will always love those heroes, of course. But with Ginobili, this town has a reflection of itself and a player that has made this club maybe the most complete, powerful one in the league.
The relationship between San Antonio and Ginobili is more a wild leap into the San Antonio River, kicking and splashing, slamming back margaritas, everyone laughing loudly. The Robinson and Duncan days were more the quiet dinner among friends.
Ginobili's game lives in the moment, not quite sure which way to turn next, but certain that it will be a fun ride. When he throws himself to the floor, thousands of Spurs fans feel the floor burn.
When he spins and contorts himself through the lane, flicking up an off-balance shot and dramatically bouncing off defenders, thousands scream right along with him as he grunts and flails his arms looking for a call.
Duncan is this team's best player, and Parker is its spark, but the unpredictable edge this team has over all others is Ginobili.
No longer can teams double- and triple-team Duncan. No longer do they know exactly what to expect from the Spurs.
It took a while for Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to let loose of the reins, but once he did, Ginobili made this team at times overwhelmingly good. Now, when Popovich compares Ginobili to the Suns' Steve Nash or the 76ers' Allen Iverson, as he did Sunday, no one raises an eyebrow.
Ginobili is coming off his first NBA All-Star season, an Olympic gold medal-winning performance and a season in which he became perhaps the most fun player to watch in the league.
"He plays at a high level of intensity, he likes a little bit of chaos, and he competes well in that environment," Popovich said. "If you slow him down, just make him Mr. Conservative, I think you really lose a lot with him."
At a crucial early moment in Saturday's Game 3 win over
the Suns, Ginobili sprinted into the Suns' defense and wrapped a behind-the-back pass intended for Parker that missed badly.
"I asked him if that pass was to me, to keep me involved, so I felt like I was doing something in the game," Popovich said. "If that happened a year and a half ago, I would have pulled a hamstring jumping off the bench trying to get to him to tell him about that play. I think (Saturday), I just sat there with my chin on my hand, like, 'Oh, well.' "
Moments later, Ginobili had back-to-back steals, including one on which he stripped Amare Stoudemire from behind and raced the length of the court for a huge dunk.
It was the dunk that jumped out at you from the front page under the headline, "Setting Suns."
[email protected]
Only the third time this article has been posted.
Congrats.
Duh Jim!
Maybe so you can read it for the third time.
Unbelievable, right?
We really need to bring HAWTALTA to Spurstalk.
Manu has SA by los huevos.
Manu doesn't have me by the strings, but I am in Brazil. I do like him, though. I also like his phat ass crib which is a few blocks from my parents' house. I can also say he's a very, very nice, genuine guy.
Manu this year is also the most efficient shooting guard in the league percentage wise. Ahead of Wade, Allen, Bryant, and Mcgrady.
The first posters did not use the correct le, so it is not my fault that we have repeat threads.
Please instruct people to use the correct les of articles, then we will not have repeats. I dod not read every thread...wtf has the time to do that?
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
