http://nba.si.com/2014/06/16/manu-gi...hampionship/“I still have Game 6 in my head,” Ginobili said.

It never really left. Ginobili and the Spurs on the whole revisited that series as their first order of business in training camp. They carried the pain with them as a reminder of what getting so close to a championship yields. They kept those old wounds exposed just enough that they would drive the team forward, to the same stage and a better result.
Nowhere was that more evident than in the play of Ginobili, who was offered a rare chance at redemption in a repeat billing of last year’s Finals. In only two other cases since 1970 have the same two Finalists returned for an encore, yet Ginobili — after all of his anguish — was gifted an improbable third. He didn’t at all disappoint, particularly in his 19-point, four-assist finale in the series-clinching Game 5. A personal history of ineffective play against Miami in the regular season and playoffs was shaken completely in this series, one impact play at a time.

A back-breaking three-pointer. A drawn foul. A defiant dunk. Perfect pass after perfect pass that sealed the Heat’s fate. From the look on his face in those waning moments, one could see that the burden had been lifted and the debt paid. Ginobili was again on top of the basketball world, having found equilibrium against the team so responsible for his torment. This time there would be no regrets and no lingering doubt — only a bottomless flow of champagne and affirmation.

“It’s so nice,” Ginobili said of this year’s Finals win against the backdrop of last year’s loss. “It’s hard to explain.”



“Last year was a tough one for all of us,” Ginobili said on Sunday. “We felt like we had the trophy, that we were touching it, and it slipped away. It was a tough summer. We all felt guilty. We all felt that we let teammates down. But we work hard. We fought every game in the regular season trying to get better to have the same opportunity again. We got to this spot, and we didn’t let it go.”

Ginobili and his teammates are the 2014 NBA Champions precisely for that reason: They didn’t let it go. Rather than put the ghosts of the 2013 Finals to rest, the Spurs put them to work in driving an incredible team to its fullest potential. This was the most lopsided championship series in league history due in part to its emotional proximity to last year’s Finals. Not only did San Antonio know what it was playing for, but it fully understood the agony it was playing to avoid.