All abuzz about Manu
By
Jeff McDonald
on Oct 2, 09 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I don’t know if Manu Ginobili is really back. I don’t know if he’s got the old burst, the old explosiveness. I don’t know how rusty is, or what kind of shape he is in, or how close he is to being the pre-ankle-injury Manu.
We in the fourth estate are not allowed inside the walls of the Spurs practice gym to see much of training camp. Usually, we’re let inside with just enough time to see foul shots and wind sprints and little else.
So aside from a reverse dunk in a shell drill earlier this week, we haven’t seen Ginobili do much of anything with our own eyes. All we know is what we’ve heard from people who do have the proper security clearance to get into practice.
They say Manu is looking a lot like Manu.
“Just watching in practice makes us remember how much we missed him last year, and even the year before when he was half speed in the playoffs,” coach Gregg Popovich said after Friday’s session. “We don’t realize how much we missed him until we saw him play. He adds so much.”
Ginobili adds scoring, obviously. But he also adds that intangible quality that makes other players around him better. It’s not a coincidence that players like Roger Mason and Michael Finley found their shots harder to come by last season after Manu was no more.
“He creates situations for us where we can score,” Popovich said. “The way we were built, Michael and Bruce (Bowen), they needed Manu out there to help them get the shots they were used to. Him coming back makes everybody better.”
Ginobili’s teammates have but one goal for him: “Hopefully, Manu will be Manu,” Tony Parker said.
If that happens, you can consider a healthy Ginobili to be the Spurs’ most important acquisition of the offseason.
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courtside/2009/10/all-abuzz-about.html