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Manu Ginobili has been one of the greatest shooting guards in NBA basketball over its long history, and coincidentally has a career which overlaps with Dwayne Wade's.

Interesting ballplayer.  While he has been a starter he's been a 6th man most of his career.  He's played on one of the dominant franchises in NBA history;  The San Antonio Spurs during the 2000's to this year, 2014, and similarly strong from 1990.  That franchise has had 21 seasons of 50 wins or more since 1990, a truly astounding record of strength, competitiveness, dominance at times, and sustained long term excellence.

Ginobili started his professional basketball career in South America and Europe, was drafted in the 2nd round by the spurs but stayed a few more years in European leagues before coming to the NBA.  He ends up being one of the true international basketball stars, playing with dominance in several leagues.

Ginobili has been a cog inside the San Antonio powerhouse basketball teams, being one of three stars with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker over their long run through the last dozen years.  Ginobili primarily took a 2ndary role but has had astounding single game performances and many clutch games and moments.

This long video shows his highlights in a number of areas, dribbling, passing, shooting driving, defense, etc.   Another player with long term spectacular skills.

 

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Now this is surprising especially if one watched the first half of the last game of this past year's NBA playoffs.   In the last game, Miami went off with a tremendous run and was putting the Spurs to shame.   Ginobili entered the game in his usual 6th man role and completely and totally changed the nature of the game with fantastic high energy shots and plays.  He was the key guy that changed the character of that final game and played with amazing drive and energy....certainly not how one might play with a stress fracture as reported in this article

Hard to comprehend he could play so well with a stress fracture.  Simply an astonishingly skilled and competitive player.

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In the midst of the Olympics with its over 10,000 competitors ESPN published an excellent article on one athlete from Argentina who has also graced American TV for the past decade and a half, Manu Ginobili.  He has been a critical element of 4 San Antonio NBA championships, a storied 6th man and one of the premier shooting guards in the league over this last 14 years, along with a critical member/leader of an Argentinian basketball team that hit great heights in the same period.

Ginobili's signature move is the Eurostep, which he didn't introduce to the NBA but he has popularized it.  Here he not only demonstrates it but explains its use in the midst of play.

Americans have adopted it and its premier advocate today might well be James Harden. 

But the above article in ESPN doesn't even mention that unique offensive move.  It covers Ginobili's devotion to the team; primarily covering the Argentine international basketball team and secondarily the San Antonio spurs.   An excellent article, one that ties in well with the Olympic experience. 

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