Tag: San Antonio Spurs

TD, Manu named among NBA’s top 10 over-30 players

Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili are both nearer to retirement than to their peak years when they helped lead the Spurs to three championships together.

Duncan had a part in four NBA titles with the franchise, while Ginobili joined him for the last three titles.

Both will go down in history among the handful of greatest players to ever play for the franchise. They likely will both have their numbers retired by the team and should end up in the Naismith  Basketball Hall of Fame when their careers conclude.

But Duncan and Ginobili still have some basketball to be played before they decide to retire.

That remaining talent led Orange County Register NBA reporter Kevin Deng to list both Duncan and Ginobili among the in a recent list for the newspaper’s website.

and  in his compilation of top players.

Here’s his list of the top 10 players 30 or older in the league.

1. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

2. Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas

3. Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers

4. Kevin Garnett, Boston

5. Paul Pierce, Boston

6. Zach Randolph, Memphis

7. Joe Johnson, Atlanta

8. Manu Ginobili, San Antonio

9. Tim Duncan San Antonio

10. Lamar Odom, Los Angeles Lakers

11. Steve Nash, Phoenix

12. Luis Scola, Houston

13. David West, New Orleans

14. Caron Butler, Dallas

15. Ray Allen, Boston

16. Jason Kidd, Dallas  

17. Chauncey Billups, New York

18. Jason Terry, Dallas

19. Stephen Jackson, Milwaukee

20. Elton Brand, Philadelphia

It’s a strong list and the fact that Ginobili and Duncan are ranked as highly as they are indicates that they still have some basketball ability left to contribute to the Spurs.

How much, we don’t know. But over the rest of their careers, Spurs Nation should savor the contributions of these two players who have been so important to the franchise over the years.

Treading on hallowed ground: A trip to Estadio Manu Ginobili in Bahia Blanca

BAHIA BLANCA, Argentina — The gymnasium where Manu Ginobili developed the game that  has made him an NBA champion, Olympic champion and an NBA All-Star sits a few blocks from the center of Bahia Blanca, a town of nearly 300,000 in the Southeast corner of the province of Buenos Aires.

Ginobili was not the first star to be developed by the basketball club Bahiense del Norte, but he is the most celebrated, by far, and the gym has been re-named in his honor.

Ginobili’s friend, Dario Faure, came behind Ginobili on the Bahiense del Norte team by two years, and he understands the import of the tidy facility.

“This is hallowed ground,” said Faure, my guide on a tour of Bahia Blanca, along with another  Bahia Blancan and fluent English speaker, Federico Groppa, who filled in the gaps in my sincere, yet halting, attempts at speaking Spanish.

The three of us watched two teams of Bahia Blancan kids playing a “Mini A” League  game on Saturday morning, a game that included a lithe youngster with floppy black hair and a reckless style of play. It was, Groppa informed me, one of Ginobili’s nephews, the son of his oldest brother.

Spurs draftee Joseph has a good attitude, eh?

After playing collegiately at Texas, a school with ties aplenty to the Spurs, there likely isn’t much the club doesn’t already know about point guard Cory Joseph, the player the Spurs made the 29th selection of the 2011 draft.

Nevertheless, about the Canadian national team Joseph joined recently must have brought smiles to the faces of Gregg Popovich and the rest of the Spurs coaches.

Levon Kendall, a veteran forward on the Canadian team, gushed about Joseph’s humility and team-first attitude after being added to the team a few weeks into its training regimen.

“I’ve been most impressed with his attitude, not having a sense of entitlement,” Kendall, the most veteran member of the Canadian team, told the Sun. “He understands guys have been here. He’s got to prove himself before he gets that respect. He has to earn it to a certain extent so that’s what I’ve been most surprised about. It’s nice to see that.”

If the NBA lockout ever ends and the Spurs have a training camp, that attitude will serve Joseph well there, too.

Joseph, who played only one season for the Longhorns, celebrated his 20th birthday on Saturday, the final day of the Canadian team’s training camp. The team was to depart Sunday for Brazil to begin playing a series of warmup games before the FIBA Americas tournament opens in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on Aug. 30.