50 Fun Facts About Manu Ginobili

What flying animal did Manu Ginobili swat out of the air bare-handed during a 2009 Spurs home game?

A bat had stopped play by swooping over the court on Halloween night, so he knocked it down and carried it off to thunderous cheers.

Which medical treatment did Manu Ginobili need after swatting a wild animal mid-game in 2009?

Rabies shots were the safe course because an usher had let the animal fly off outside, so nobody could test it. He told fans not to copy him.

What was Manu Ginobili doing overseas at the moment the Spurs picked him in the 1999 NBA draft?

Sleeping through draft night made sense to a young guard who doubted he would ever play real NBA minutes. He later said he thought the pick was a mistake.

Which sidestepping move, now common across the NBA, did Manu Ginobili popularize in the 2000s?

Euro step footwork was something he honed on Argentine playgrounds: one long stride one way, then a second the other way to slip past a defender.

Which team did Manu Ginobili's Argentina stun in the 2004 Olympic semifinals on the way to gold?

United States stars including Allen Iverson fell 89-81 as he poured in 29 points. It was the first time since NBA players joined in 1992 that they went home without gold.

Which unglamorous vehicle did four-time NBA champion Manu Ginobili drive for more than ten years?

A minivan suited the self-described 'minivan dad', a father of three who also preferred plain T-shirts and jeans to flashy outfits after games.

Which NBA superstar was Manu Ginobili's idol while he was growing up in Argentina?

Michael Jordan was his boyhood hero, and at 40 Ginobili became the first player since him to score 15 or more in back-to-back games in his forties.

Which NBA award did Manu Ginobili win in 2008 with 123 of the 124 first-place votes?

Sixth Man of the Year honors the league's best reserve. That spring he was also voted All-NBA Third Team, a double no earlier winner had managed.

Which longtime Spurs teammate presented Manu Ginobili at his 2022 Basketball Hall of Fame induction?

Tim Duncan was his only presenter, fitting for a pair who shared four NBA titles. Ginobili had finished second to him in the 2005 Finals MVP vote.

In which European country did Manu Ginobili play four pro seasons before joining the Spurs in 2002?

Italy gave him two league MVP awards, a EuroLeague title and, through family roots, a second passport. In 2004 his Argentina beat the same country for Olympic gold.

With which overall pick did the Spurs select Manu Ginobili in the 1999 NBA draft?

57th was the second-to-last pick that year, and the Spurs let him stay in Europe for three more seasons before bringing him over.

Manu Ginobili's first name is a shortened form of which given name on his birth certificate?

Emanuel is the name he was given in 1977, as the youngest of three brothers who all became professional players. Manu is simply its middle syllables.

Which French point guard formed the Spurs' 'Big Three' with Manu Ginobili and a star big man?

Tony Parker ran the point for all four of their shared titles and was Finals MVP in 2007. He had joined the Spurs a year before Ginobili arrived.

Which head coach led the Spurs through all 16 of Manu Ginobili's NBA seasons?

Gregg Popovich coached the Spurs for 29 seasons, from 1996 to 2025, and once gave Ginobili a book about spirituality as a present.

Whose first NBA Finals ended in a four-game sweep by Manu Ginobili's Spurs in 2007?

LeBron James had carried Cleveland to its first Finals, but the Spurs held him to 14 points in the opener and won all four games.

Which team did Manu Ginobili's Spurs beat for the 2014 NBA title, a year after losing to them?

Miami Heat teams had won the previous two titles, but the rematch was a rout: the Spurs needed only five games and Ginobili collected his fourth ring.

Which Hall of Fame center retired as a champion after Manu Ginobili's rookie NBA season in 2003?

David Robinson signed off with 13 points and 17 rebounds in the clinching game. Fifteen years later Ginobili passed him as the Spurs' career leader in steals.

In which city did Manu Ginobili carry Argentina's flag at the opening ceremony of an Olympic Games?

Beijing brought mixed fortunes in 2008: he led the parade, was injured in the semifinal, and watched his teammates win the bronze-medal game without him.

Which Argentine city, regarded as the country's basketball capital, is Manu Ginobili's hometown?

Bahía Blanca, in Buenos Aires Province, also produced two of his 2004 Olympic teammates, Juan Ignacio Sánchez and Alejandro Montecchia.

Which analyst made a bellowed 'Ginobili!' his trademark during Spurs highlights on Inside the NBA?

Charles Barkley roared the surname as a call to arms whenever Spurs highlights rolled. Its owner came off the bench in 708 of his 1,057 NBA games.

Which young Spurs forward was Finals MVP when Manu Ginobili won his fourth NBA title in 2014?

Kawhi Leonard took 10 of the 11 votes at age 22, the third-youngest winner of the award, after averaging 17.8 points on 61 percent shooting.

Which defending champions did Manu Ginobili's Spurs outlast in seven games in the 2005 NBA Finals?

Detroit Pistons defenders had no early answer: Ginobili scored 26 and 27 points as the Spurs won the first two games, then added 23 in the decisive seventh.

How did Manu Ginobili win Argentina's 2004 Olympic opener against Serbia and Montenegro?

A buzzer-beating shot settled it 83-82 and set the tone for a tournament that ended two weeks later with Argentina on top of the podium.

Which gamesmanship tactic put Manu Ginobili on a 2007 ESPN list of the NBA's greatest offenders?

Flopping, or exaggerating contact to win a foul, was something a Sports Illustrated columnist later said he had helped make famous, likening it to diving in soccer.

Whose late three did Manu Ginobili block in overtime to seal a 2017 playoff win over Houston?

James Harden was rising for a tying three when the 39-year-old got a hand to the ball. The Spurs won 110-107 and closed out the series a game later.

Which footballer shared Argentina's 2004 sportsperson of the year award with Manu Ginobili?

Carlos Tevez had top-scored with eight goals as Argentina's footballers also won gold at the 2004 Olympics. Ginobili had taken the prize alone a year earlier.

Which nickname did teammate Brent Barry give Manu Ginobili for his fearless, all-out play?

El Contusion was Barry's joke about the injuries that piled up from a style built on barreling into taller defenders and diving for loose balls.

Which three-time defending champions did Manu Ginobili's Spurs eliminate in the 2003 playoffs?

Los Angeles Lakers stars Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant had won three straight titles before falling in six games. Ginobili, a rookie reserve, rose to prominence during that playoff run.

Which fellow Argentine big man won the 2007 NBA title alongside Manu Ginobili with the Spurs?

Fabricio Oberto joined the Spurs in 2005 from Spain's Pamesa Valencia, having already won Olympic gold beside Ginobili in 2004.

Which 2004 Olympic teammate of Manu Ginobili joined the Houston Rockets as a forward in 2007?

Luis Scola nearly became a Spur: San Antonio drafted him in 2002, but a buyout of more than $3 million owed to his Spanish club put the move out of reach.

Which Spurs forward sank the Game 5 winner in the 2005 Finals off a pass from Manu Ginobili?

Robert Horry had three points after three quarters and finished with 21. His defender left him to double-team Ginobili, who passed straight back.

Which fellow 40-year-old joined Manu Ginobili in scoring 15 or more in a 2018 game, an NBA first?

Vince Carter, born six months before Ginobili in 1977, helped make it the first NBA game in which two players over 40 each scored at least 15 points.

Which commissioner fined the Spurs $250,000 for resting Manu Ginobili and three other regulars in 2012?

David Stern called it a disservice to the league and its fans after the four were sent home before a nationally televised road game.

Which Dallas star answered Manu Ginobili's late go-ahead three in Game 7 of a 2006 playoff series?

Dirk Nowitzki tied it at 104 with a three-point play, then finished with 37 points and 15 rebounds as the Mavericks won 119-111.

Which team ended the Spurs' 2018 playoff run in what proved to be Manu Ginobili's final NBA game?

Golden State Warriors won the first-round series in five games. Ginobili, then 40, bowed out with the 218th playoff appearance of his career.

Which Hall of Fame shooter did Manu Ginobili pass for third in playoff three-pointers in 2018?

Reggie Miller was overtaken during the last playoff series of Ginobili's career. He too had been a one-club man, spending all 18 of his NBA seasons with the Indiana Pacers.

What kind of company is Ualá, the Argentine 'unicorn' startup that Manu Ginobili joined in 2021?

Fintech firm Ualá offers a prepaid card and a money app. Since retiring, Ginobili has been an angel investor in Latin American technology startups.

Which Knicks great was first, before Manu Ginobili, to win EuroLeague, NBA and Olympic titles?

Bill Bradley won Olympic gold in 1964, lifted the European club title while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, then took two NBA championships with New York.

Manu Ginobili retired with the best mark of any 1,000-game NBA player in which category?

Winning percentage was his calling card: his teams won 72.1 percent of the NBA games he played, a touch better than either of his fellow Big Three stars.

Which jersey number, worn by Manu Ginobili throughout his NBA career, did the Spurs retire in 2019?

No. 20 was raised to the rafters on the night of a home game against Cleveland in March 2019. Argentina's federation has also retired the 5 he wore for the national team.

Which team did Argentina beat for bronze at the 2008 Olympics while injured Manu Ginobili looked on?

Lithuania fell in the third-place game even with Ginobili hurt in the semifinal, giving Argentina medals at back-to-back Olympics.

Which veteran shooter joined Manu Ginobili in a 42-15 run that sent the Spurs to the 2003 Finals?

Steve Kerr made four second-half three-pointers in that Game 6, the last big night of a playing career that ended with his fifth title weeks later.

Which city hosted the 2002 FIBA World Championship, where Manu Ginobili's Argentina took silver?

Indianapolis saw Argentina hand the host nation's NBA stars their first defeat in 59 games, 87-80. An injured Ginobili then played a limited part in the overtime final, lost to Yugoslavia.

In which country did Spurs executive R.C. Buford first scout Manu Ginobili, at a 1997 youth event?

Australia staged that tournament in Melbourne, where Argentina finished fourth. Buford later weighed spending his draft pick on another Argentine guard, Lucas Victoriano.

Which coach of Manu Ginobili's 2001 EuroLeague champions later joined the Spurs as an assistant?

Ettore Messina signed him as a backup, then watched him go scoreless from the field in his first EuroLeague game. Eight months later the same player was finals MVP.

Which Thunder forward, like Manu Ginobili, retired in 2018 after a whole career with one franchise?

Nick Collison had been with the organization since it was the Seattle SuperSonics, who drafted him in 2003. Ginobili followed him into retirement later that year after 16 seasons in San Antonio.

Which Duke forward went first overall in the 1999 NBA draft that sent Manu Ginobili to the Spurs?

Elton Brand led four Duke players taken in that first round, a draft first. The class went on to produce nine All-Stars, Ginobili among them.

Which Argentina teammate of Manu Ginobili made his NBA debut as a 35-year-old Knicks rookie in 2012?

Pablo Prigioni had gone undrafted in 1999, the same year Ginobili was picked, and spent more than a decade starring in Europe before New York called.

Whose winner with 0.4 seconds left beat Manu Ginobili's Spurs in Game 5 of a 2004 playoff series?

Derek Fisher caught the inbounds pass, turned and fired in 0.4 seconds, moments after a Spurs basket had looked decisive. San Antonio's protest failed, and the series slipped away in six games.

Which award for Argentina's sportsperson of the year did Manu Ginobili win outright in 2003?

Olimpia de Oro trophies date back to 1954, when the first went to racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio. Ginobili is one of the few athletes to win it in consecutive years.