Basketball - Manu Ginobili Effective As A Starter And

Spurs’ fans might remember that three seasons ago, coach Gregg Popovich had replaced Manu Ginobili from the starting lineup with Hedo Turkoglu. This was done to boost Turkoglu’s confidence and the move had devastated the Argentines. The Argentines are passionate about Ginobili and weeks after this replacement, Spurs were inundated with emails from Argentina question Popovich’s motives and sanity.

Ginobili took time at that point to explain the situations and reasons to his countrymen and they did not seem to understand it then.

However, in January 2007 Popovich once again benched Ginobili and this time round there were not too many protests from the Argentinians. According to Ginobili, his countrymen have got used to him being benched and they have now begun to realize that he is not the only player in San Antonio Spurs being meted out this behavior.

Ginobili insists that he does not mind being benched and the most important thing is that Spurs should win. At the moment, the Spurs have won six straight games and are playing at their best this season.

As modest as Ginobili is, there is no doubt that he played a huge role in the Spurs success. He is averaging 16.9 points per game and from the 3 point line, he is shooting 40.2 percent of the shots. Both are his career best.

The Spurs are still contemplating on using Ginobili again for starting but indications are there that the Spurs might use Michael Finley to start in place of Brent Barry. At the moment, the Spurs are having their longest winning streak of the season and Popovich does not want to change the lineup and spoil things for his team. Ginobili insists that he does not mind not starting and is content with whatever role assigned to him. There is no doubt that Ginobili performs whether he is a starter or a reserve.