Emanuel David "Manu" Ginobili (born July 28, 1977 in Bahía Blanca, Argentina) is an Argentine basketball player. He is a member of the Argentine national basketball team and the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. He is generally regarded as one of the best basketball players ever to come from Argentina, and indeed from South America. Like many Argentines, Ginobili is a descendant of Italian immigrants.

He made his professional basketball debut for the Andino team in the 1995-1996 season and was traded to Bahía Blanca the next year. He played with his hometown team until the Italian league attracted him, and in 1998 he moved to Europe, playing in the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 seasons with Basket Viola Reggio Calabria, after which he was traded to Virtus Bologna, which he helped take to the championship and to the 2001 Euroleague finals, where he was named MVP. He also made the Italian league's All-Star game three times during this period.

In the 1999 NBA Draft, the Spurs selected Ginobili late in the second round with the 57th overall pick, the penultimate choice in the entire draft. However, he did not sign with the Spurs until after the 2002 world basketball championships in Indianapolis, where he made the all-tournament team (alongside fellow NBA rookie-to-be Yao Ming and established NBA stars Dirk Nowitzki and Peja Stojakovic) and helped lead Argentina to a second-place finish. In the years since, some commentators have deemed him the greatest draft day steal in modern NBA history, and perhaps all-time.

In his first season, Ginobili helped the Spurs climb to the NBA world championship in 2003, when San Antonio beat the New Jersey Nets in six games. In 2004, however, the Spurs lost to the Lakers in an NBA playoff rematch.

On August 15 of the same year, Ginobili led the Argentinean National Basketball team to an 83-82 win over Serbia-Montenegro with a shot he made while falling to the floor with less than one second to go, in Argentina's basketball opener at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. The Argentine team went on to win the gold medal, with Ginobili leading the team in both scoring and assists (19.3 ppg, 3.3 apg in the Olympics) and being named the MVP of the Olympic tournament.

He is the only player in basketball history to win the European Cup, an Olympic gold medal, and an NBA ring.

On February 8 the following year, Ginobili was voted as a reserve guard for the 2005 Western All-Star team, his first time making it to the elite midseason showcase.

External links

• Official site