BUENOS AIRES (Martin Seldes' Brave New World) - The story says that there was a good player, very good actually, having a good game against the Milwaukee Bucks. This guy was just waiting for the opponents to come with the ball when the refs stopped the game.

The story says that there was a bat flying around our guy. Without even doubting it, he pulled up his left hand and smashed the bat to the floor. Gone.

"Is there anything Manu can't do?", the game's commentator for the Spurs started shouting.

Let's say no.

He had to ask for forgiveness to 20,000 different animal associations and he must have felt terrible for having - probably - killed a little animal. But saying he was sorry wasn't enough.

Apparently, the animal kingdom had revenge ready for the "animal killer".

And so, when this guy signed his new contract and a San Antonio Spurs worker was walking around Buenos Aires, a bird attacked him. No, he didn't, he just did what birds do when they fly and you walk under them.

The worker forgot that in some places it is better to take care of your belongings and instead left his bag unattended during the time he went to clean himself. He was robbed and the robber took our guy's contract.

Why are we talking about this? Because, all jokes aside, extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people.

And this brings us to how Manu Ginobili likes to communicate things. Because we can't be sure that story of the bird is true but we can say that he told us so.

• Manu Ginobili ‏@manuginobili 16 Oct
Quieren saber qué pasó con el contrato allá por Julio 2013? No? No importa, paso a contarlo igual. Al menos la historia oficial ->
(Do you want to know what happened to my contract back in July 2013? You don't? It doesn't matter, I'll tell you anyway. At least the official story ->)
• Manu Ginobili ‏@manuginobili 16 Oct
Definitivamente un ave no se lo comió ni se lo robó junto a una mochila. No hay ningún quetzalcoatlus en CABA (creo). Sentido común amigos!
(Definitively, a bird didn't eat or steal it together with the backpack. There's no quetzalcoatlus in Buenos Aires (I think). Common sense, my friends!)
• Manu Ginobili ‏@manuginobili 16 Oct
Cuenta la historia, que este pasante después de ir a Bahía y hacer firmar el contrato, se quedó un día más en Buenos Aires para pasear ->
(The story tells that this intern stayed one more day in Buenos Aires after travelling to Bahia and make me sign the contract ->)
• Manu Ginobili ‏@manuginobili 16 Oct
Pensó (mal) que llevándola con él, la mochila iba a estar más segura que en el hotel y se fue a caminar por ahí ->
(He thought - wrongly - that taking the backpack with him when he went for a walk would be safer than leaving it at the hotel ->)
• Manu Ginobili ‏@manuginobili 16 Oct
No sabemos dónde fue, pero parece que en una plaza lo cagó un pájaro y cuando se fue a limpiar a la fuente más cercana (sí, así lo contó!)->
(We don't know where it was but a bird sh*t on him and when he went to clean himself to a fountain (that's what he says) ->)
• Manu Ginobili ‏@manuginobili 16 Oct
Algún astuto punga le birló la mochila con laptop, pasaporte, celu y, obviamente, contrato adentro. #telahicieronbien
(An astute thief swiped his backpack with laptop, passport, cell phone and, obviously my contract inside ->)

In other words, he explains what happened in his Twitter account.

So even before rumours start running around his life and journalists start saying that this could be the end of Manu's career and this sort of things that we use to say, he clears up things.

In this instance, Manu did - as usual - what every player should: get the microphone (or his Twitter account in this case) and explain everyone whatever he wants.

Then you can decide if you believe the story - if you buy it.

I don't because Manu clears up in his first tweet that this is the official story. Therefore, there must be a real one. Probably, this was the story the intern said and Manu is not absolutely sure about it.

Who cares? The thing is that he communicates and explains more or less what happened without hurting anyone's feelings.

When nobody had an official site, Manu had it. He was one of the first players to have Twitter and he knows how to use it. He has 200,000 other platforms that he checks regularly and where you can find him, but it would be boring to mention them all.

That's because, as he told me last year, he thinks he can communicate whatever he wants and not what other people can decide they want to do with what he told them.

Manu is a leader in everything. He's just a leader.

Unfortunately, for the time being, he only teaches with the example and not with conferences and lessons as Luis Scola does, for example. I can imagine Manu giving a lecture for 20,000 young basketball players to tell them how to behave, but especially how to communicate with journalists and the world.

Manu's unique.

Actually, he will play these next two years before he decides whether he'll want to coach in the NBA or run for president in Argentina. With the way he communicates, believe me he can do both.  

Martin Seldes

FIBA

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