ARG - Ginóbili: "Talent is not enough"

MAR DEL PLATA (FIBA Americas Championship) - After Argentina's comfortable 84-52 win to Paraguay, Emanuel Ginóbili said talent is not the only virtue of the National Team.

"It's true we have many talented players but if you don't supply talent with hard work it's useless," said Ginóbili, an Olympic champion in Athens 2004. "Talent is not enough. How many talented teams have lost on the first days of competition in history?"

Manu Ginóbili said it was important to win by a big margin in order to have their key players rested for the rest of the tournament.

Argentina started their road to London Games with an 8-0 run en route to a comfortable 84-52 win over Paraguay.

The third ranked in FIBA were clearly favored against number 76 in the world.

"The good thing about this game was that players such as Luis (Scola), who is still recovering from an injury, didn't have to play much and will be rested for next games," said the San Antonio Spurs players.

"We know this kind of tournaments. You play eight games in 10 days, so it's great that we were able to play not more than 22 minutes and Oberto and Delfino didn't play at all while they recover from minor injuries," added Manu.

Based on their good results of the last ten years, Argentina are favourites to clinch one of the two spots for London Games.

Argentina will play Uruguay on Wednesday.

FIBA