Manu has learnt when to get hurt

BUENOS AIRES (Martín Seldes' Brave New World) - It was at the 2002 FIBA World Championship, in the Semi-Finals, that Manu Ginobili first suffered a serious injury. He sprained an ankle in the win over Germany and, after trying to play in the Final against Yugoslavia, the pain was so bad he missed his three shots in 12 minutes.

Ever since, Manu has suffered injuries regularly to different parts of his body. There is a reason that could explain why: the way he plays.

Last Monday, in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Ginobili broke one of his fingers when he tried to put his left hand where nobody asked him to. Nobody asked him to try to steal that ball except his instinct.

And that’s the first word we should always mention when we talk about Manu: instinct.

He had to become a better shooter in the last few years and that’s the second thing we should mention about Manu.

In his first years, he wouldn’t have any problem making his way through a tough defence while receive all kinds of hits from his opponents.

That’s how he started to suffer pain in his body.

A back ache made him miss five games in the 2003-04 NBA season, and the following year he was sidelined due to problems with his neck, right thigh and hip.

He needed to change the way he scored points but it wasn’t easy at all.

In 2008, after a campaign in which the Argentina star guard suffered minor injuries, the San Antonio Spurs lost 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers as he played with pain and scored seven fewer points in the series than his regular season average.

Manu had his worst run of injuries as he missed 43 games in the 2008-09 season after suffering a serious ankle injury during the Semi-Final against the USA at the Beijing Olympics.

Last year, he sprained his right elbow in the last game of the season and played hurt in the playoffs.

Ginobili will now be sidelined for no less than six weeks after breaking the fifth metacarpal in his left hand.

On Thursday he underwent a successful surgery in which screws and a plate were inserted into Ginobili’s hand to speed the recovery.

“Everything went well. I'm at home resting. Very drowsy”, said Manu hours after the surgery.

There could be mixed feelings for the Spurs.

Head coach Gregg Popovich will miss his best scorer of the first five games this season, but he also knows Manu will be fresh for the part of the year in which he is more important if he’s in a good mood.

Manu is expected to be back by late February or early March, in time for a stretch during which the Spurs will play their last 30-35 games of the regular season.

That should be enough for Ginobili to get in shape for the post-season.

For the national team, by the way, Manu’s injury could even be taken as good news.

Instead of making it to the London Games after having played more or less 80 games in six months (if the Spurs get at least to the Conference Finals stage of the playoffs), Ginobili will play 55-60 games before starting his holidays.

Therefore, he will also have more energy for his third consecutive and arguably his last Olympics.

In short, if everything goes according to plan, both the Spurs and Argentina could get more benefits than damages out of Manu’s injury.

Martín Seldes

FIBA

FIBA’s columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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