San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili will not be making his decision over his basketball future anytime soon. The Argentine hoops great stressed that his decision will not hinge on the results of the Spurs' playoff campaign this season.
Ginobili, who is pocketing $14MM this year after signing a one-year deal with the Spurs last summer, will be turning 40-years old this July, which coincide the peak of the free-agency season.
He played sparingly for the Spurs throughout the regular-season, averaging 7.5 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 18 minutes per contest. Ginobili built a reputation as a great postseason performer, but he was nothing but a shell of his former self in the first four games of the series.
However after going scoreless from Game 1 to 4, Ginobili chalked up 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting [per ESPN stats] to give the Spurs a much needed boost from the bench in the pivotal Game 5. Fellow Spurs guard Patty Mills credited the Spurs' 116-103 victory to Ginobili's tenacity despite his age.
"He brought that grandpa juice, [which] is what I call it, and we all followed," Mills told reporters via ESPN. "It's inspiring. We shouldn't wait for him to do that before we get into gear".
"But it really is inspiring when you see him dive on the ball, putting his body on the line, hard drives, hard cuts. It gets us all going. We shouldn't need that to get going, but he's a hell of a player, hell of a competitor. It trickles down, and we feed on it for sure."
Now, with the Spurs' championship hope still very much alive, Ginobili is facing a tough decision on whether to resume his basketball career or answer the call of 'Father Time' like his pal Tim Duncan did last summer. But no matter what the path will choose next, Ginobili reiterated that his free-agency status will not be affected by the success or failure of the Spurs' ongoing championship pursuit.
