Manu Ginobili: 25 points, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds in 35 minutes as the Spurs beat the Magic to improve to an NBA-best 11-1 record.
The Spurs are looking good this year. Manu is leading the way for us. And when he’s not playing incredible basketball, he’s writing ecotourism articles, advocating in favor of gay marriage in his native Argentina, and educating his teammates about the placebo effect. I really, really like him; expect to see this face a lot.
In response to a caption contest for a picture of Manu Ginobili from last night’s game against the Orlando Magic (in which he scored 43 points), a user of the SpursTalk.com message board who goes by the name Interrohater penned a lovely bit of basketball mythology.
Basketball Fairy– The Basketball Fairy is an urban myth of a humanoid sprite that takes the form of a NBA player with a basketball for a head. It is said that if the Basketball Fairy appears, the colors that he wears will represent the team that will win the game.
Here is a controversial photo of a believed Basketball Fairy. Tim Duncan states: “He appeared in the middle of the Magic’s defense wearing Manu’s jersey. It was unbelievable. The Magic players stopped to look at the fairy and Manu scored 43 points with one shot.” Manu: “Claro, I’ve seen the Basketball Fairy before, he used to sell bolsas de arroz back in Bahia Blanca. I met him through Facebook.”
On April 24, 1994, David Robinson was 33 points behind Shaquille O’Neal for the NBA scoring title. In the last game of the season, against the L.A. Clippers, he scored 71 points. This brought his season average to 29.8 points per game. Shaq played later that night, knowing how much he had to score to pass David, but only managed to score 32 points, for a season average of 29.3 ppg. David took the NBA scoring title. The next year he would win the league MVP award.
The game wasn’t nationally televised, and many Spurs fans thought that all footage of it had been lost. But the Spurs.com broadcasting department has managed to track it down, and now you can watch online most of David Robinson’s points in his 71 point game. This is a Spurs record, surpassing the 63 scored by George Gervin, also done in the final game of the season to win a scoring title.
Watching this brought back a lot of memories of just how special a player David was. He will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame later this week. For all his amazing achievements, The Admiral is still underrated as a player. See sports economist Dave Berri’s statistical analysis of David’s performance, in which he determines that Robinson was the most effective center since Kareem Abdul Jabbar–surpassing both Shaq and Hakeem Olajuwon. And it’s almost cliche to say, but Robinson has been as awesome off the court as he was on. Since retirement, he has devoted his time to the school he founded for underprivileged children in San Antonio, a city he has done so much for that when he left the league the NBA renamed its community assistance award the David Robinson plaque.
Can you tell I kind of idolized David Robinson growing up? It’s nice when your childhood sports hero is such an upstanding guy that he seems as cool under adult scrutiny as he did to your uncritical younger self.
Ron Artest explains that a basketball game isn’t really getting out of hand until players are getting table legs thrown through their hearts.
Manu Ginobili forcing amorous attention on Ian Mahinmi after they are singled out by the Kiss Cam during a stoppage of play:
(Were you aware that I am a fanatical supporter of the San Antonio Spurs? I’m a fanatical supporter of the San Antonio Spurs. This is my only sports obsession.)