Gregg Popovich and his San Antonio Spurs are one of the best dynasties the basketball world has ever seen, piling up accolade after accolade including five championship rings. Throughout the past two decades, all-time greats Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili have been the identity of the San Antonio Spurs and their winning culture. Now with Duncan having recently retired and the careers of Ginobili and guard Tony Parker dwindling down to their final years, the Spurs have been forced into a culture change and that has come quicker and with more immediate success than we all anticipated in the form of elite wing Kawhi Leonard. The future of the Spurs lies in the hands of Leonard, big man LaMarcus Aldridge and some other young pieces such as Jonathon Simmons and Dejounte Murray.
With Leonard and company clearly ready to carry on the winning ways of Ginobili, Parker, and Duncan, Ginobili knows his playing days are coming to an end sooner rather than later. The 39-year-old two guard recently held an interview with an radio show in Argentina called LU2 Radio Bahia Blanca, in which he revealed he doesn’t think he has much time left in the NBA:
“I do not think it will go much longer.”
“I am much more relaxed, the experience and the less daily responsibility has freed me a little of all the weight of carrying the team and not feeling that it’s all my fault,” said Ginobili.
Ginobili continued on, saying there are things, such as being there for his family, that are more important that basketball:
“Now, basketball is not a priority and I live more peacefully. My priority is my family, my children.”
Already at the age of 39, it’s no secret that Manu Ginobili’s days left in the NBA are numbered. Though he’s had a career certainly worthy of the Hall of Fame considering the good he did for the Spurs and his home country of Argentina, he hasn’t been a major factor in what has been a successful season for the Spurs averaging only 7.6 points per game in less than 19 minutes. Ginobili is in the last year of his current contract with San Antonio so if he were to hang it up, this offseason could be a likely time to do it.
