I am pretty sure in that clip Manu actually pushes off Yao's leg with his foot to get some extra hangtime and keep Yao from elevating. I was at that game and he just made an unbelievable play both on the steal and the no-fear dunk. He almost singlehandedly brought the Spurs back after they were down double digits and playing listlessly. No doubt he is a flopper, but he does it to win. I personally think it's unsportsmanlike, but the refs should just learn to not call that crap. If it keeps working, he's gonna keep doing it. In the meantime, I love his game. Let's hope Scola can bring that fire and do-whatever-it-takes attitude more and more this year.
Manu is a lousy stinking peice of crap! and he flops like no other... except maybe D.Harris. But they both suck.
I appreciate great players; particularly ones who play with 100% effort and energy. It doesn't matter to me if they're on a rival team or if they just beat us.
Manu is one of my favorite players in the NBA (minus the flopping). Him, Kevin Garnett, and Steve Nash are right there at the top of my list.
Nice. It must have been an exhibition, because I can't find a game where Houston played at Lamar during Clyde's career. http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/lama/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/Year-by-Year_Results_1.pdf
Yeah I know but appreciate is too much or not appropriate. There should be another term for that. Appreciate implies betrayal since this is a rockets fans forum. .
Why not? This is the NBA Dish. Anyway, I appreciate guys who play "straight up" and rely not on unsavory "skills." Even though Boozer owned Yao in their recent match-ups, I like the way Boozer plays.
This may be NBA Dish but this is still Clutchfans board, somehow it violates the spirit of being a rocket fan. I'm not saying you can't talk about other teams here, but apprciation, it's only 90% right. The rest is not good.
Appreciation might not be the best word. I admire his skills and the extent to which he can impact a game. I really think that there are only a handful of players who help their team as much as him while on the court. Basically, I think he's incredibly underrated. That's all.
Admiration thread. As I have said before, IMO, he's next to Bryant but very very close. I'd pick him anytime over Bryant to complement Yao.
When the Spurs need points though, Popovich turns to Manu for a quick brisket. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VQcK494KBFY&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VQcK494KBFY&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
I can't let that go ... Ginobili had some road games where he didn't score a lot, sure. He also had some home games like that as well. The Spurs are unique in that they don't depend on certain players to pour in the points to win. They are well balanced offensively, so when one player is being "shut down", others can usually step up. It's why they can win so many regular season games every year without their key guys playing big minutes. When Ginobili wasn't hitting his shots, he didn't burden the offense by attemping and missing a ton of them. And because he's a very versatile and well-rounded player, he was always able to contribute positively in other ways. Now, just looking at the box score stats of players in the playoffs last season, Ginobili ranks quite well, either home or away. I looked at player's home stats and road stats separately, and consider the top 100 in minutes played for each. Based on Hollinger's per minute Game Score formula and not adjusting for pace (which probably hurts Ginobili considering San Antonio was one of the slowest paced teams last year), Ginobili ranked 14th on the road and 13th at home. By comparison, in significantly fewer minutes T-Mac ranked 47th on the road and 5th at home, while Yao ranked 20th on the road and 19th at home. LeBron James was 8th on the road, and 12th at home. Kobe Bryant was 17th on the road, and 1st at home.
So, Duncan misses two straight games and the Spurs have to face Dallas and Utah. Spurs win both games, with Ginobili averaged 37 ppg, 6 apg, 6 rpg, and 2.5 spg. Like I said, the guy is an amazing player. Easily one of the top five players at his position, and arguably one of the top 5 wing players in the league.
He's not a top 5 wing player but what Manu does is come up big when they need him to. For me, this is what defines him more than anything else.
