Manu Ginobili drives a minivan

Good morning. We have that and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter.

Aug 12, 2016, 12:26 PM UTC

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

GINOBILIIIIIIIII: Zach Lowe’s deep reported piece on Manu Ginobili and the Argentine national team is phenomenal. We learn the subject line factoid, how Manu went from the 15th best player in his town to the best South American player ever, everything. Go check it out.

BOOMERS: Mike Prada with an excellent Xs and Os breakdown of how Australia’s offense is rocking opponents (including Team USA).

HOOPS DOWN UNDER: Andrew Sharp on how Australia built a basketball culture. Michael Lee on how the Boomers won't be satisfied with silver.

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH: Neil Paine crunches the numbers to prove something that has felt right this year: Team USA isn’t improving, the other basketball teams of the world are simply not as good as they were a decade ago.

SPAIN BACK? Spain finally won a game, beating Nigeria. But they remain unimpressive. Meanwhile, Lithuania beat Argentina to take pole position for the No. 1 seed in Group B.

A HUNDRED MILLIE: Hey, LeBron James finally re-signed with the Cavaliers! Three years, $100 million. Player option on final year.

But the biggest news from the schedule release may be how thoroughly the league has limited a key concern from players and teams: the instances of four-games-in-five-nights stretches. Nine teams won’t have any such stretches this season; the other 21 teams will experience it just once. Two years ago, there were 70 such stretches league-wide.

NOMAD: Nice story on Will Voigt, the Vermont-raised nomad coach who wound up leading the Nigerian national team to its first AfroBasket championship and is working in the Olympics. Via REDEF.

GOLDEN BOY: Carmelo Anthony defends his basketball legacy, which he really should not have to do.

SUUUURE: The Bulls’ schedule page appeared to troll the Wolves over Chicago’s Summer League championship game win, but it was apparently a glitch.

GET MONEY: Masai Ujiri is reportedly near reaching an extension in Toronto. Give him all the money, Raptors.

OLYMPIC-GRADE BEEF: Jason Concepcion on the history of Olympic trash talk.

GOD LEVEL: Rod Thorn tells Woj that in the ‘70s Bob Costas used to do play-by-play on his own pick-up games.

YES: Louis Bien has a great piece on the Olympic Refugee team, which in a better world won’t need to exist.

GLORY BE TO DIRK: The Dallas Morning News put together a collection of Dirk Nowitzki’s best quotes. Via Reddit.

TODAY: The U.S. women play Canada at 2:30 p.m. ET. The men face Serbia at 6 p.m. ET. Group play will conclude for both teams on Sunday.

Happy Friday.