Manu Ginobili played in his 1000th NBA game on Friday. He’s in his 16th NBA season, having played professionally in Europe until he was 25. He turned 40 years old over the summer, and decided to sign with the San Antonio Spurs for two more seasons. He’s one of just 20 NBA players ever to appear in a game at age 40 or older.
Manu Ginobili, age 40, broke out a Eurostep and dunked on Frank Kaminsky
Cherish these moments.
(A brief aside: This season is the first in league history in which there are three 40-year-olds with appearances: Manu, Vince Carter, and Jason Terry. Until Carter turned 40 in the middle of last season, there hadn’t been a 40-year-old in the league since Grant Hill and Kurt Thomas in 2013. Now we have three! Back to Manu.)
Paul Flannery wrote a beautiful, prescient piece this week on what Manu has meant to Gregg Popovich, the transitioning Spurs, and the NBA fandom this week. I want to share a couple of lines from it here.
The Manu moments, such as they are, come in fleeting bits and bursts these days. [...] Cherish these moments. They are every bit as wondrous as 7-footers draining threes and long-armed wings taking off from outside the lane. Don’t wait until it’s all over to appreciate the fact that there is still a place for Manu to do what he does and still be Manu.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is a such a moment: Manu Ginobili, age 40, in his 1000th NBA game, hitting Frank Kaminsky with the Eurostep and finishing with a smash.
Cherish that.
