Thank You Manu: A Letter of Goodbye/By Shai Boker

Emanuel "Manu" Ginóbili is the definition of longevity. He started his career in 1996 playing in Argentina before moving to Italy in 1998 to play for Viola Reggio Calabria until the end of the 2000 season. Despite getting drafted 57th overall by the San Antonio Spurs in 1999, Ginóbili continued his career in the "Boot," moving on to play for "Kinder" Bologna in the Euroleague and Italian League, the team he had the most success with playing outside of the USA. until 2002. In 2001, Manu helped his team win the Euroleague title with a 3-2 series win over Tau Ceramica (now known as Baskonia). That year he earned Euroleague Finals MVP. The following year, despite a record scoring night by Manu (27 points, record which would be broken in the 2018 Final by Nicolo Meli (28 points)), his team would blow a 14 point lead in the final against Panathinaikos and lost the title.

Manu started and finished his NBA Career with the San Antonio Spurs (2002-2018), winning four NBA Championships, playing alongside Spurs' all-time greats like Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Tony Parker, Bruce Bowen, and Robert Horry, other superstar players like Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, an excellent 3-point shooter in Danny Green, and a masterful head coach in Gregg Popovich. In 2008, Manu took a role as a 6th-man and definitely solidified himself as one of the best to ever play in that role playing hard and making clutch play after clutch play when it counted most, winning the 2008 Sixth man of the year award. He had many highlights in his Spurs career, but only two of them stand out the most: Knocking a Bat to the ground in 2009 against the Sacramento Kings, and going back in time (millions of years), to dunk on the player known as the "Dinosaur," Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat in the 2014 NBA Finals. He won his last NBA title that year knocking off LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and the Heat 4-1 in a 7 game series.

In 2004, Manu and Argentina shocked the world at Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, by winning the Gold Medal.

Here is the list of awards and titles he won in his career (including National team):

2x Italian League MVP: 2001, 2002

3x Italian League All-Star: 1999, 2000, 2001

Euroleague Final Four MVP: 2001

2x Euroleague Finals Top Scorer: 2001, 2002

FIBA Americup MVP: 2001

FIBA Americup All-Tournament Team: 2011

Italian Cup MVP: 2001

2x FIBA World Cup All-Tournament Team: 2002, 2006

2x Olimpia de Oro: 2003, 2004

2x NBA All-Star: 2005, 2011

50 Greatest Euroleague Contributers: 2008

NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award: 2008

2x All-NBA Third Team: 2008, 2011

Italian League Champion: 2001

2x Italian Cup Winner: 2001, 2002

Euroleague Champion: 2001

Triple Crown Winner (Italy + Euroleague): 2001

2x FIBA Americup Gold: 2001, 2011

FIBA World Cup Silver: 2002

4x NBA Champion with Spurs: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014

Summer Olympic Games Gold: 2004

Summer Olympic Games Bronze: 2008

FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament Gold: 2008

Whichever way you look at it, Manu is a Hall of Famer! He set an example that in order to win, the team's needs come before your own. Seeing the Spurs without any of their "Big Five" from their last title is definitely different. Number 20 will certainly be missed on the court, but his future is still bright because he'll succeed in whatever he does next, it's the Manu way. Congrats on a great career!