Emanuel (Manu) Ginobili is a professional basketball player who was born on July 28, 1977 in the Argentine city of Bahia Blanca. He currently plays in the North American NBA for the Spurs team from San Antonio, in which he won the 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014 championships.
In May 2008, Ginobili Emanuel was on the list of fifty most outstanding personalities of European basketball. The official award ceremony was organized by the Euroleague Basketball and was held at the Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid Sports Palace in Spain.
early years
Ginobili Emanuel was brought up in a family of professional basketball players, so he began to train at the age of three. His elder brother Leandro was a player in the Argentinean basketball league for seven years, but in 2003 decided to abandon his professional sports career. Another brother named Sebastian played in both the Argentinean and Spanish professional leagues. Their father, Jorge Ginobili, was a club coach in the city of Bahia Blanca, where Manu learned to play basketball.
Personal life
Emanuel Ginobili has both Argentinean and Italian citizenship. He is fluent in Spanish, Italian and English. In 2004, he married Marianela Orono, and on May 16, 2010, a pair of twins - Dante and Nicolas - were born.
The beginning of a sports career
Ginobili’s professional career began in the 1995-1996 season at the Andino Sports Club in La Rioja. A year later, he was transferred to the Estudiantes team from Bahia Blanca. For some time, Manu played for his hometown, but soon he was noticed in the Italian basketball league. From 1998 to 2000, he played for the Viola Reggio Calabria club. In 1999, he took part in the NBA draft, was selected under the 57th number and was invited to the San Antonio Spurs. However, at that time Emanuel decided not to sign a contract with the NBA team and played in the Italian league for the Kinder team (Bologna) for another two years. In this roster in 2001, he won the iconic title - the champion of Italy and the Euroleague, and also won the Italian Cup in 2001 and 2002. After winning the Euroleague, he was awarded the title of “Most Valuable Player in the Final Four” of the Euroleague. In the seasons 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 the title of “Most Valuable Player of the Italian League” was also added to this title.
San Antonio Spurs
Ginobili signed his first contract with the San Antonio Spurs only after the 2002 World Basketball Championship, when he was elected to the symbolic top five of the championship along with Dirk Nowitzki, Predrag Stoyakovich, Pero Cameron and Yao Ming. In his first season in the NBA (2002-2003), Emanuel left the bench to replace Steve Smith. He missed part of the season due to the injury he received, because he could not immediately adapt to the American style of play.
Despite the fact that Manu did not take part in all games, at the end of the season he became a member of the NBA All-Rookie Team, where the best recruits of the past season were invited. In the playoff games, Ginobili managed to make a real breakthrough. He participated in every match, improved his performance compared to the qualifying games of the season, and his team managed to defeat the Phoenix Sans, the Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as the New Jersey Nets on the road to victory in the 2003 NBA Championship. After that, Ginobili Emanuel was selected as the athlete of the year in Argentina.
Awards and titles
In 2005, he became officially considered the star of American basketball, as he first participated in the so-called NBA All-Star Game, where he was selected from the Western Conference. In the 2006/07 season, Emanuel almost managed to get the title of “NBA Best Sixth Player”: he took 2nd place, losing to Leandro Barbose. But in the next year, 2007/08, Ginobili still achieved this title, that is, he was named the best reserve player. In the vote, 123 out of 124 judges cast their vote for Emanuel. In total, he received 615 out of 620 possible points. In 2011, Manu, for the second time in his sports career, became one of the participants in the NBA All-Star Game of his choice of the West.
Having won the title already in his debut season, later Manu three more times became the winner of the championship with Spurs (in 2005, 2007 and 2014). In 2008 and 2011, Ginobili became one of the members of the third national team of all NBA stars.
On July 20, 2015, Emanuel extended the contract with Spurs. On January 14, 2016, Ginobili played his 900th NBA game, in which his team defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers. On February 4, he underwent surgery after a testicular injury last night in a game against the New Orleans Pelicans. As a result, for one month Manu had to refuse to participate in the games. Having missed 12 games due to injury, he returned to duty and scored 22 points in 15 minutes in a match against the Sacramento Kings.
National team
Manu Ginobili is the player who ensured the success of the Argentine basketball team in recent championships. During the 2002 Indianapolis World Basketball Championships, Emanuel’s team was the first to defeat the US team, which was stuffed with NBA stars, and finally took second place.
In 2004, at the Athens Olympics, the Argentine national team once again repeated this feat, winning the United States in the semifinals. On August 28, 2004, Argentina defeated the Italian national team in the finals and became the Olympic champion. After that, Ginobili Emanuel was selected as the most valuable player in the Olympic basketball tournament.
He won his second Olympic medal in 2008 in Beijing, where the Argentine team took third place. In April 2010, Manu announced that for family reasons he would not participate in the 2010 World Basketball Championships. Nevertheless, he played for his country’s national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where Argentina lost to the Russian team in the match for bronze medals.