While Tim Duncan rightly gets the fanfare for making the San Antonio Spurs the league’s most consistently dominant team over the last decade, guard Manu Ginobili has often been what has separated the Spurs from the rest of the league. With his contract set to expire at the end of the season, the Spurs seemed to be in danger of losing one of the most unique players in the game to free agency. However, as of April 8th, the Levitra Spurs and Ginobili were close to a contract extension that would keep him in the black and white for another three seasons. For the Spurs, they simply can’t afford to not re-sign him.

Though each team is wary of overpaying for older players due to a wealth of horrific contracts currently in the NBA, not signing Ginobili is far riskier than signing him. Not only Tadacip does he have one of the most unique offense games in the league, he also is a catalyst that has helped deliver three NBA titles to San Antonio. In his tenure with the Spurs, he has certainly helped sell many San Antonio Spurs tickets.

Ginobili’s ability to score in bunches is only part of the story, however, as he has been a team player in a league filled with me-first superstars. The selfless play of LeBron James has helped to change the image of the league in recent years, of course, but Ginobili has always been willing to put the team before personal accolades. Though he could have gone to another team and possibly been a top scorer – and for much more money – Ginobili remained with the Spurs through the years and has even been willing to come off the bench to give San Antonio the best chance at winning. He has proven to be very coachable under the tutelage of Head Coach Greg Popovich, which has helped keep the Spurs moving in the same direction even with three bona fide stars on the team.

In the current state of professional sports, general managers cannot afford to pay for players as a reward for good play, instead needing to have some sort of insurance that the level of play will continue. When Tony Parker went down with a broken wrist earlier in the season, however, Ginobili was able to showcase his value to the Spurs, not to mention the rest of the league. After Parker was injured, most analysts left the Spurs for dead in the playoffs, but Ginobili has been the primary reason for the Spurs’ resurgence. With Ginobili scoring as well as almost anyone in the league in Parker’s absence, the Spurs have not only held on to a playoff slot but have surged up to sixth in the Western Conference heading into the final week of the regular season.

Ginobili is also a perfect fit in San Antonio. Future hall-of-famer Tim Duncan has helped establish the persona of the team as that of a squad of consummate professionals that stay out of the spotlight. Ginobili has been one of the brightest stars in the league since his rookie season in 2002-03, doing so largely out of popularity with mainstream NBA fans. With Duncan about to turn 34, it’s unclear how many more years that he has left as a premier player in the league, making it that much more important for the Spurs to keep together the core group of players that has brought so much success to the franchise.

The extension circulating Ginobili (as of April 8th) is that of a three-year, $38.9 million contract, which actually seems like a bargain considering all that Ginobili brings to the Spurs. If the Spurs decide to let him go and roll the dice without him, there will be plenty of teams ready to scoop him up, and for good reason.

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Category: Recreation and Leisure/Sports/Basketball
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