Emanuel David "Manu" Ginóbili

Emanuel David "Manu" Ginóbili (born 28 July 1977 in Bahía Blanca, Argentina), is an Argentine professional basketball player. Coming from a family of professional basketball players, he is a member of the Argentine men's national basketball team and the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Ginóbili spent the early part of his basketball career in Argentina and Italy, where he won several individual and team honors. His stint with Italian side Kinder Bologna was particularly productive, earning two Lega A Most Valuable Player awards, the Euroleague 2000-01 Final Four MVP and the 2001 Euroleague championship. The shooting guard was selected as the 57th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft and is considered one of the biggest draft steals of all time. Ginóbili returned to Italy and only joined the Spurs in 2002. He did not take long to establish himself as a key player for the Spurs, and has since won three NBA championships as well as being named an All-Star in 2005. In the 2007–08 season, he was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year.

With the Argentina national team, Ginóbili has also enjoyed success. He made his debut with the national team in 1998, and was a member of the team which won the gold medal during the 2004 Olympics Basketball Tournament. Hailed as one of the finest European-based players to grace the NBA with his high-tempo and intensive game, Ginóbili is also the only player ever to win a Euroleague title, an NBA championship, and an Olympic gold medal.
Ginóbili comes from a family of basketball players. His eldest brother, Leandro, retired in 2003 after seven years in the Argentina basketball league, while Sebastián has played in both the local league and the Spanish Liga Española de Baloncesto. Their father Jorge was a coach at a club in Bahía Blanca, where Ginóbili learned to play the game. He was also very popular at the club among his team. He was the most talented one there. Given the proliferation of basketball clubs in Bahía Blanca and his idolization of Michael Jordan, Ginóbili's love for basketball grew rapidly.
Like many Argentines, Ginóbili is a descendant of Italian immigrants, and he has dual citizenship with Argentina and Italy. As a result of his travels, he can speak Spanish, Italian and English fluently. In his free time, Ginóbili enjoys surfing the internet, listening to Latin music, watching movies and relaxing with his friends. In 2004, he married Marianela Orono.
It was not until after the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis that Ginóbili joined the Spurs. There, he made the All-Tournament team alongside future NBA star Yao Ming and established NBA stars Dirk Nowitzki and Peja Stojakovic, and helped lead Argentina to a second-place finish. In his first season in the NBA, Ginóbili played backup for veteran guard Steve Smith. He spent much of the early season injured, and found it hard to adjust to the NBA's style of play. As his injury improved, so did Ginóbili, winning the Western Conference Rookie of the Month in March, and being named to the All-Rookie Second Team at the end of the season. Still, he only started in five games as the Spurs chalked up a 60–22 regular season win-loss record. The Spurs then entered the playoffs eager to upend the defending champions Los Angeles Lakers, and this was when Ginóbili rose to prominence. In contrast to his regular season, Ginóbili became an integral part of Gregg Popovich's rotational set up in the playoffs, playing in every game. The Spurs eliminated Phoenix and Los Angeles and in those games his scoring threat took opponents by surprise, giving them one more thing to cope with against the now highly-favored Spurs. He helped guide them past the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals and then the New Jersey Nets in the Finals, securing San Antonio's second championship. After the win, Ginóbili won his first Olimpia de Oro ("Golden Olympia") as Argentina's sportsperson of the year, and even met Argentine president Néstor Kirchner. A gym in Bahía Blanca was dedicated in Ginóbili's honor as well.
In the 2003–04 season, Ginóbili began featuring more regularly for the Spurs, starting in half of the 77 regular season games he played in. His statistics improved in all major categories, as he averaged 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game. During the 2004 playoffs, the Spurs met their perennial rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, in the Western Conference Semifinals. Following a controversial Game 5 where Derek Fisher scored a buzzer-beating jumpshot, the Spurs lost Game 6 and the series 4–2. While Ginóbili did not start in a single playoff game as he did in 2003, his playoff statistics improved significantly, with 13.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.
Ginóbili is 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in), 93 kg (205 lb) left-handed shooting guard who has been deployed either as a sixth man or starter for the Spurs. He has established himself as a reliable and versatile backcourt presence, and is a relatively late bloomer, entering the NBA at age 25 in a period where entering the NBA as a teenager was very common. Alongside teammates Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, he forms one of the centerpieces of San Antonio's game.
Apart from his up-tempo and aggressive style of play, Ginóbili is known for his clutch play. This is documented by his numerous European league MVP awards, 2004 Olympic tournament MVP, and his performances in San Antonio's championship-winning campaigns. Ginóbili's modus operandi however, is a source of consternation for some of his opponents. A fierce attacker of the basket, he often lowers his head when driving to the basket, and is willing to draw charges on defense.[1] He was even listed by ESPN writer Thomas Neumann at #6 on the list of greatest floppers in NBA history.
But having traversed the major basketball continents in his basketball career, Ginóbili is one of the few players who have enjoyed success under both the physical, one-on-one play of the NBA and the more technical, jumpshooting rule set of the FIBA. He is the only player in basketball history to win the Euroleague, an Olympic gold medal, and an NBA Championship ring (although Bill Bradley won the Euroleague's predecessor, the European Champions Cup, along with an Olympic gold and two NBA titles). He is also the first non-U.S. player to win both the NBA championship ring and the Olympic gold medal, and only the second Latin American to be selected to play in an NBA All-Star game (after Panama's Rolando Blackman).[ In 2007, ESPN sportswriter John Hollinger even ranked Ginóbili as the sixth best international player in the history of the NBA, describing the 57th draft pick as the "one of the great draft heists of all time", and attributed the trend of NBA teams drafting developing European players to the success of the Argentine. The following year, Ginóbili was named by ESPN as one of the best Euroleague players to have graced the NBA.