Manu: A Perfect Combination of Talent and Work

By Leandro Ginobili

I’ll try to be as objective as I can, although, naturally, my feelings towards whom, besides being the best Latin American basketball player in history (here it’s already showing up!), is my younger brother. We are talking, of course, about Manu Ginóbili.

By Silvia’s request, owner and queen of this blog, I’ll try to put into words the fact that not only the talent that God provides a human being with for a specific task is important to transcend; that natural talent must be helped with work, a lot of work.

That work – attached to the always necessary dosage of luck, if we keep inside the sports world – turns a very good player into a star. I am completely certain of this. And God wanted me to have an example in my own family.

I remember, in the late eighties, when I went to see Manu taking his first steps into basketball, in our longtime club, Bahiense del Norte. Each acquaintance of mine that saw him playing when he was such a small kid said the same phrase, “This one will be the best of the three.” (We are three brothers, all of us basketball players, and Manu is the youngest.) Needless to say, these people weren’t mistaken.

Manu played basketball for the same reason we all did – because we loved it, because we liked it. Maybe it helped that our family and our city, Bahía Blanca, practically breathe basketball.

We never thought of basketball as a way to save ourselves moneywise, like it currently happens with many families that have a young player with some talent and, even though he is ten years old, his parents are eager to listen to the first charlatan with a manager card that shows up.

After his brothers made it to the Argentinian National League, Manu set for himself the same goal, and started working to achieve it. He worked and fought so much to make it, that I think he even beat Nature itself.

This Nature said, according to medical tests, that Manu was going to be, at the most, 1.85 metres high (when he found this out, he cried for a week), while his brothers were higher than 1.90 metres. Knowing this, I think that Manu even slept hanging to try to stretch higher. He ended up beating that forecast – he now is 1.98 metres high.

Beyond this little anecdote, not everything was breezy in Manu’s career. I remember when he had to move to his first professional club when he was only 17 years old. His destination was La Rioja, 1,300 kilometres away from his hometown, but he wanted so much to be in the League that it didn’t matter to him.

Naturally, the start wasn’t easy. Besides his adjustment period, there was the fact that he was part of a good team, so his minutes in court were scarce. Nevertheless, no one was going to talk him out of the idea that he was where he had always wanted to be, and he would continue working to earn his place for good.

And boy did he earn it. When he returned to Bahía Blanca to play with Estudiantes for two seasons, 1997-1998 and 1998-1999, his growth wouldn’t stop until he was the leader of his team and led it to the tournament’s semifinals. This tournament helped him take the leap to Europe, which he always preferred over different offers from American universities.

Another difficult moment, a new test for his spirit, was his arrival in Italy, in the region of Reggio Calabria. The country and the language were completely unknown to him, who was 22 years old by then and was to play in the second division of Italian basketball.

His problems with adjustment, language and local habits ended when the ball sprung up in the air and he began speaking his favourite language, the one of basketball. The growth in his way of playing continued to increase, and he and his team managed to upgrade to first division in his first year there. Then came a historical fifth position with this same modest team in the all powerful Italian League.

The mighty Virtus Bologna, one of the most important clubs of Europe at the time, would lay eyes on Manu. That was where he would round up his way of play, in the offensive as well as in the defensive area. During the two years he stayed with Virtus Bologna, he turned into one of the best players in Europe, winning everything that came across, on the team level (two Cups in Italy, one Scudetto and one Euroliga) and on the individual level (MVP in all those tournaments).

There was a lucky strike in his move from Reggio Calabria to Virtus Bologna, where he was hired to give some rest to probably the best guard in Europe, Serbian Sasha Danilovic. This player decided, in the midst of pre-season, to retire. Therefore, Manu went from supporting character to star in the blink of an eye. He was fully prepared for this.

Like I said in the beginning, talent alone is not enough. You have to add much work to it, and getting some help from luck can push things along, but this push can take you over the cliff if you’re not prepared, mentally and physically, for such a chance.

I listen to many kids, little sportsmen and others not so little, who think and say, “What will I go on training for, lifting weights, if I only get to play a few minutes, or none at all…” Well, you never know when the chance of showing our talent will come, so you have to be always prepared.

Prepared like Manu was to take the big leap to the NBA. He would have to start from sratch again. Nothing he had achieved in Europe would do him good there; he would have to show that he could play in the best basketball league in the planet and let go of the stardom and the newspapers headlines. FIBA basketball monsters such as Croatian Drazen Petrovic and Lithuanian Arvidas Sabonis couldn’t handle this transition.

Recently Bruce Bowen (maybe the best guard in the NBA) said that, when Manu arrived in San Antonio, his task in the practice was to defend him, and he did so with his characteristic mischief, even adding one or two extra bumps to see what this player come from a country he didn’t even know where it was, was made of. Manu passed the test with flying colours, and he put Argentina in the map, making it known by quite a few basketball lovers.

In his first months in the NBA, Manu really played very little and, when he did, he hardly touched the ball, which was monopolised by his teammates Duncan, Robinson and Parker. That is why we were concerned about his state of mind. We phoned him up often, to support him, to ask him how he was, until he got fed up and told us, very clearly, “Can you leave me alone. I am doing very well, and you have to know that I am where I always wanted to be.” Boy was he right!

Many fill their mouths talking about Manu when they have the end product at hand, when Manu already is a star of global basketball. But they are unaware of the road he trudged along to get where he is now. Let it be clear that it was a road with many obstacles. These obstacles were overcome not only with talent, but with a lot of work, sacrifice and distinct goals in mind, all of which was vital for Manu to turn into who he is.

I am sure that there are many other stories like this one, of talented stars in different sports that didn’t go from beggars to millionaires overnight. I tried telling the one I know, the one of my younger brother, the one of probably the best Argentinian basketball player of all times. I tried to be as objective as I could, I swear. However, sometimes this is almost impossible for me, maybe not so much in the sport area but in the personal area, for what makes us, Manu’s relatives, so proud is that, in spite of what he achieved and of his importance in the sport world, he continues to be the same person who left almost 15 years ago, with his little bag, to make the 1,300 kilometres that separated him from his first professional destination.

Leandro Ginobili

http://www.manuginobili.com