Four NBA championship rings with the San Antonio Spurs and two Olympic medals with the Argentine National Team, a gold in Athens 2004 and a bronze in Beijing 2008, in addition to an impeccable professional career, were not enough for Emanuel Ginóbili. To all these achievements, and four years after his retirement, Manu added a new and historical recognition: Confirmation of your admission to the Hall of Fame of the most powerful basketball league in the world.

The Bahiense relativized this difference, clearly historical for Argentine sports. He said it was “reluctant to individual awards” and somewhat “anecdotal” because he had definitively removed the player suit.

However, he admitted the weekend of September 9 and 10when his name and surname are stamped with great names in basketball history at the prestigious Naismith Memorial in Springfield, Massachusetts, surely “the tab will disappear.”

He did this in an interview he gave NBA Latin America at the Spurs training center in the United States, the first since knowing the good news for the history of our sport. “I’m happy with what happened earlier. It’s something that’s been talked about for a few years and those who know about it have told me it’s going to happen, but until it happens, I have no illusions or want to devote any energy to it, ”he said. niya.

“When the effects start to come, one starts to give it more value I am opposed to individual awards, I didn’t appreciate them much at first. Later when you see the repercussions and you say ‘this is something big, important’, and you start to fall. When September comes and I’m there, at the event, the tab will end, ”acknowledging one of the emblems of the Golden Generation of Argentine basketball.

Ginobili also admitted that it was a “somewhat unexpected situation” and added that, at the time of the speech, which he would sit down to write in August, probably had a deeper feeling than currently appears. “I’m not excited. Maybe when the moment of ‘speech’ comes, something comes up from within “, he expressed about the moment in which his access to a privileged place within the NBA will be crystallized.

When my career ended, the retirement of the jersey (with the San Antonio Spurs) happened, I closed the blind. Nothing coming from now covers my neurons. The coming was a beautiful award, an honor for what I did, but that’s all. I don’t play anymore and I can’t do anything new ”, he clarified.

And he added: “Everything is done, I can’t change anything and it’s not up to me. I left everything I had to leave on the field, the rest is anecdotal and it can be a superlative anecdote, like this (from the Hall of Fame) or it can be another, whatever it is. ”

Sold: “It’s fun to know that people are happy”

The former guard from Andino de La Rioja, Students from Bahía Blanca, Reggio Calabria and Kinder Bologna, said that “It’s fun to know that people are happy” for confirmation of his admission to the Hall of Fame and even “some are excited.”

“It’s been almost four years since my last game, that the things that keep happening in relation to my career make me very flattered”, Featured the world runner-up with Argentina in Indianapolis 2002, a tournament before he landed in the NBA, a league where he stayed until 2018, always wearing a Texas franchise jersey.

Ginóbili also pointed out that his career was “very privileged” because he was in a place like San Antonio where he was valued and, in parallel, he had “the inexplicable fate of having both in parallel with the Chosen”.

“This is something extraordinary. I really appreciate everything that happened, from great achievements like an Olympic gold to those that broke my heart”, he stressed.

Finally, he slipped that he was more content with his life without basketball. “I thought the more it cost me, the more I would miss the adrenaline of the competition, and the truth is it isn’t. I can’t imagine how he did it, being under constant pressure. Thinking about it is makes me tired. “

“I have spent four years without nearly holding a basketball court, nor series or games. Now I have other priorities ”, completed currently working with Spurs under the wing of his former coach, Gregg Popovich, as a kind of“ mentor ”or“ link ”to the players, according to his definition.

Elected in the first year

This is the first year Ginóbili could be elected, as one of the requirements to enter the Hall of Fame is that the honored person in question has retired for at least four seasons.

The member of a historic trio for the Spurs, along with Tim Duncan and Frenchman Tony Parker, is one of the great favorites to enter the Hall of Fame this time around since announcing the list of finalists in mid -February, in beginning of the Cleveland All Star Game weekend.

In 16 seasons, Ginobili has a total of 1,057 regular-season games, averaging 13.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds. In the postseason, he played 218 games averaging 14 goals, 3.8 goal passes and 4 rebounds.

DB