San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili receives an offer from an Italian club: NBA Update
San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili has received an offer from his former Italian Club, Virtus Bologna to rejoin the team this fall. Ginobili’s agent, Herb Rudoy has confirmed the offer, but did not disclose any details.
The Spurs superstar is currently playing in 2011 FIBA Americas Championship for his native country, Argentina. His form has been exceptional throughout the tournament and he is one of the main reasons, the Argentine side is the hot favourite to land the title this time around. On Thursday, on the final day of the second phase of the tournament, Ginobili hammered 17 points and dished out five assists in a game the Dominican Republic. In doing so, he helped Argentina defeat their opponents 84-58 and qualify for the semifinals.
Ginobili spoke after the game, but did not comment on the offer he has reportedly received. However, Ginobili’s older brother Leandro, who is working as a basketball analyst for a local television network shed light on the topic.
“I don’t think Manu is thinking he will go play in Italy for two months before returning to the Spurs,”
Leandro stressed that for now Manu’s main emphasis was the FIBA Americas and with the knockout stage starting tomorrow, his main focus is to help Argentina win the title.
Manu Ginobili has played for two Italian clubs in the past. He played for the Bologna in 2001 and then joined Kinder Bologna. He led Bologna into the last stages of the European Championships and earned the award of tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). Ginobili has also won the MVP award in 2001 FIBA Americas Championship. In 2008, Manu Ginobili was rated 35th out of 50 greatest EuroLeague contributors of all times.
Realistically speaking, Ginobili’s departure to Italy is not a huge possibility at the moment as only few days ago, he reiterated his desire to be back in the Spurs colours at the earliest and hoped that NBA lockout ends soon. He also revently fully recovered from an arm injury that plagued the latter part of his last NBA season, and risking his body in the highly physical European basketball environment will not be a good bet for the veteran guard.
However, stranger things have happened in the game.
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