YouTube Gold: The Genius Of Manu Ginobli

What an amazing player he was

One of the unfortunate problems with basketball and time as we understand it anyway is that you can’t see great players from different eras compete against each other.

Which is too bad, because what if you could see Bill Russell outsmart Shaquille O’ Neal? What if Larry Bird humiliated LeBron James? What about Elgin Baylor vs. Kobe Bryant?

And what about Manu Ginobli vs. John Havlicek or Jayson Tatum?

Because Ginobli is one of the most brilliant players we’ve seen.

This video really breaks down his game in a way most of us don’t get to. It’s pretty insightful, right down to having more flexible than normal hips and ankles.

It’s amazing in retrospect that Ginobli was available to the San Antonio Spurs with the 57th pick in 1999. And look at some of the players who were taken ahead of him: Wally Szczerbiak, Frederic Weis, Cal Bowdler, Dion Glover, Leon Smith (poor guy), Obinna Ekezie and Ryan Robertson.

All together now: who?

You could make a solid argument that Ginobli ended up being the best player in the 1999 draft. Take a look. The guy had an amazing career and while we're not going to check everyone, we’re pretty sure he’s the only guy in that draft who won four rings.