NBA

The outcome was a foregone conclusion. Without Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard and David Lee, the San Antonio Spurs were not about to beat the Golden State Warriors on Monday night in Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference finals.

Their young players played hard, but not well enough, in a 129-115 defeat. Each time the Spurs put a little bit of a run together to narrow the margin, the Warriors nailed a 3-pointer or two to stretch it out again. At the end, a house full of San Antonio fans still found something to cheer – veteran Manu Ginobli.

Ginobli has played 15 seasons with the Spurs. At 39, he may elect to retire. He was part of four championship teams and also won a gold medal as an Olympian for his native Argentina. He has, throughout his career, been the model player – intensely competitive, team-oriented, coachable, smart. And he can still play, scoring 15 points and handing out seven assists even as the Spurs endured the last defeat of a four-game sweep.

The crowd showed its appreciation with a standing ovation, and Warriors players clapped along when Ginobli left the game for the last time. As he exited through the tunnel toward the locker room, more love washed over him. And while he said this made it all feel as if his time had come, he wasn’t ready to say that for sure.

“I do feel like I can still play,” he said. “But that’s not what’s going to make me retire or not. It’s about how I feel, if I want to go through all of that again.”

A healthy Spurs team would have pushed the Warriors. They led by as many as 25 points in the first game of this series, before Leonard was injured. After that it was mostly a mismatch.
Ginobli was a pleasure to watch, accepting his role in an organization that knows how to win. A farewell tour would be wonderful. Somehow, though, he hardly seems the type who would want such fanfare in a last roundup.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman