Throughout his career with the Spurs, Manu Ginobili has been a terrific player. This latest accomplishment further establishes his legacy as one of the NBA's greatest players. Ginobili might be in his 16th season, but he is still setting basketball records.
The Spurs fell to the Blazers on Sunday, 111-110, but 40-year-old Ginobili broke several records in the process. Spurs guard put up a season-high 26 points in just 27 minutes on the court and became the sixth player in NBA history to drop 26+plus points in a game (regular season or playoffs) at the age of 40. Ginobili joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (8 times), Michael Jordan (7), Robert Parish (2), Karl Malone (1) and John Stockton (1).
Ginobili also became the only player in NBA history with multiple 20-point games off the bench at age 40 or older (he scored 21 points on Friday), and the first player in his 40s to score 15-plus points in back-to-back games since Michael Jordan in 2002-03. And if that's not enough, he also reached 8,000 career points off the bench (8,021). Only two other NBA players reached that milestone with one team: Dell Curry (8,772 points – Charlotte Hornets) and Vinnie Johnson (8,250 – Detroit Pistons).
Age has not yet stripped Manu of his magic. He has had a solid year for the Spurs and continues to be one of team’s most valuable members on the court. Through 42 games this season, he scored double figures 18 times. There are only five 40-year-olds with more double-figure scoring games in a season: Abdul-Jabbar, Parish, Stockton, Malone, and Jordan. Ginobili is also one of three players in NBA history to average 9/2/2 at age 40 or older along with Stockton and Malone.
Back in November, Ginobili reached 1,000th career game and 728th career win and became the winningest player through 1,000 games in NBA history. He also became the first player from South America to play 1,000 NBA games, the second 2nd round draft pick to play 1,000 NBA games with one team (joining Calvin Murphy – 1002 with the Rockets), 16th player in NBA history to play 1,000 games with one team, the 10th player to ever play 1,000 games and 200 playoff games, and the third player to play 1,000 games with the Spurs, along with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.
Ginobili has hit two game-winning shots this season (most among Spurs players) and recorded four dunks (more than he had in any of the previous three seasons) and the fans love it. They are making a strong push to get the 16-year veteran into this year’s NBA All-Star Game. The first fan returns for this year’s game were revealed last week and Ginobili is currently fifth among guards in the Western Conference with 231,460 votes, ahead of Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Lonzo Ball, Devin Booker and Jimmy Butler. Ginobili has more votes than any other Spurs player as well.
During his decorated career, Ginobili has grown to become a polarizing figure in the world of basketball and he’s consistently been one of the more popular players in Spurs history, so it is shocking that he has been named to only two previous All-Star teams (in 2005 and 2011).
Statistics used courtesy of NBA/Stats and Basketball Reference.
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