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Manu Ginobili became the last piece of the holy trinity of the San Antonio Spurs to leave The Alamo City after Tim Duncan retired and backcourt partner in crime Tony Parker signed with the Charlotte Hornets earlier this summer.
Yet, this is hardly the first time the Spurs were deemed too old to continue, as Ginobili recalls how a devastated San Antonio team climbed back on the horse in a quest to bring back some hardware against a dominant LeBron Jamesled Miami Heat.
The Spurs had their championship hopes slip away when a Ray Allen corner 3-pointer scorched the bottom of the net with, bringing the Miami Heat back from the dead in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals and sending the game to overtime. That possession ultimately proved to be the dagger that would sink San Antonio's championship hopes.
Ginobili recalls when he knew the Spurs had it take to topple the East supergiants and strip them off a chance to secure their expected threepeat in 2014.
“The only moment I thought ‘of, we're gonna get it this time was after Game 3 in The Finals, when I saw that something clicked,” Manu Ginobili told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski in a past podcast. “I think the one that drove us, the one that was more determined this time was Pop, for sure. He was a mad man all year long. He pushed us, he'd yell at us, and scream at us.”
From the pod vault with @manuginobili pic.twitter.com/8nyge8JSVY
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 28, 2018
Even with an aging roster, the NBA's most tenured head coach managed to push his team to victory, with Kawhi Leonard's talent rising to the occasion and garnering MVP honors.
That last championship would spell James' return to Cleveland, instead of the pursuit of more success next to his friends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, making it perhaps, the most memorable championship effort for the recently-retired Spurs legend.
