The showers of praise continue to pour for recently retired San Antonio Spurs legend Manu Ginobili, including from former teammates like Brent Barry, who sung some high praise for the lefty slasher.

Barry offered that as much as other pillars of the franchise carried a bigger responsibility on the floor, the Spurs very much leaned on Ginobili to come through in more aspects than one.

“That’s one of the biggest misnomers about how good Manu Ginobili was, is that as much as Tim [Duncan] was the foundation of the franchise’s success, and David [Robinson] before him, Manu was the guy that players, and coaches, when it was time, would lean the most,” Barry told SiriusXM NBA Radio. “If that doesn’t give you an idea about how much he represented to that team and to the game, in terms of what those moments are and what he took on, I really don’t know how else to communicate it to you.”

Some would dispute the validity of his Hall of Fame chances due to his humble averages of 13.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists through a 16-year career, but his impact on the game and the NBA's culture had a much more profound aspect than numbers can describe.

It was a Ginobili-led Argentina team that snatched gold from the Americans in the 2004 Athens Olympics, a pivotal moment for USA Basketball, as they were put on notice as no longer invincible.

Without Ginobili rattling that cage, there would be no Redeem Team, showing one of the biggest coalitions of talent at the Olympics since the original 1992 Dream Team.

Manu's four championships also tell the tale of a winner, a player whose impact went beyond the dagger 3s, the shake-and-bakes and the and-1s that kept many fans glued to their seats and TV sets over the course of his storied career.