At 40 years of age, San Antonio Spurs veteran shooting guard Manu Ginobili has yet to even miss the playoffs once in his illustrious NBA career.

Despite all the drama that has been reported by the media regarding injured star forward Kawhi Leonard's current status with the Spurs, Ginobili is taking things day by day and continues to heavily enjoy the 2017-18 NBA season.

“It has been different because we had to dig to stay alive,” Ginobili said, via Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “But at the same time, (it's been) nurturing, rewarding.”

To put it lightly, this season has been a roller coaster ride for the Spurs with the injury bug continuing to bite them mercilessly.

Since joining Spurs legendary head coach Gregg Popovich's lineup back in 2002, Ginobili says that he had to really push himself to make things work at first.

“The first two years, I’m not saying it was hell, but they were tough,” Ginobili said, via Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News. “We were not looking eye-to-eye on many things.”

However, it was obviously well worth it for Ginobili and Popovich in the long run with four NBA championships together in their stellar careers in San Antonio.

“I didn’t think it was going to work out,” Ginobili said. “I was not going to give up. I was not going to say ‘take me somewhere else.’ But it was tough.”

The Spurs, who are in Los Angeles for the next two nights, will play the L.A. Clippers tonight in the first game of a back-to-back with the Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers.