San Antonio Spurs head coach, Gregg Popovich, says the darndest things at times. In a recent article with Yahoo!, Coach Popovich discussed with Y! Sports’ Marc Spears about how VITAL Manu Ginobili is to the Spurs contending for a title.
He believes so much, in fact, that Manu is the key to coming out of the Western Conference, that he compares Manu’s competitive nature to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
“He has the same love of winning and maniacal approach to competitiveness,” Popovich said. “It’s the same as Michael and Kobe have.
“He doesn’t have the same athletic ability. But he has the same spirit and competitiveness that they do. He has a high basketball IQ like they do in the sense that it could be an offensive board, a 3-point shot, a drive, a steal, an assist to win a basketball game.”
One thing is clear, Manu has this driving force to win, and many would agree with Popo in the realm that Manu is the glue that holds the Spurs together. Last season, when he had an elbow injury that took him out of the round one playoffs against Memphis, the team was flustered without him.
It would be a safe assumption to imply that Manu, indeed, is the key.
“No Manu, no championships.” – Coach Popovich
H/T I Am A GM
