On the ‘melancholy joy’ of watching Manu Ginobili

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The Spurs’ legend still has nights of unquestioned magic.

Manu Ginobili wasn’t available. On the mend after bruising his thigh against the Atlanta Hawks, he missed Wednesday’s game against the Nets and was ruled out on Friday against the Raptors, which was a shame, because a healthy Ginobili — even at 40 years old — is a light that refuses to stop shining.

These are transitory times, to be sure, but every time Ginobili suits up, he is liable to Eurostep around an unsuspecting big man in transition, dart into the paint to draw a charge, flop his way into a whistle, or unleash a dagger like has has so many times in his career. His game, at this juncture, is defined less by declining athleticism than his ability to tap into a unique frequency that throws his opponents off base and heightens our awareness to the many frequencies that basketball can operate from.

These days, plenty of players share Ginobili’s off-kilter characteristics. Goran Dragic has looked a step behind — yet been a step ahead — for years. James Harden can slow down better than anyone in the NBA. Even in Ginobili’s heyday, there was Leandro Barbosa. But there’s nothing like watching the original at work. When Ginobili isat his best, it makes you wish it was basketball that was dubbed The Beautiful Game.

“It sounds kind of weird,” says Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, describing what it’s like to coach Ginobili in his twilight, “but it’s sort of a melancholy joy, and thinking that maybe every arena he steps into may be the last time I’ll see him in that arena.”

Yet his absence also felt fitting. Not because, as Popovich alluded to, Ginobili’s career feels fleeting. Right after that, Popovich quipped, “I’ve felt like that for the last three years. I wish he’d get the hell out of there.”

His absence felt fitting because Ginobili has always performed in momentary bursts.

Ginobili’s season stats will never floor you the way his on-court maneuvers will. He spent a great deal of his prime as a sixth man averaging 25 minutes per game, happy to play off his teammates and facilitate the offense. And then, when the moment called for an orchestra conductor, he grabbed the baton.

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Later in his career, Ginobili embraced San Antonio’s low-minutes, DNP-rest maintenance program. “If the team’s taking care of you, making sure you’re healthy, maybe not pushing your limit over the edge for some games just to win during the season, just being smart,” says teammates Davis Bertans, “I think that just helps players like Manu and Tim [Duncan] expand their careers.”

When aging stars summon the old beast, their throwback performances come with a pang of nostalgia attached. But even in his prime, Ginobili felt more like a gift than a constant.

And his talent has been so well-preserved that even today, the beast hasn’t withered. “He’s hit some big shots,” said teammate Kyle Anderson. “I enjoy watching him down the stretch. He keeps his cool, keeps his poise.”

On Dec. 8, with five seconds remaining on the clock against the Boston Celtics in a 102-102 tie, Ginobili came off a screen and nailed a game-winning trey over Al Horford’s arms. Roughly a week later, he did it again, driving past the Dallas Mavericks’ best defender, Wesley Matthews, and hitting a game-winning layup, delivering one final blow to a fanbase that needn’t be reminded the powers of Ginobili in the clutch.

“I always make sure I touch him before every game,” says Popovich, “and remember what he’s meant to us over the years and how significant a factor he’s been in our success. I think I’m probably enjoying it more than ever, because I feel I’m about to lose him.”

On Jan. 2, late in the third quarter of a victory against the Knicks, Doug McDermott was stuck down low on a mismatch against LaMarcus Aldridge, so he elected to front him to try to prevent a post entry pass. Anderson swung the ball high to Ginobili, presumably to give him a better passing angle, and Ginobili threw the ball towards the basket for Aldridge to finish the alley-oop.

Ginobili, as it turned out, accidentally threw the ball straight into the hoop, scoring on what might be the weirdest three-pointer of all time. “Not a lot of people can do that,” said Anderson. “Get it right on the money off a pass.”

For a career rooted in a command of magic that was purposeful but so reactive, so in-the-moment that it felt accidental, it seems fitting that the twilight of his career would feature accidental magic.

But then again, his brilliance was never accidental, so it isn’t quite fitting. But neither is Ginobili, and none of that ever stopped the ball from dropping into the basket.

Khem Birch, the pride of Montreal, has a style familiar to anyone who plays in MyPlayer mode in NBA 2K18 and refuses to pay for player upgrades. Well, really, he’s how you wish you played with DJ, your former musician turned professional basketball player, in the early going.

For the uninitiated: When you start a MyPlayer account, you pick a player prototype, but it really isn’t until much later in the season that any of his skills come to bear. Your player, who everyone calls DJ regardless of what you name him, starts with a rating of 60 out of a possible 100.

So he’s really not equipped to make any fancy plays, or really even hit open jumpers in some cases. Other prototypes can hardly muster a step-back dribble move. The key in the early going is to make hustle plays, defensive stops, and grab some rebounds in order to increase your teammate grade. The higher your teammate grade, the more victory points you get, which go toward increasing your skill level in whichever area you choose.

And Birch, the center who played college basketball at UNLV before going undrafted in 2014, has been playing like the platonic ideal of an early-season MyPlayer ever since the Orlando Magic called him up from their G-League affiliate.

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Against the Wolves,he got multiple putbacks and cut off drives like a seasoned vet. In one instance, Gorgui Dieng got Jonathon Simmons in the air on a pump fake and took off a seemingly clear route to the rim. Birch stopped him in his tracks, though, and then cut to the rim on the other end for a bucket, courtesy of D.J. Augustin. In another instance, the Wolves played excellent defense for 23 seconds, with all signs pointing to Augustin chucking a desperation shot with Taj Gibson splayed all over him, until Birch ran in for yet another dunk.

The most impressive sequence: With the Wolves electing to switch, the Magic got a mismatch down low with Aaron Gordon posting up against Jeff Teague. Karl-Anthony Towns, who was covering Birch, left him to help, and Jamal Crawford moved away from Simmons to deny the pass to Birch, leaving Simmons wide open in the corner. Instead of trying to cut in tight space, Birch set a pick on Crawford, and Gordon kicked the ball to Simmons, who had a good three seconds to get off a clean look.

Setting a ‘good screen’, as anyone who plays 2K knows, is a surefire way to increase your teammate grade while essentially doing nothing. Here, though, Birch made a high-IQ, heads-up play that created a wide-open shot.

The man is pure activity. Teammate Grade: A-plus.