Hooped Up

A team put in a call to the Spurs last season with a legitimate offer for Manu Ginobili. “Helluva player for a helluva player,” is the way Gregg Popovich describes the proposal now. Popovich’s answer then is the same as it is now, even after Ginobili ended another season with a limp. Popovich has always loved the guy, and he knows a healthy Ginobili can’t be replaced. But there’s another reason Ginobili will be a Spur as long as he is upright. He’s also a helluva draw at the box office. rumor surfaced this month that the Wizards called the Spurs with an offer for him, and maybe all of this made Ginobili wonder if the ground had shifted. Asked by the Argentine press this week whether he thought he could be traded, he said “impossible” had lost a few letters.

San Antonio Express-News