Emanuel David "Manu" Ginóbili (English: /ˈmænuː dʒɪˈnoʊbli/ MAN-oo jin-OH-blee,[3] Spanish: [ˈmanu ʝiˈnoβili];[4] born 28 July 1977[5]) is an Argentine former professional basketball player.

Over a 23-year professional career, Ginóbili became one of only two players (along with fellow Hall of Famer Bill Bradley) to have won a EuroLeague title, an NBA championship, and an Olympic gold medal.

[30] Ginóbili made his professional debut in the Argentine basketball league for the Andino Sport Club of La Rioja in the 1995–96 season.

[31] Ginóbili then entered the 1999 NBA draft and the San Antonio Spurs selected him late in the second round with the 57th overall pick.

[5] While playing with the Argentina national team at the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis, Ginóbili made the All-Tournament Team, alongside future NBA star Yao Ming and established NBA stars Dirk Nowitzki and Peja Stojaković,[33] and helped lead Argentina to a second-place finish.

As his injury improved, so did Ginóbili, winning the Western Conference Rookie of the Month in March, and being named to the All-Rookie Second Team at the end of the season.

[34][35] The Spurs then entered the playoffs eager to upend the defending champions Los Angeles Lakers, at which point Ginóbili rose to prominence.

In contrast to his regular season, Ginóbili became an integral part of Gregg Popovich's rotation in the playoffs, playing in every game.

After the win, Ginóbili won his first Olimpia de Oro ("Golden Olympia") as Argentina's sportsperson of the year,[38] and met Argentine president Néstor Kirchner.

[34] This was his best season yet as he was selected as a reserve by NBA coaches to the 2005 Western Conference All-Star team, marking his debut in the elite mid-season showcase.

[5] In the NBA Finals MVP Award voting, the shooting guard was a candidate but was edged out by teammate and captain Tim Duncan.

[5] During the season, Ginóbili became only the fourth person to win consecutive Olimpias de Oro, this time sharing the award with soccer star Carlos Tevez.

[34] The 2007 NBA Playoffs saw him help the Spurs to defeat the Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz; the team then swept the Cleveland Cavaliers for Ginobili's third and San Antonio's fourth championship.

[45] Ginóbili was to play an even bigger role for the Spurs the following season, reaching career high averages in points, rebounds, assists, and three-point field goal percentage.

[52] However, San Antonio lost to arch-rivals Los Angeles Lakers in the Conference Finals in five games, and once again failed to capture back-to-back NBA championships.

San Antonio qualified for the playoffs as the third seed with a 54–28 record,[54][55] but with an aging supporting cast (Bowen, Michael Finley and Kurt Thomas were all in their late 30s), the Spurs were only considered fringe contenders for the championship.

In the Spurs' Game 5 victory, Ginóbili scored a season-high 24 points and helped his team take a 3–2 series lead.

[64] In Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Thunder, the Big Three of Duncan, Parker, and Ginóbili notched their 110th career playoff win, matching the number of playoff wins attained by Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Cooper of the Los Angeles Lakers.

[67] On 4 February, Ginóbili underwent surgery after suffering a testicular injury in the Spurs' win over the New Orleans Pelicans the previous night.

[71] In Game 5 of the 2017 Western Conference Semifinals against Houston, Ginóbili blocked James Harden's shot in the closing seconds to help San Antonio to a 110–107 victory.

[76] On 29 March, in a 103–99 victory over the Thunder, Ginobili became the Spurs' career leader in steals, passing David Robinson (1,388) for the franchise record.

On 27 August 2018, Ginóbili announced his retirement from professional basketball,[79] making him the second player that season to complete a career with one team, after Nick Collison of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

[83] On 10 September 2022, Ginóbili became the 12th player to have played for the San Antonio Spurs franchise to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

[84][85] However, he is one of only four Spurs players to be inducted who played exclusively for San Antonio for their entire NBA career the others being fellow 2022 inductee George Karl, David Robinson and Tim Duncan.

[86] Ginóbili was a core member of a hugely successful Argentina national basketball team, which is sometimes referred to as the Golden Generation.

The highlight of the tournament was his game-winning buzzer beater with 0.7 seconds remaining, on the opening day of the Olympics, in a game versus Serbia and Montenegro.

[98] Five years later, Ian Thomsen, a Sports Illustrated columnist, grouped Ginóbili with fellow European league players Anderson Varejão and Vlade Divac as the players who "made [flopping] famous", by exaggerating contact on the court in a manner analogous to diving in soccer games.

Having traversed the major basketball continents during his career, Ginóbili is one of the few players who enjoyed success under both the physical, one-on-one play of the NBA and the more technical, jump-shooting rule set of FIBA.

He is one of only two players in basketball history (along with Bill Bradley) to win the EuroLeague,[100] an Olympic gold medal, and an NBA championship ring.

[102] In 2007, ESPN sportswriter John Hollinger ranked Ginóbili as the sixth-best international player then active in the NBA, describing Ginobili as "one of the great draft heists of all time" and attributing the trend of NBA teams drafting developing European players to the success of the Argentine.