San Antonio Spurs legend Manu Ginobili has walked away from the NBA for good and it appears as though he has no regrets about his decision to hang it up and spend more time with his family rather than go through the grind of an 82-game regular season and, likely, run through the postseason.
While Ginobili is no longer focusing on the game of basketball like he once did, he has not lost his competitive spirit and he made that clear during his latest piece for the Argentinian website Ole, which was translated and transcribed by FoxSanAntonio.com, Manu revealed that he has picked up a new sport and is doing his best to become anywhere near as good at that game as he was on the hardwood for so many years.
“I enjoy my family time. I started playing tennis and I do not even go near a basketball. I already have plans with some friends to play tennis once or twice a week. I go a lot to the Spurs’ training, to visit my friends and the staff I’ve known for years. It helps me for day to day, because the transition from having a very intense work and social life to having nothing, is not simple either.”
Given the type of transition that Ginobili has made in his personal and professional life over the course of the last few months, the fact that Manu is working to fill his days in other ways while still looking to feed the competitive fire that made him so special for the Spurs over the course of his NBA career is not surprising in the slightest and if he continues to work on picking up the game of tennis then one high-profile former professional is ready to help him out.
“I tell Manu to be patient and to call me, I train him and prepare him for the next Wimbledon,” said Argentinian tennis legend and ESPN commentator, Batata Clerc.
One of Manu’s former teammates, Spurs veteran Patty Mills, says this is something that Ginobili has wanted to try for a long time and he is putting in the necessary work to be as good at the sport as he possibly can be.
“He’s been wanting to play for a very long time,” Mills said, according to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “He’s a lot more excited about playing tennis than he was basketball, that’s for sure…He’s in the gym, in the weight room, already doing tennis exercises – unbelievable.”
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