SAN ANTONIO — Manu Ginobili is so down on himself, he is actually considering retirement.
Not that he is leaning toward retirement, but on Saturday at practice, the day before the Finals against the Miami Heat resume with the series tied 2-2, Ginobili sounded like a player who is ready to move on to the next stage of his life — maybe after one more year in the NBA, maybe sooner.
“Once you turn 36, everything is day by day,” said Ginobili, who will turn 36 on July 28. “Sometimes I think about retirement, but I love what I do. It has been 18 years doing this, and at some point you want to go back to your people in Argentina, and you think about it.
“At this point, I have to consider it.”
Ginobili has been pretty much of a non-factor in the finals, dropping from 13 points in Game 1 to 5 points in Game 2 to 7 points in Game 3 and 5 points in Game 4. This from a player who averaged 11.8 points during the regular season — his lowest total since his rookie season — and saw his shooting percentage drop from .526 to .425 from last season to this season.
He has failed to crack double digits in the points column in seven of his last eight games, He has scored over 20 points only once in the postseason, has amassed 40 turnovcers, and his shooting perentages have dipped to .377 overall and .299 from 3-points range.
Of all the stars in this series, he is clearly struggling more than anyone.
“I wish I knew what it was, because if I did I would have fixed it by now,” coach Gregg Popovich said.
Ginobili, making $14.1 million, will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. But in talking about the future, he strongly indicated that if he signs another contract it will be with the Spurs and nobody else. He said that during the course of the season, he felt he wanted to play one or two more years before retiring, but his recent struggles have altered his thinking. The most frustrating part of the slump, Ginobili said, is that he feels 100 percent physically after battling injuries though the first three-fourths of the season.
In the finals, Ginobili has made only 3 of 16 3-point attempts and is averaging only 3 assists per game. He has been the Spurs energizer off the bench for the past 11 years, winning the Sixth Man Award in 2008 and making thir-team All-NBA in 2008 and 2011. But the Spurs have been getting their bench production from Gary Neal (12-for-22 from 3-point range), and an argument can be made that it might behoove the Spurs to lean a little more on Danny Green, who is usually subbed out in favor of Ginobili around the 6 minute mark of the first quarter.
Green is San Antonio’s leading scorer in the series, avearging 16.5 points while knocking down 19 of his 28 3-point attempts for an astounding .679 shooting percentage from behind the arc.
It remains to be seen if Popovich will alter his rotations for what Tim Duncan described as a “must-win” Game 5 before the series shifts back to Miami for Game 6 on Tuesday and Game 7, if necessary, on Thursday.
Ginobili echoed that sentiment.
“This game is huge. We don’t want to go to Miami knowing that we have to win both. Going there to win one of the two is a different situation.”
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