SAN ANTONIO -- The Spurs are a family now, with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and head coach Gregg Popovich having been together since the 2003 season.
Family protects its own, which explains why Duncan and Parker weren’t at all happy with the level of criticism that Ginobili had been receiving through the first four games of the NBA Finals.
Ginobili had a breakout performance in Game 5, of course, and was the catalyst in his team’s big win that has them just one game from an NBA title. But he had been essentially nonexistent in the series until this point, and despite his history with the franchise, the comments that outsiders were making regarding Ginobili’s play were beginning to bother some of the team’s core players.
“Yeah, of course,” Parker said, when asked if he was upset with the level of negativity being lobbed in his teammate’s direction. “Because for everything he did for the franchise, I thought it was a little bit too harsh. We understand it’s a business, but he came out big tonight. I was very happy for him.”
Duncan was similarly irritated by the volume of harsh words directed at Ginobili.
“A tremendous amount,” Duncan answered, when asked how much the recent criticisms of Ginobili bothered him. “We’re not a team or an organization that kind of points fingers in that respect. I know it’s on the media to find out what’s wrong with everybody, what happened whatever game, but he’s such a huge part of what we do, and how far we’ve come. And you can see it tonight in how we played and the results of the game.
“So we’re always confident in him. We don’t look at the stats and say, hey, it’s his fault or his fault or his fault. We know he has it in him and we hope he can bring it for at least one more win.”
For his part, Ginobili seemed to grow increasingly aware of the mounting criticism, but tried to block it out as much as possible to focus on his next performance.
“I really don’t know exactly what was going on, but with so much media around, they ask you things that you are not used to answering,” Ginobili said. “So that’s when you realize you’re being criticized. But I really don’t read what’s going on. I knew that I was not scoring much, and I felt it in the air. But I tried not to care about it.
“I’m critical enough of myself to be worrying about what other people say. So as I was telling before, I was frustrated enough knowing how I played and what I could do better. So I really didn’t need to listen what other people were saying or be reading about it.”
The criticism may have bothered his teammates, and it may have even been justified. But all of that is behind Ginobili now, with his Game 5 performance being the main reason the Spurs are just one win away from another NBA title.
