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YouTube Gold: Manu Ginobli

You have to be bad, and also lucky, to draft guys like David Robinson and Tim Duncan, as the San Antonio Spurs did, but give the franchise credit: over the years, they have identified talent and drafted brilliantly.

One of their greatest draft coups was picking Manu Ginobli in 1999. You could make the argument, pretty easily, that he was the best player in that draft.

He was the 57th pick.

But we’re guessing even the Spurs didn’t realize how good he would be since they took Leon Smith at #29. A troubled player who jumped from high school to the NBA, Smith was immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks for a player you’ve probably never heard of and a second round draft pick.