Stats have never really captured the Manu Ginobili Experience, which is by nature a visceral, unquantifiable thing. It’s effort and ingenuity, begetting emotion, begetting hyperbole, the type of cascade that has made him a singularly spectacular player to both watch and write about.
But numbers do tell a story of their own, and one look at Manu’s this season compared to last should help affirm your own emotional valuations of what the Argentine is doing at age 40. Counting stats aren’t meant to trend the other way at this stage of a player’s career:
2016-17: 18.