San Antonio • Manu Ginobili walked into the San Antonio Spurs practice facility and saw the intense efforts of his young teammates in preseason workouts.
Ginobili had put himself through those same workouts for 16 seasons. But on that August morning, the 41-year-old realized he couldn’t. For a player who has literally thrown himself into his basketball career, the realization his body and spirit were no longer willing cemented the decision to walk away from the NBA.
“I couldn’t see my body going through that kind of grind again,” Ginobili said Saturday during a press conference at the Spurs practice facility.