NBA: Should Manu Ginobili Make The Hall of Fame?

Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs is a great player, but is nearing the end. (Photo: Flickr user Killbucky).

Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs has had a very successful career that has been highlighted by tremendous consistency and three NBA championships. He’s only made two All-Star games and his only awards have been the 2007-08 Sixth Man of the Year, and two All-NBA third team selections. Does his resume say “Hall-of-Famer” to you?

Let’s look at his regular season statistics:

Season    Age   G  GS   MP  FG%  3P%  FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS
2002-03    25  69   5 20.7 .438 .345 .737 0.7 1.7 2.3 2.0 1.4 0.2 1.4 2.5  7.6
2003-04    26  77  38 29.4 .418 .359 .802 1.1 3.4 4.5 3.8 1.8 0.2 2.1 2.4 12.8
2004-05    27  74  74 29.6 .471 .376 .803 1.0 3.4 4.4 3.9 1.6 0.4 2.3 2.6 16.0
2005-06    28  65  56 27.9 .462 .382 .778 0.6 2.9 3.5 3.6 1.6 0.4 1.9 2.4 15.1
2006-07    29  75  36 27.5 .464 .396 .860 0.8 3.6 4.4 3.5 1.5 0.4 2.1 2.1 16.5
2007-08    30  74  23 31.1 .460 .401 .860 0.9 3.9 4.8 4.5 1.5 0.4 2.7 2.3 19.5
2008-09    31  44   7 26.8 .454 .330 .884 0.5 4.0 4.5 3.6 1.5 0.4 2.0 2.0 15.5
2009-10    32  75  21 28.7 .441 .377 .870 0.9 2.9 3.8 4.9 1.4 0.3 2.1 2.1 16.5
2010-11    33  80  79 30.3 .433 .349 .871 0.5 3.2 3.7 4.9 1.5 0.4 2.2 2.0 17.4
2011-12    34  34   7 23.3 .526 .413 .871 0.5 2.9 3.4 4.4 0.7 0.4 1.9 1.6 12.9
Career        667 346 27.9 .452 .373 .835 0.8 3.2 4.0 3.9 1.5 0.3 2.1 2.2 15.2

His career averages of 15.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.5 steals don’t stand out. When adjusted to per-36 minutes, they become 19.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.9 steals. While those are extremely good and very few players dream of pushing 20-5-5-2 for their career, it still doesn’t jump out as elite.

His playoff statistics show us this:

Season    Age    G  STL  BLK  TOV   PF  FG%  3P%  FT%   MP  PTS  TRB  AST
2002-03    25   24   41    9   36   62 .386 .384 .757 27.5  9.4  3.8  2.9
2003-04    26   10   17    1   21   30 .447 .286 .818 28.0 13.0  5.3  3.1
2004-05    27   23   28    6   66   69 .507 .438 .795 33.6 20.8  5.8  4.2
2005-06    28   13   19    7   33   43 .484 .333 .839 32.8 18.4  4.5  3.0
2006-07    29   20   33    4   42   61 .401 .384 .836 30.1 16.7  5.5  3.7
2007-08    30   17   10    5   47   47 .422 .373 .896 32.9 17.8  3.8  3.9
2009-10    32   10   26    2   30   30 .414 .333 .866 35.2 19.4  3.7  6.0
2010-11    33    5   13    3   17   13 .443 .321 .780 34.8 20.6  4.0  4.2
2011-12    34   14   10    4   42   36 .448 .338 .857 27.9 14.4  3.5  4.0
Career         136  197   41  334  391 .441 .368 .825 31.0 16.2  4.5  3.8

16.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.4 steals over his career in the playoffs is almost a mirror image of his regular season numbers. I have always been thoroughly impressed with players who produce regardless of the game they’re in. Some players dominate weak competition and shrink against the best teams, but not Manu.

There’s no doubt that the San Antonio Spurs owe a lot of their success to the play of Ginobili and without him, the careers of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker would have been different and they wouldn’t be nearly as dynamic on either end of the court.

With that said, history shows us that players need to stand out among their peers in order to make the Hall of Fame. The three championships make him stand out but his individual contributions don’t. Let’s not forget that Kevin Johnson, who has a much deeper resume and better statistics (but no championships) is still on the outside looking in. There are many others in the same spot.

The San Antonio Spurs will challenge for another championship this year and if they win it, Ginobili will make the Hall of Fame some day. If not, he’ll probably stay right on the line and nearly miss out.

Thanks for visiting HoopsHabit.com! “Like” us on Facebook here, follow us on Twitter here, and enter your e-mail below to receive daily updates in your inbox! For those interested in our RSS feed, subscribe to our feed here!

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Michael Dunlap

Founder and Editor-In-Chief at HoopsHabit

I wear many hats. I will become a father for the first time in July 2013. My work career started as an umpire, evolved to a blackjack dealer and has settled as a sportswriter. You could say I'm used to getting yelled at. I love me some Minnesota Timberwolves but currently call Phoenix home. I'm an eight handicap and a terrible leaper.

Latest posts by Michael Dunlap (see all)

• NBA Draft Lottery 2013: 5 Random Facts - May 21, 2013
• Building The Perfect NBA Player Part II: Speed - May 20, 2013
• NBA Playoffs 2013: San Antonio Spurs vs. Memphis Grizzlies Preview - May 19, 2013
• Building The Perfect NBA Player Part I: The Body - May 13, 2013
• NBA Stat Central #21: 2012-13 Playoff Oddities - May 12, 2013