The San Antonio Spurs retired Manu Ginobili’s number on Thursday night, and now his No. 20 will live in the rafters at AT&T Center forever.
The Spurs held a ceremony for Ginobili for the occasion, and of course in attendance were myriad former teammates including Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. Along with Gregg Popovich, all got up to speak about Ginobili’s career.
Duncan perhaps had the best moment of the night when he told the story about San Antonio selecting Ginobili with the 57th pick in the 1999 NBA Draft.
Via Twitter:
"Who did we just pick?!"
— ESPN (@espn) March 29, 2019
Tim Duncan's story from when Manu got drafted is comedy 🤣 pic.twitter.com/IujAr7FkAq
The rest of the tribute was pretty great, including Parker cracking on Ginobili for his thinning hair. Spurs fans even got into a chant of “Olé, Olé, Olé” in his honor.
“You got no more hair now but you had hair back in the day. That was my favorite.” @tonyparker cracks jokes and thanks Manu ahead of his jersey retirement ❤️ pic.twitter.com/SNC7dh5eGg
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 29, 2019
Chills #GraciasManu pic.twitter.com/72Y7L7Fk9l
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 29, 2019
"Without Manu there were no Championships." - Coach Pop#GraciasManu pic.twitter.com/U43sYDaOf6
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 29, 2019
"Thank you for being with me all along. I love you." - @manuginobili #GraciasManu pic.twitter.com/kfktlud7Vk
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 29, 2019
Manu will forever be a part of San Antonio and the basketball world.#GraciasManu pic.twitter.com/5hz8ayIAsq
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 29, 2019
Ginobili really was one of the all-time greats.
