Manu Ginobili, 39, dunked all over the Rockets (Video)
Manu Ginobili is less than three months away from his 40th birthday. But the old man can still get up!
Ginobili careened down the lane and dunked all over the Houston Rockets — with his right hand! — in the second quarter of Game 5 in San Antonio:
NBA Twitter, of course, lost its collective mind:
MANU DUNKED MANU DUNKED MANU DUNKED MANU DUNKED MANU DUNKED
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 10, 2017
Two things I didn't think I'd see in this game: Kawhi Leonard missing a dunk and Manu Ginobili throwing one down himself.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) May 10, 2017
Manu? What?
— Leigh Ellis (@LeighEllis) May 10, 2017
Manu just effing FLEW
— Chris Herring (@Herring_NBA) May 10, 2017
More surprising: Kawhi losing his grip on a dunk or Manu throwing one down in traffic?
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) May 10, 2017
GINOBILI CON EL DERECHO pic.twitter.com/jDgPEu37Lo
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) May 10, 2017
remember when manu hit the bat out of thin air? that dunk was better
— Jeremy Woo (@JeremyWoo) May 10, 2017
I'm here for any and all Ginobili flashback moments
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 10, 2017
As Tas Melas of The Starters pointed out, this was not the first time Manu surprised everybody with a flying dunk in a big playoff game:
A good time for Manu’s dunk on Bosh in the 2014 Finals: https://t.co/0RCjP0r3hF
— Tas Melas (@TasMelas) May 10, 2017
Random Manu Ginobili dunks are one of my favorite spring traditions.
— Taco Trey Kerby (@treykerby) May 10, 2017
Ginobili isn’t the dunker he once was. Per Basketball Reference, he dunked just twice during the 2016-17 regular season, and has only thrown down five dunks in the last three seasons. That gives you an idea of why the dunk was so impressive. It came out of nowhere.
In fact, even Ginobili was surprised:
Manu on the dunk: “That… was unexpected.”
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 10, 2017
Ginobili on his dunk…#Spurs pic.twitter.com/KcgT38vrLA
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) May 10, 2017
But young Manu used to be a prolific dunker, at least by balding white guy standards. He threw down 20 in his second season in the NBA and 22 in his third year. Now he’s turning back time and still rising up over a decade later.
The dunk wasn’t the end of Ginobili’s night either. He scored crucial points down the stretch, and block a potentially game-tying James Harden 3-point attempt at the buzzer in overtime:
Another look at Manu's game-saving block! #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/Di8IihHQo0
— NBA (@NBA) May 10, 2017
It was quite the night for Manu, and quite the night for the Spurs, who held off the Rockets in OT despite losing Kawhi Leonard to an ankle injury.