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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v SPURSJune 9, 2007Manu GinobiliSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Practice Day Q. What's it been like for you to go back to your role as a sixth man? We haven't really seen any drop off from when you were a starter to sixth man. What's it been like for you? MANU GINOBILI: It hasn't been tough. I took it very lightly since the first moment he told me. I know that even when I start, I'm not a player that plays 38 to 40 minutes, so my minutes didn't drop. I still play the last five to six minutes, and I feel like I'm a very important player in this franchise. No, not very big changes for me, only the fact of not playing the first five minutes. Q. I'm curious, four years ago when you guys won your first title when you were with this team, the buzz around The Finals was that Tony Parker was too young and he wasn't good enough to win a title and he was going to be replaced by Jason Kidd in that off-season. Can you talk about his maturation, how now he's a guy that you really would not be here without? MANU GINOBILI: Well, he's been -- I remember that first year, and it was a really tough period for him because even though he was doing great, the team was first in the NBA, there were a lot of talk about him being traded. And being 19 at that point, I bet it was not easy. But he was so mature at that point, leaving that aside, keep playing, keep working out and keep improving, that I really admired him for that. You know, after that when they stopped talking about that, he just kept improving. And today he's one of the best point guards in the league and one of the main reasons why we're here. It's really remarkable what he did at such a young age. Q. Do you think that that negative experience helped him get to where he is today? MANU GINOBILI: Well, maybe, maybe. Probably at that point he didn't understand why people were talking about that because he was so young and the team was doing great. But what I know for sure is that now he knows this is his team, and he's taking us to the top. He's in a great position right now. Q. What changes do you anticipate the Cavaliers making? MANU GINOBILI: I don't know the details, what they are going to exactly change, especially on offense, because I think defensively they were good. But I'm sure they're going to try to get some more easy buckets in transition or fast break. They're going to try to play more aggressively. LeBron is going to try to take them and try to get to the rim more and not take so many jumpers, and then they're going to go at probably Ilgauskas a little bit more with his back to the basket. But besides that they're just going to play with a lot of intensity, with way more hitch than they did in the first game. Q. I don't know growing up if you were much of an NBA historian or followed the NBA much, especially like the Bulls' run. But did you, and do you feel that you're a part of any special group along those same line? MANU GINOBILI: Yes, I followed the NBA a lot, especially when I was like 13, 14 years old is when we started watching the NBA Finals live, and it was a huge Final with M.J., as well as for my father and the whole city. I was a big fan, and I grew up watching it, and I felt like I was part of it from far over there. I do believe that we have a big opportunity to do something special. There are some many teams that have the opportunity to win four titles in eight years, I think it is, so we just don't have to think about that now. What we have to think now is that we had a great opportunity, we have home court advantage, we are 1-0, so we've just got to use it and do whatever it takes to not let this opportunity go. End of FastScripts |
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