Did Manu Ginobili almost sign with the Philadelphia 76ers?
Probably not.
Did the Sixers essentially force the Spurs to pay Ginobili $14 million next season by making a lucrative pitch to him in free agency?
Probably.
That’s the lowdown, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
Sources tell me the reason the Spurs had to go so far financially on the one-year deal was because of a real dogged pursuit by the Philadelphia 76ers, who, league sources told me, offered a guaranteed deal over two years that would have guaranteed Ginobili, in the first year, between 16 to $17 million. The Spurs’ initial offer for Ginobili was around $3 million. It forced San Antonio to have to raise their offer, and it ultimately helped cost San Antonio Boban Marjanovic, their 7’3″ restricted free agent center, who signed an offer sheet in Detroit.
Philadelphia’s coach, Brett Brown, has a long history with Ginobili; he coached him in San Antonio under Gregg Popovich for over a decade. And the 76ers really had Ginobili’s attention, because of the wide financial gulf between the two offers. But San Antonio was not going to let Ginobili end his career anywhere else. But that extra $10, $11 million that they put into his deal may have cost them their backup center to play behind Pau Gasol here in the future.
Basically: Sixers = Savage.
Paying Manu Ginobili $14 million isn’t a big deal. It’s the second-highest salary of his career. So where Tim Duncan was paid like a max player for part of his career, Ginobili never was. In this salary cap climate, he has earned such a pay grade.
But the Sixers essentially cost the Spurs garbage-time superhero Boban Marjanovic. That’s a big deal. He isn’t the second coming of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or anything, but he’s nearly nine years Pau Gasol’s junior and would have given the Spurs someone to evaluate, rather cheaply, at the center position in the future.
Good on the Spurs for making sure Manu Ginobili ends his career in San Antonio. But shame on the Sixers for sending Boban to Detroit.
