Manu wins NBA 6th Man Award, yawn...

Manu is part of the Big 3 for the Spurs, one of the best teams in the league. Great player

He plays really hard and that's what I really like about his game.

I'd rather have Turkoulu

As much as I hate the Spurs, I gotta say that Ginobli is a 110% give it your all player each and every time he steps on the floor.

Ginobili is a top 15 or 20 player in the NBA, but he's a bench player because he comes off the bench. He averaged 31.1 minutes per game during the season, which are the minutes of a fringe starter/sixth man. Coach Popovich recognized early that Manu plays his best ball coming off the bench in limited minutes and he has (pretty much) stuck with that plan. They work Parker and Duncan early and then Manu comes in and torches the other team's bench. Not a bad plan.

Good point.

Manu really annoys me but I must admit that he is a very good player.

It's really dumb that they define the Sixth Man of the Year this way because Ginobili might have been San Antonio's best player all year. He just gets the award because he comes off the bench. they really need to think of a way to redefine the award.

I'm not sure there's another alternative. You can't cap the minutes because then you might have coaches/players reducing minutes to qualify for the award late in the season. You can't just say that a player "should be starting" because you can probably say that about all the candidates. And you can't disqualify a player because he arguably had the best season of anyone on his team. He's still the league's best sixth man.

I just think that a traditional Sixth Man shouldn't be getting starter's minutes. A Sixth Man should be a traditional role player (Vujacic and Farmar for example, or Barbosa in Phoenix or Korver in Utah). I don't think it'll get resolved though.

What a shocker.

Umm you know, don't get me wrong, Manu deserves it...he is AMAZING...but I have to admit, I was a bit annoyed to see that Travis Outlaw didn't get any votes. He was fantastic for the Blazers this season and deserved to see a little love...at least.

I think they gave it to teams who made the playoffs.

That and Manu's PER was around 10 points higher. Those might have something to do with it.

Never said I wanted him to win the award, I said I would have liked to see him get some votes, at least, because he was extremely valuable to Portland this year. I'm not trying to say Manu didn't deserve it, because he did.

Some players just will remain unnoticed unless they're in a major media market. Travis Outlaw fits this bill, but that might change once GO hits the floor. I could see him getting more votes next season. As long as he keeps it up. I've never been too big into awards. Particularily the NBAs, since it's so heavily driven by the media. Gotta love ESPN [/sarcasm]~!

I don't think he should have won the award. He's the best player on the team and plays starter minutes. What if Kobe came off the bench, do you think he should win the award? The award should go a player who provides a spark off the bench, but isn't good enough to crack the starting line-up. Manu is good enough to crack the starting line-up because he is arguably the best player on the team.

Did you forget that Tim Duncan is on the Spurs when you said "He's the best player on the team"? Also this is the first year he's averaged over 30 minutes a game. If Manu shouldn't be the Sixth Man of the Year, then who should be?

he played 45 minutes in the first game of this years playoffs because it went into double overtime....in the regular season last year he played a career high 31 mpg and barbosa played 29 mpg....ginobli for his career avg. 27 mpg and the reason he played 31 mpg this year because parker got hurt and he had to start.....he definetly deserves this and ppl think he plays 40 mpg just because he scores so much

Making Spurs games interesting.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOgvGiVQZOM

Obi-One Ginobili deserves it!!!

LOL, I agree with the "yawn" part...but congrats to Manu!

I just wonder what "starter's minutes" are. If you get into putting a cap on that, a coach might limit a player's minutes so that he would be eligible for an award. (Doubtful, but possible.) i don't think we want year-end awards to affect what decisions are made on the court.

All of those that were writing the Spurs off toward the end of the season may have to rethink that if they grab a game out in Phoenix, which is very likely.