It’s been nearly a year and a half since Manu Ginóbili has been healthy and well-rested.

After injuring himself in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, playing in just 44 games the following season because of injury, Manu sat out this year’s FIBA Americas Tournament and was forced by the Spurs to limit his summer activity to treadmills and posting on his Facebook fan page.

Summer of Rest
With months of  rest, Manu has completely healed the stress fracture he suffered late last season and came into the NBA preseason, quietly reminding the Spurs why he was so important to their team.

“Just watching in practice makes us remember how much we missed (Manu) last year, and even the year before when he was half speed in the playoffs,” coach Gregg Popovich said after Friday’s session. “We don’t realize how much we missed him until we saw him play. He adds so much.”

The last time Manu took an entire NBA off season (Argentine winter) off was in 2007 — and Ginóbili came back to average a career-best 19.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists, in 31 minutes.

With no offensive weaknesses, Ginóbili just doesn’t score, but his aggressiveness, uncanny sense of where his teammates are, and his ability for abstraction helps keep a structured San Antonio offense efficient.

“(Ginóbili) creates situations for us where we can score,” Popovich said. “The way we were built, Michael and Bruce (Bowen), they needed Manu out there to help them get the shots they were used to. Him coming back makes everybody better.”

You can read the full article at MySanAntonio.com.

Summer of Love
Here at Interbasket, we haven’t forgotten about Ginóbili, one of our favorite active players, and we’ve been taking mental notes how many props Ginóbili has been receiving in this offseason.

Over at Ball Don’t Lie of Yahoo! Sports, where they have been doing a bunch of the “decade’s top-10 lists,” Ginóbili found himself on those lists no less than two times; named as the sixth best shooting guards of the decade (link) and the decade’s best sixth men (link)

Then at NBA.com, Minnesota Timberwolves swingman Corey Brewer confirmed during an interview, saying that personally, Manu, not Kobe, Ray Allen, or other shooting guards, is his toughest cover in the league.

Despite playing only 44 games last season, SLAM Online named Ginobili the 29th best player in the NBA; above players like Shaquille O’Neal (#30), Carlos Boozer (#32), Hedo Türkoğlu (#35), and Ray Allen (#36).

It’s nice that the crafty, high-IQ, shooting guard is getting a lot of love over the off season.