After resting this summer, Manu Ginóbili hasn’t had the year we were expecting from him thus far, but last night in the San Antonio Spur’s 117-99 win over the the Minnesota Timberwolves, the 32-year old reminded us of his under-rated court vision and ability for the spectacular play.

“Tonight was one of his best all around games” said Gregg Popovich. “He played well defensively. He rebounded fantastically and offensively, he looked like ‘Manu.’ Everybody is excited to see him play that way.”

Manu ended the game with a near triple-double; 14 points, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds. He also had 3 steals in 27 minutes off the bench.

His near triple double is great, but it’s a few of his assists last night that inspired this post.

On two fast break situations, Ginobili received the ball at full speed, and in one motion threw amazing, pinpoint passes to a trailer – once to Richard Jefferson and a behind the back to Dejuan Blair.

“His ability to crash the boards, get steals, play defense, shoot the long shots, penetrate, find guys open. He’s an offense onto himself. [THe Spurs] let him out there and he creates things.” said Minnesota’s head coach Kurt Rambis.

“[Ginobili] plays an unorthodox style of basketball that makes it very difficult to cover him.“

It’s been a busy week for FIBA as they announced the four wild cards on Saturday, and determined the top four seeds for the World Championships of Basketball on Sunday.

Now the federation that overseas international basketball has announced the draw results that will determine the groupings for the 2010 world basketball event in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 24 participating nations were drawn into four groups of six teams each:

• Group A: Serbia, Argentina, Australia, Jordan, Germany, Angola
• Group B: Croatia, Brazil, Tunisia, Slovenia, Iran, USA
• Group C: China, Turkey, Russia, Puerto Rico, Ivory Coast, Greece
• Group D: Lithuania, Lebanon, France, Spain, Canada, New Zealand

(Discuss the draw results in our forum)

The draw was held at the the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel, Istanbul, on 15th December 15th, 2009 at 11:30AM local time.

The draw was conducted jointly by FIBA and the LOC in the presence of participating nations’ representatives, “National Federation members, prominent public figures and members of the international media.”

The FIBA World Championships are held every four years and determines the world’s top country in basketball.

From the bottom to the top.

With the four final wild cards handed out yesterday, the World Championships of Basketball continue to take shape from the bottom up. FIBA has now decided the four countries that will lead the four groups: Argentina, Greece, Spain and USA.

These four federations will be the number one seeds in their group and are currently the four top basketball nations, according to FIBA’s world rankings – Argentina is ranked #1, USA #2, Spain #3, and Greece is ranked 4th.

For the full explanation on how the seedings will pan out, go to Talkbasket.net.

Manu Ginóbili was supposed to come into the 2009-10 NBA season with a renewed vigor for the game after spending the entire summer away from basketball.

Instead, the 6-6 superstar shooting guard for the San Antonio Spurs is lacking confidence and not playing his game.

“I’m lacking a lot of stuff, mainly confidence,” he said. “I’m still hesitating, doing things I don’t usually do — passing up shots or not attacking the rim as hard. Maybe I’m thinking too hard, or worried because I already missed six games. I really don’t know.”

The 32-year old Ginóbili is averaging just 12.7 points on 36.8% from the field as the Spurs have stumbled out of the gate to a 9-9 record.

Ginóbili’s points average is at the lowest since his second year in the league six years ago, and his field goal percentage is far and away a career-low.

The positive is that the problem is all mental, as Manu feels healthy and there is no pain thus far this season.

“I felt great before the game,” Ginobili said after Saturday’s 106-99 loss to the Denver Nuggets. “The good thing is I’m feeling really good after the game, too.”

As long as he continues to remain healthy, we all know Manu will get eventually get it together this season, and with that the Spurs will improve.

Andrés Nocioni, the forward from Argentina, was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

The Sacramento Kings player that was acquired late last season, was pulled over in downtown Sacramento around 2am as the arresting police officer noticed his car was weaving.

“I want to apologize to the Kings organization, my teammates, my coaches, the fans, the city of Sacramento and my family,” Nocioni said in a statement. “Drinking and driving is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. I made a mistake and I’m very sorry for my lapse in judgment.”

Nocioni is averaging 9.8 points and 3.8 rebounds off the bench. No word on whether Nocioni will be suspended, but it’s likely that the 29-year old will miss games due to this run-in with the law. More about Nocioni’s DUI from the AP

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.

On Tuesday, eleven basketball legends that greatly contributed to the game of basketaball as players, coaches, referees, or contributors were inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain).

The men and women of the 2009 inductees included US and NBA great Oscar Robertson (USA), national team hero Ricardo González (Argentina), women’s basketball legend Jacky Chazalon (France), referee Artenik Arabadjian (Bulgaria), and coach Pedro Ferrández (Spain).

Phostumous inductees include big man coache Pete Newell (USA) and women’s NCAA coach Kay Yow (USA), Ubiratan Pereira (Brazil), referee Marcel Pfeuti (Switzerland), and contributor Luis Martin (Spain).

The  inductees, except for Chazalon, were in Katowice, Poland, on Sunday to watch the final day of EuroBasket before flying out to Spain to take part in their induction ceremony.

Boston Celtic great Bill Russell, who was inducted 2 years ago in the FIBA Hall of Fame’s first class, was also in Spain to take part in the ceremonies.

“It’s an honor to be inducted in the FIBA Hall of Fame,” the now 84-year old González said to FIBA.com. “To be recognized for my career as a basketball player is a wonderful feeling and it gives me great pride.”

San Juan, PR – Brazil barely squeaked by Puerto Rico 61-60 to capture te gold medal in the 2009 FIBA Americas Championships.

(Discuss the game)

Brazil steadily built up a 13-point lead going into the fourth quarter before the hosts tightened up their defense to gradually pick away at Brazil’s margin.

Puerto Rico’s AD Vasallo led the charge in the final quarter, the 6-6 shooting guard scored all of his nine points in the fourth quarter but missed the second of two free-throws with 33 seconds remaining that could have tied the game at 61.

Leandro Barbosa led Brazil with 24 points, but did most of his damage was in the first three as he was held to just three points in the crucial fourth quarter. Tiago Splitter added 13 points with 9 rebounds for the Brazilian squad.

Carlos Arroyo top-scored for Puerto Rico with 14 points, but missed a three at the end of the game that would have won it for the hosts.

Both teams shot under 40% for the game. Brazil’s was 9-1 in the tournament, their only loss coming at Puerto Rico’s hands in the final day of the quarterfinals – they also won the 2005 tournament.  Puerto Rico finished the tournament with a 8-2 record.

Argentina takes Bronze; Scola wins MVP
Argentina finished the Americas tournament with a bronze medal, defeating Canada 88-73 in the third place game. Argentina used a dominant first quarter to break the Canadians, outscoring them 31-8 in the initial period.  Paolo Quinteros scored all of his 13 points in that first quarter.

Houston Rocket’s forward Luis Scola again led his team with 27 points.  Euroleague playmaker Pablo Prigioni scored 17 and added 8 assists.

For Canada, Jermaine Anderson scored 19 points and had 11 assists; Levon Kendall and Aaron Doornekamp added 12 points and 11 points respectively.

Scola was named MVP of the tournament after the Houston Rockets forward averaged a tournament high 23.3 points per game and was the unquestioned leader of the Argentinians. Carlos Arroyo and Tiago Splitter also were considered in the voting.

The top-two seeded teams will battle for FIBA Americas gold tomorrow.

Brazil and Puerto Rico each won their semi-finals game today and will meet up for the second time in three days.

Puerto Rico handed Brazil their first loss on Friday night 74-70, and though both teams had a 7-1 record, Brazil ended up with the number one seed due to their goal average against Argentina and Canada.

(Click here to discuss the FIBA Americas final between Brazil and Puerto Rico in our forum)

In today’s semi-finals, Puerto Rico halted Argentina’s run of six straight wins with an 85-80 victory while Brazil used a great third quarter to handle Canada 73-65.

Carlos Arroyo continued his resurgent play for Puerto Rico with 19 points. Luis Scola scored 31 points for the Argentina side.

Brazil got 22 points from Leandro Barbosa, and Joel Anthony pulled in 17 points and 8 rebounds for the Canadians.

Both Brazil and Puerto Rico have eight wins and one loss going into tomorrow’s final game.  Canada and Argentina will play for the bronze medal. More importantly, all four teams have qualified for the World Championships next year.

Three of the four Americas teams have punched their tickets to the 2010 World Championships to be held next year in Turkey.

At an undefeated 7-0, Brazil has already earned a spot in the World Championships by dominating their competition, and are now looking for gold with a stacked

Argentina and Puerto Rico are the two other teams that have also qualified.

After starting the tournament with two losses,  Argentina (5-2) has now won five straight games, handing the Puerto Ricans (6-1) their first loss, 80-78, of the tournament yesterday.

Must Win Situations
The fourth and final spot will be determined today in the last day of the quarterfinals between three teams: Dominican Republic, Canada, and Uruguay.

If the Dominican Republic (4-3) can record their fifth win of the tournament by defeating Canada today, the race is over and the Dominicans will move on based on overall record.

But if Canada (3-4) can pull out a win against the Dominicans, and Uruguay loses, the North American country will qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship.  This all-important game between DR and Canada is set for 6:30 local time (Puerto Rico).

The third scenario involves Uruguay (3-4) forcing a three way tie between the teams.

If Uruguay can win their last game over red hot Argentina, who may rest their key players against their neighbors to the east. Uruguay can clinch a spot with a win coupled with a Canadian win over the Dominicans.

I scoured some images from the FIBA Americas Championship and pulled out my favorite twenty photos featuring Carlos Arroyo, Esteban Batista, Francisco Garcia, Anderson Varejao, Omar Quintero, Luis Scola, Guillermo Diaz, and more.

[Show as slideshow]

Photos are all courtesy of FIBA – Thanks FIBA!

We should know by now never to underestimate Argentina.

Argentina started out the FIBA Americas tournament with two losses, looking completely out of character, losing badly to Brazil and Venezuela.

One of the favorites coming into the tournament, the Argentinians started 0-2 and were at risk of being eliminated in the preliminary rounds.

With their backs against the wall, Argentina rebounded and blew out Panama 80-55 in their third game, and then needed overtime to defeat a very strong Dominican Republic team last night. 89-87 in the argentina-vs-11043/” target=”_self”>best game of the tournament thus far.

Luis Scola of the Houston Rockets, finished with a game-high 30 points, the 6-8 power forward shot 10-19 from the field, added 8 rebounds and passed out 5 assists.

Paolo Quinteros had 14 and Pablo Prigioni 11 points with 5 assists for Argentina.

Al Horford led the Dominicans with 24 points and 11 rebounds and Francisco García scored 20 points. Luis Flores contributed 16 and Jack Michael Martinez had 13.

Charlie Villanueva pulled down 10 rebounds for the Dominicans, but finished with just 9 points on 3-13 from the field, including a miss on their final possession in regulation.

With last night’s thrilling win, Argentina finished with a 2-2 record, good for second place in Group B. Brazil finished atop the group, and Venezuela, who was 1-3, was officially eliminated after four round robin games.

The quarterfinals begin tomorrow, Tuesday, September 1st.  You can see the full schedule at FibaAmericas.com.

Brazil continued their winning streak, downing Argentina 76-67, in day three of the FIBA Americas Championship.

Brazil jumped out to a 21-13 lead led by Anderson Varejão’s 11 first quarter points. But Argentina would go on a 8-2 run to start the second quarter to trim to lead to just two before Brazil went on their own run, outscoring Argentina 14-2 the rest of the quarter.

Brazil went into halftime up 14 points, 37-23.

The second half saw Brazil build double-digit leads only to see Argentina trim the lead to six twice, and five once, but wouldn’t get any closer than that as Brazil always had an answer.

Brazil was led by Leandro Barbosa‘s 21 points, Varejão’s 19 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals, and Marcelo Huertas’ 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Brazil’s starting five of Barbosa, Varejão, Huertas, Tiago Splitter, and Alex Garcia played 183 of the possible 200 minutes of the game.

Argentina was led by forward Luis Scola‘s was 9-16 from the field and tallied a team-high19 points. The rest of the Argentinian team shot just 36% on 17-47 shooting.

With the win, Brazil is now 3-0 and have defeated the other two favorites in their groupp, the Dominican Republic on day, and Argentina today. Brazil also defeated Venezuela.

With the loss, Argentina drops to 0-2 and is in danger of advancing past the prelimiary rounds. With losses to Venezuela and Brazil, the pressure is on Argentina to win out in their next two games vs. the Dominican Republic and Panama to have a chance at a berth to the 2010 World Championships.

Event: 2009 Americas Championships
Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Discuss: Americas Championships Thread
Info: The tournament will determine which four teams qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championships of Basketball.

The tournament will feature ten teams from Northern and Latin Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The favorites coming into the tournament is a solid Brazil team and the experienced Argentinians.

Brazil dominated the Tuto Marchand Cup with great efficiency with even contributions from Leandro Barbosa and Marcelo Machado in the backcourt, and Anderson Varejão and Tiago Splitter in the frontcourt.

Despite 2007 Americas MVP Luis Scola down low, Argentina didn’t fare as well in the Marchand Cup (0-3), but were without the services of Pablo Prigioni, who will join the team and run the point.

With Prigioni, Scola, as well as Federico Kammerichs and Leonardo Gutiérrez, team Argentina is still a power even without Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Carlos Delfino, and Fabricio Oberto.

The unproven Dominican Republic team have looked great in preparation games and is the dark horse of the tournament.  The team maybe the best team RD has ever assembled and features three current NBA players in Francisco García, Al Horford, and Charlie Villanueva.

The three top contenders for gold, Argentina, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, will all compete in a very difficult Group B.  The other two teams are Panama, who is no slouch either and Venezuela.

In Group A, look for Puerto Rico to give out a good fight, especially playing at home, with veteran mainstays Larry Ayuso, Carlos Arroyo, and Daniel Santiago.

Canada will compete with swingmen Carl English, Andy Rautins with NBA player Joel Anthony in the middle.  The other three teams are Uruguay, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Mexico without Eduardo Najera.

The United States will not send a team to the tournament after receiving an automatic bid to the World Championships by winning the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The United States won the 2007 Americas Championship held in Las Vegas by going undefeated in their ten games.  The USA was led by Carmelo Anthony’s 21.3 points and LeBron James‘ all-around game and blistering 76% from the field (73-96 FG). Argentina captured the silver medal, and Puerto Rico defeated Brazil for the bronze medal.

This year’s Championships will feature several other high profile players including Romel Beck (Mexico), Esteban Batista (Uruguay), Luis Flores (Dominican Republic), Levon Kendall (Canada), Héctor Romero (Venezuela), and Óscar Torres (Venezuela).

Carl English shoots a jumper at the Puerto Rico Marchand Cup (AP)” src=”http://www.interbasket.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/carl-english-jumper.jpg” alt=”Canada’s Carl English shoots a jumper at the Puerto Rico Marchand Cup (AP)” width=”200″ height=”279″ />

The Tuto Marchand Cup commenced yesterday at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot.

The tournament features four-nations, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Puerto Rico, in three straight days of games in prepartion for the FIBA Tournament of Americas.

(Discuss Tuto Marchand Cup in our forum)

Argentina lost to Brazil 91-76 led by Leandro Barbosa‘s 18 points and 7 rebounds.  The Brazilians built upon their lead after each period as Team Argentina couldn’t shoot straight.

Outside of Luis Scola‘s 10-19 from the field, his Argentinian teammates were a combined 15-56, shooting just 26% for the game.

Tiago Splitter added 14 points 9 rebounds, 3 assists and Marcelo Machado had 11 points 7 rebounds and 6 assists for Brazil. Scola led Argentina with 28 points and six rebounds.

Puerto Rico defeated Canada 59-55 behind Larry Ayuso‘s 13 points. The Canadian loss could be attributed on a dismal second quarter in which they scored just four points. After a free throw by Andy Rautins and a three pointer by Tyler Kepkay, Canada wouldn’t score another point in the final 8:20 of the quarter.

However, the Canadians “exploded” for 27 points in the third to bring them within five points, 49-44, but another low-scoring quarter in the fourth would keep Puerto Rico on top.

Daniel Santiago had 7 points and 10 rebounds, and Filiberto Rivera added 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists for Puerto Rico.  Carl English was the top scorer for Canada with 14 points.  Carlos Arroyo suffered an injury as was limited to just 14 scoreless minutes.

The schedule and rosters for the three-day friendly tournament looks like this:

Aug 18: Argentina vs. Brazil
Aug 18: Puerto Rico vs. Canada
Aug 19: Canada vs. Argentina
Aug 19; Puerto Rico vs. Brazil
Aug 20: Brazil vs. Canada
Aug 20; Puerto Rico vs. Argentina

Argentina: Juan Pablo Cantero and Pablo Prigioni (PG); Paolo Quinteros and Diego Garcнa (SG); Sebastiбn Matнas Sandes and Federico Kammerichs (SF); Luis Scola, Leonardo Gutiйrrez, Leonardo Mainoldi and Andrйs Pelussi (PF); Romбn Gonzбlez and Juan Pedro Gutiйrrez (C).

Brasil: Duda Machado and Marcelo Huertas (PG); Alex Garcia, Diego Pinheiro, Jonathan Tavernari and Leandrinho Barbosa (SG); Guilherme Giovannoni and Marcelinho Machado (SF); Alexandre “Olivinha” and Anderson Varejão (PF); Joгo Paulo Batista and Tiago Splitter (C).

Canada: Jermaine Anderson, Tyler Kepkay and Ryan Bell (PG); Carl English and Andy Rautins (SG); Jermaine Bucknor, Olu Famutimi and Jevohn Shepherd (SF); Aaron Doornekamp, Kyle Landry and Joel Anthony (PF); Jesse Young; Levon Kendall and Phil Martin (C).

Puerto Rico: Carlos Arroyo, Filiberto Rivera, Christian Dalmau and Guillermo Dнaz (PG); Larry Ayuso, Joel Jones and Jesse Pellot-Rosa (SG); A.D. Vassallo and Carmelo Lee (SF); Бngelo Reyes, Ricky Sбnchez and Alex Falcуn (PF); Daniel Santiago (C).

The Marchand Cup is the final preparations before the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship that start August 26, 2009.