Ginobili’s career in question

LOS ANGELES, CA — Already bounced from the Western Conference Finals in only five games by the Lakers, bad news keeps on coming for the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.

Guard Manu Ginobili was injured in an off-court incident late Thursday night, leaving him not only questionable for the Summer Olympics and the start of training camp next year, but possibly facing the end of his career.

According to an SSNN source in Los Angeles, Ginobili was watching a late-night re-run of SportsCenter in his L.A. hotel room after Thursday’s loss when he heard a report that the NBA will begin fining players for flopping. That same source had Ginobili immediately falling to floor violently, suffering serious head and neck injuries.

“I think it’s pretty serious, but I don’t really know,” said head coach Greg Popovich, when reached Friday morning. “As long as Manu is awarded two free throws for the fall, I think we can all agree it will have been worth it.”

Ginobili refused to comment, but many of his teammates came to his defense.

“It was clear to me that the NBA got a piece of his arm on the shot,” said Tony Parker. “You know, even though he wasn’t shooting and it’s ridiculous to personify something like the NBA. I think I’ve confused myself… I’m married to Eva Longoria, did you know that? And I have a French-language hip hop album that I think you’d really enjoy.”

Brent Barry said he is “positive” Ginobili was fouled, even though he wasn’t there for the incident. Spurs superstar Tim Duncan also expressed sympathy for his fallen comrade.

“I can definitely feel his pain,” Duncan said. “Manu got blindsided, and that’s just not fair. It’d be like if the NBA started cracking down on incessant whining – I’d absolutely feel that. You can’t come after a guy like the league did and not expect him to get injured.”

Manu’s agent would not give out any specifics, but did say that if the injury – or the rule change – turns out to be career-ending, Ginobili can always fall back on soccer, where his style of play would be more appreciated.

It’s going to be tough for this sport to sweep any nations, but it’s still pretty frickin’ cool!