By Jeff McDonald - Express-News
By now, the video has flown around the world, which is more than can be said of one of its stars. The bat that Spurs guard Manu Ginobili swatted from midair during Saturday's game at the AT&T Center won't be flying very far anytime soon.
The supposed snuff film, however, lives on.
Yahoo.com's NBA blog had the video up within minutes. Web surfers from Buenos Aires to Beijing have downloaded the clip on YouTube. Ginobili's random act of pest control was the talk of the national highlight shows.
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“When you can't dunk anymore, you've got to find some way to make it to the news,” Ginobili said.
In a bizarre turn of events, Ginobili — one of the NBA's top trick-shot artists — has re-emerged as an Internet sensation, not for his basketball chops, but for his extermination skills.
Ginobili, of course, didn't go all Chuck Norris on the rogue bat because he thought it would make good film at 11. He just wanted to play basketball.
The Halloween night game against Sacramento had already been bat-delayed once in the first quarter. When the animal swooped in again, nearly recording a block of Kings guard Kevin Martin, Ginobili figured something had to be done.
Using his left hand as a tennis racket, Ginobili batted the bat from its flight pattern, then picked up the wounded animal and handed it to an arena worker for disposal.
Perhaps bracing for the inevitable PETA protest, Ginobili swears he didn't mean to kill the bat, and doesn't think he did. He said afterward the bat was still moving when he scooped it up.
Despite the fact that I hate the San Antonio Spurs more than dislexics hate the daily jumble, I have to give it up to Ginobli here. His style of play could best be described as fearless (or wreckless) and now he's throwing down Jack Dempsey style with bats. And this happened on Halloween. What a creepy coincidence. Unless Dracula is a Lakers fan. I can only hope.
P.S. - Wouldn't it be at least mildly funny if Ginobli got rabies and had to miss a week after getting his shots? It'd be even better if he foamed at the mouth and bit Greg Popovich before they got him treated.
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