Attaining an Olympic medal is considered a crowning achievement in an athlete’s career and San 
Antonio Spurs’ Manu Ginobili has a couple to his name.
Manu has captured a gold medal in 2004 and a bronze medal in 2008 with the Argentinian national team but as the 2012 London games near, Ginobili says (via Diario Buenos Aries) not winning an Olympic medal would not be a failure.
“Getting a medal at the (Olympic) games would be a big, big success. Failure to do so, it wouldn’t be a failure.”
Argentina will be facing stiff competition from Team USA and Spain but Argentina will have a roster of solid players that could be an issue for the favorites. Aside from Ginobili, Luis Scola, Andres Nocioni, Carlos Delfino, and Fabricio Oberto make up a talented roster with players who have vast experience in Olympic play.
However, Manu is simply being realistic. As said before Team USA and Team Spain are the favorites to win gold and silver and Ginobili says for the rest of the teams, it is just a matter of who will walk away with bronze.
“There are two teams that are above the rest, which are the United States and Spain. All others will be in a squad to see who is cast into the semifinals for the (medal) bronze.”
Manu is right. The U.S. and Spain will more than likely fight for gold but do not count out Argentina or France. France also will have a talented roster with Spurs’ Tony Parker, Joakim Noah, Ian Mahinmi, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw, Ronny Turiaf, Rodrigue Beaubois, and Spurs draftee Nando De Colo.
Olympic basketball is sure to be great this summer.
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