Losing has different effects on different people. For some, the taste of defeat is enough to make you give up and quit, but for those who consider themselves competitors, losing just makes you work even harder.
San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili has to have a bad taste in his mouth after failing to medal with his fellow Argentinians at the 2012 Olympics in London. They fought hard but just came up short against the Americans and barely lost in the bronze medal game to Russia.
Obviously, at age 35, Ginobili has to be thinking about retirement from the extra curricular activities like international play, but he’s a warrior who would probably hate to leave the Argentinian squad knowing he failed to lead them to a medal.
The next big opportunity for Ginobili to represent his home country would be in 2014 at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain. He’ll be 37 then, and surely be near retirement from all of basketball, not just the international stuff, but he wants to leave the door open.
"I never said I would continue, and I never said I would quit," Ginobili said. “There are still two years, it's a long time. I don't know how I will be and everything will depend on that. But I do know that I will be 37 and it's not the same at that age as another age."
As one of the best players in the Olympic tournament, Ginobili showed his international game is still nothing to be messed with. Even if Argentina didn’t make it on to the podium in London, they’re still one of the most feared teams in the world. Losing Ginobili would be a big hit to the country, but they have to move on sometime.
I’d like to say Manu could just take a reduced role in the FIBA tournament in two years, but we all know he wouldn’t just sit back and watch his team struggle without him. Let’s hope, if he decides to keep playing, that he puts on a strong enough showing to feel like he can end his international career the right way.
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