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While the retirement of David Robinson at the end of the 2002-2003 season marked the end of the “Twin Towers” era in San Antonio, it would also usher in the beginning of a new one – together with stalwart power forward Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker would form a “Big Three” that would lead the Spurs to four NBA titles, including three in five years. Without a doubt, Duncan was the lynchpin of the dynasty and arguably the greatest power forward in NBA history, but the wily Argentine and the speedy Frenchman were likewise invaluable members of these championship teams. In playing and winning together for 15+ years, despite their different backgrounds and playing styles, it is only natural to ask:
Who was better – Manu Ginobili or Tony Parker?
The Beginning
Both Ginobili and Parker were raised overseas and honed their games playing in their respective native countries before coming over to the NBA after being drafted by the Spurs.
Born to a family of basketball players (his father was a coach and two of his brothers also played professionally), Ginobili made his pro debut in his native Argentine basketball league in 1995 and played there until 1998 before moving to Italy; there, he helped lead Basketball Viola Reggio Calabria from the Italian 2nd Division to the Italian 1st Division. NBA scouts took notice and upon entering the 1999 NBA Draft, Ginobili was selected by the Spurs in the second round with the 57th overall pick. However, he opted to return to Italy to play for Kinder Bologna, leading the team to the 2001 Italian Championship, 2001 and 2002 Italian Cups, and 2001 EuroLeague, in the process garnering 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 Italian League MVP and 2001 EuroLeague Finals MVP. Finally, he joined the Spurs for the 2002-2003 NBA season at age 25 and came off the bench to average 7.6 points (on 43.8% shooting), 2.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game, enough to make the All-Rookie team.
Similarly, Parker was born in Belgium and raised in France to an African-American father (who played basketball at Loyola University Chicago and then overseas) and a Dutch mother. As a teenager, he attended INSEP (the French sports training center) and played in French amateur leagues for a couple of years before turning pro with Paris Basket Racing in 1999. Though heavily recruited by American college programs such as UCLA and Georgia Tech, Parker chose to remain in France before entering the 2001 NBA Draft, where he was drafted 28th overall in the first round by the Spurs. Initially a reserve as a rookie in 2001-2002, he quickly took the reins as the team’s starting point guard and was named to the All-Rookie team after averaging 9.2 points (though only 41.9% shooting), 2.1 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game.
Career Comparison
For the next 15+ years, Ginobili and Parker would establish themselves as All-Star and All-NBA caliber players, teaming with Duncan to form arguably the NBA dynasty of the 2000s.
Though never a high-volume player (he only averaged 30+ minutes per game twice in his career), Ginobili was nevertheless a highly impactful all-around player. In his second NBA season, he started half the Spurs’ games and improved his stat line to 12.8 points (41.8% shooting), 4.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game. Then, one of Ginobili’s two career All-Star appearances came in 2004-2005, when he started all 74 games played and averaged 16.0 points on 47.1% shooting, 4.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. This marked the start of his peak, during which he averaged at least 15 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, a three-pointer, and a steal for seven consecutive seasons. Perhaps his finest individual season came in 2007-2008, when Ginobili put up a career-high 19.5 points (46.0% shooting), a career-best 4.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists, a career-high 2.1 three-pointers, and 1.5 steals per game; despite coming off the bench as sixth man, he played a career-high 31.1 minutes per game and was named both Sixth Man of the Year and Third Team All-NBA, though was not named to the All-Star team at mid-season.
After a few more seasons as a super-sub, Ginobili returned to the starting lineup in 2010-2011 and turned in another All-Star campaign: in starting 79 of 80 games played, the veteran averaged 17.4 points (43.3% shooting), 3.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.5 steals per game, and was once again named to the All-NBA Third Team. However, post the 2010-2011 season, he returned to a reserve role (in fact, Ginobili would only start 10 more games for the rest of his career) and his numbers began to wane as his minutes gradually decreased to around 20 per game. Ginobili’s last impactful season arguably came in 2012-2013, when he averaged 11.8 points (42.5% shooting), 3.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.3 steals per game to earn third in the Sixth Man voting. Starting in 2015-2016, he would play less than 20 minutes per game and averaged fewer than 10 points per game and after the 2017-2018 season, announced his retirement from the NBA at age 40, having spent his entire career with the Spurs.
Parker similarly showed gradual improvement in San Antonio, raising his averages to 15.5 points (and 46.4% shooting), 2.6 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game in his second season; interestingly, unlike many point guards, he was never a potent three-pointer shooter and the 1.0 three-pointers per game that season marked a career-high that would only trend downwards over time. Following a few seasons of being a consistent 15-point, 3-rebound, 5-assist per game performer, Parker broke out in 2005-2006 with the first of six All-Star seasons (18.9 points on a career-best 54.8% shooting, 3.3 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game), which was followed up by another All-Star campaign in 2006-2007 with very similar numbers: 18.6 points on 52.0% shooting, 3.2 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. This culminated in arguably his best statistical season in 2008-2009, when Parker averaged a career-high 22.0 points (50.6% shooting), 3.1 rebounds, and 6.9 assists per game to earn both All-Star and All-NBA Third Team honors.
Despite a slight dip in his performance over the next couple of seasons, Parker rebounded with the best three-year stretch of his career, garnering All-Star and Second Team All-NBA selections each year:
- 2011-2012: 18.3 points (48.0% shooting), 2.8 rebounds, and a career-best 7.7 assists per game; finished fifth in the MVP voting
- 2012-2013: 20.3 points (52.2% shooting; his second time averaging 20+ points per game), 3.0 rebounds, and 7.6 assists per game; also recorded his first career triple-double after 800+ NBA games
- 2013-2014: 16.7 points (49.9% shooting), 2.3 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per game
Post this brilliant run, Parker would remain the Spurs’ point guard for a number of years, but his playing time and numbers would begin to decline, first to around 15 points, and then, only 10 points per game. After 17 years in San Antonio, he joined the Charlotte Hornets as a free agent for a final season in 2018-2019 before retiring at 36 from the NBA.
Overall, since he jumped to the NBA at a younger age, Parker played a couple more seasons and roughly 200 additional games in the Association. Comparing their career numbers, Parker has the statistical edge in most categories, from scoring (15.5 to 13.3) to assists (5.6 to 3.8) to overall shooting (49.1% to 44.7%). However, in addition to being the better rebounder and free throw shooter, when you look at advanced metrics, Ginobili actually has the better Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and only slightly fewer Win-Shares despite the gap in games played; this can be attributed to the fact that Ginobili often came off the bench as a sixth man and generally played fewer minutes per game than Parker, but made those minutes count with his all-around contributions. Additionally, Parker leads Ginobili in most awards and accolades, from All-Star nods (6x to 2x) to All-NBA selections (4x to 2x) to Finals MVP honors (1x to none); Ginobili was also once named Sixth Man of the Year. Given their recent retirements, it will be interesting to see if one or both of them will one day be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame; regardless, both are among the best players in Spurs history alongside the likes of Robinson, Duncan, and George Gervin.
Regular Season Statistics
| Manu Ginobili | Player | Tony Parker |
| 16 (2002-2018) | Seasons | 18 (2001-2019) |
| 1,057 | Games Played | 1,254 |
| 13.3 | Points | 15.5 |
| 3.5 | Rebounds | 2.7 |
| 3.8 | Assists | 5.6 |
| 44.7% | Field Goal % | 49.1% |
| 82.7% | Free Throw % | 75.1% |
| 20.2 | PER | 18.2 |
| 106.4 | Win Shares | 111.3 |
| 2x | All-Star Games | 6x |
| 2x | All-NBA | 4x |
| – | MVP | – |
| 4x | NBA Titles | 4x |
| – | NBA Finals MVP | 1x |
| 1x Sixth Man, All-Rookie | Other Awards | All-Rookie |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | – |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Dating back to the 1998 playoffs, the Spurs have made 22 consecutive postseason appearances through the end of the 2018-2019 season; during their respective and overlapping tenures with San Antonio, Ginobili and Parker helped guide the Spurs to five NBA Finals and four championships and together, hold the NBA record for most playoff wins by a duo.
The first of those four titles came in the 2003 Finals vs. the Jason Kidd-led New Jersey Nets – in a six-game victory that was dominated by MVP Duncan, Parker chipped in with 14.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game, while Ginobili came off the bench to average 8.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game. Two years later, in a hard-fought Finals victory over the Detroit Pistons that went the distance, Duncan was again Finals MVP; Ginobili was stellar in a starting role (18.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game), with Parker playing third fiddle (13.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game). However, during their third title together, a 2007 Finals sweep over a young LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Parker vaulted into the spotlight and was named Finals MVP to the tune of 24.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game; Ginobili was once again strong in a supporting role with 17.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game, including a game-high 27 in the title-clinching Game 4.
After three titles in five seasons between 2003 and 2007, the Spurs would have to wait until 2013 to return to the Finals. There, they fell in seven games to the Miami Heat and their “Big Three” of LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh; though San Antonio was in a prime position to close out the series in six games, wily Heat veteran Ray Allen’s game-tying three-pointer in the waning seconds of Game 6 ultimately forced Game 7, where Miami prevailed. Nevertheless, the next season, the two teams would meet again in the Finals and the Spurs would get their revenge in five games. In their last title run, Ginobili averaged 14.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game in the series vs. Parker’s 18.0 points, 0.4 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game.
In addition to their NBA postseason success, both players were stalwarts on the international stage for their native countries. Ginobili’s accomplishments for Argentina include a silver medal at the 2002 FIBA World Cup, a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing (where he was the Argentine flag bearer), and most notably, a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens; during that historic 2004 Games, he led his country in both scoring (19.3 points per game) and assists (3.3), and memorably made a game-winning buzzer-beater with 0.7 seconds left in an opening-day victory over Serbia and Montenegro. Meanwhile, Parker won two bronzes (2005 and 2015), silver (2011), and gold (2013) for France at various EuroBasket tournaments, and also competed against Ginobili at both the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2016 Games in Rio.
Playoff Statistics
| Manu Ginobili | Player | Tony Parker |
| 218 | Games Played | 226 |
| 14.0 | Points | 17.9 |
| 4.0 | Rebounds | 2.9 |
| 3.8 | Assists | 5.1 |
| 43.3% | Field Goal % | 46.1% |
| 81.7% | Free Throw % | 73.1% |
| 19.3 | PER | 16.8 |
| 20.8 | Win Shares | 13.6 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; along these lines, Ginobili’s usage decreased significantly at the end of his career, and it was certainly strange to watch Parker play his final season in a Hornets jersey. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Manu Ginobili | Player | Tony Parker |
| 2003-2013 | Decade of Dominance | 2004-2014 |
| 658 | Games Played | 706 |
| 15.6 | Points | 18.4 |
| 4.1 | Rebounds | 3.0 |
| 4.2 | Assists | 6.3 |
| 45.1% | Field Goal % | 50.7% |
| 83.8% | Free Throw % | 76.0% |
| 22.1 | PER | 20.5 |
| 83.9 | Win Shares | 77.0 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Interestingly, while Ginobili played fewer games than Parker across their respective decades of dominance and had arguably lesser statistics, his advanced metrics show that he was actually more valuable to the Spurs than Parker.
My Thoughts
The retirements of Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker in 2018 and 2019, respectively, marked the unofficial end of one of the most successful dynasties in NBA history. For close to two decades, the duo combined with Tim Duncan to bring a consistency and excellence every single night that culminated in reaching basketball’s pinnacle 4x. In terms of deciding whether Ginobili or Parker was better, I think you have to look at both statistics/awards and their relative impact on the Spurs. From the numbers and honors perspective, Parker generally has the advantage, in part due to the fact that he was always the starting point guard, whereas Ginobili bounced back and forth between starter and super-sub and generally played fewer minutes. While there is no doubt that Ginobili’s versatility was invaluable and made everyone on the team around him better (as evidenced by his favorable advanced metrics), Parker was very much the engine that spurred (pun intended) on San Antonio.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Tony Parker
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
More Good Stuff
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