{"id":700947,"date":"2026-04-06T06:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700947\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T06:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:20:14","slug":"youve-got-to-be-a-little-crazy-and-hes-crazy-mike-dantoni-praised-manu-ginobili-after-spurs-he-torched-the-suns-in-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700947\/","title":{"rendered":"“You’ve got to be a little crazy, and he’s crazy” – Mike D\u2019Antoni praised Manu Ginobili after Spurs he torched the Suns in 2005"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2000s-era\u00a0San Antonio Spurs<\/a>\u00a0team was polarizing. While many believe their games were pretty boring to watch, they still delivered some exciting contests and plays. A primary reason was\u00a0Manu Ginobili<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Argentinian legend’s competitiveness and showmanship made him a delight to witness. However, the Spurs dynasty’s opponents couldn’t have said the same thing. One of the teams that Ginobili and the team terrorized included the\u00a0Phoenix Suns<\/a>, whose former coach,\u00a0Mike D’Antoni<\/a>, could only reiterate how “crazy” their former tormentor was.<\/p>\n

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“He’s tough, he’s smart, he’s quick, he’s got it all. At big moments, he plays big. It takes guts. You’ve got to be a little crazy, and he’s crazy,”\u00a0D’Antoni\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in 2005 about Manu.<\/p>\n

Playing big against Phoenix<\/p>\n

D’Antoni’s Ginobili quip came about after the Spurs defeated the Suns in Game 2 of their Western Conference Finals in 2005.<\/p>\n

That season was supposed to be Phoenix’s. The squad finished the regular season atop the standings with a 62-20 record, three games ahead of the Spurs and Miami Heat. The campaign also saw Steve Nash win the first of his two consecutive MVPs, Amar’e Stoudemire take the league by storm, placing ninth in MVP voting, and D’Antoni taking home the first of his two Coach of the Year plums.<\/p>\n

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After sweeping the first round and receiving a tough challenge from the Dallas Mavericks in the conference semifinals, a matchup with the Spurs awaited. It was supposed to be a classic battle of offense versus defense, with the Suns leading the league in scoring that season (and ranking last in allowed points) and the Spurs having the best defensive rating.<\/p>\n

However, the series turned out to be a one-sided affair, as San Antonio won the first two bouts on the road. In Game 2, Phoenix had no answer for Ginobili, who catalyzed his team’s minor comeback from a 102-100 deficit by scoring or assisting on its last 11 points.<\/p>\n

The Spurs eventually eliminated the Suns with ease. The series should have been a clean sweep if they had not given up a five-point loss at home in Game 4. Still, they were able to take care of business in the fifth bout.<\/p>\n

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Ginobili certainly made his presence known throughout the round, and D’Antoni probably had other ways to describe the Spurs icon than just “crazy.”<\/p>\n

Related: Dennis Rodman explained how he built a bond with Kim Jong Un: \u201cThe first thing he said to me was, \u2018Mr. Rodman, we just want to know, can we trust you?\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Establishing his legacy<\/p>\n

There is a widespread belief that Manu’s coming-out party was in the 2005 playoffs. He had the advantage of joining the league at a ripe age of 25 years old in the 2002-03 season. He helped San Antonio secure the championship that year, although he was still the fourth option behind Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Stephen Jackson at the time.<\/p>\n

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By the 2005 playoffs, though, the Hall of Famer had already taken his place in the Spurs’ pecking order. He finished the postseason averaging 20.8 points and 4.2 assists per game and nearly stole the Finals MVP award from Duncan. Some people, including Chauncey Billups, even believed that Ginobili\u00a0deserved the prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps what’s crazier is that Manu proved then that he could have been a perennial starter in San Antonio. And yet, he had no problem accepting a Sixth Man role to provide the squad’s bench a needed boost in energy and production beginning in the 2006-07 season. Considering that he added two more rings to his collection after that decision, he likely has no regrets about his team-first approach.<\/p>\n

Related: Shaquille O’Neal on how he avoided most athletes’ financial downfall: “I didn’t want to be a part of the horror stories”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Apr 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2000s-era\u00a0San Antonio Spurs\u00a0team was polarizing. While many believe their games were pretty boring to watch, they still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[79941,7,2298,149,1537,189,87643,6,472,969,474,4464,2543,2594,6445,1674,2968],"class_list":{"0":"post-700947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-amar39e-stoudemire","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-chauncey-billups","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-manu-ginobili","13":"tag-miami-heat","14":"tag-mike-d39antoni","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-phoenix-suns","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","19":"tag-stephen-jackson","20":"tag-steve-nash","21":"tag-the-spurs","22":"tag-the-suns","23":"tag-tim-duncan","24":"tag-tony-parker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116356318809386861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}