SI

Manu Ginobili, Spurs ponder how title-clinching game got away

If anyone would have offered the Spurs the opportunity to play a Game 7 in the NBA Finals any time over the years since they won the last of Duncan's four
Ian Thomsen|
Manu Ginobili, Spurs ponder how title-clinching game got away
Manu Ginobili, Spurs ponder how title-clinching game got away

If anyone would have offered the Spurs the opportunity to play a Game 7 in the NBA Finals any time over the years since they won the last of Duncan's four titles, they would have been grateful. But there was no such gratitude on this lonely night. They went 16-for-49 in the second half and overtime, and Duncan went 0-for-5 in the fourth quarter and overtime. Duncan, Parker and Ginobili are going to spend the long night and the next day thinking about all of the different times they might have made the one extra play that would have ended their season happily by now. Instead of looking forward to the chance to come, they were obsessed with the fact that they shouldn't be playing at all.

Published | Modified
Ian Thomsen
IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.

Home/NBA