Argentina in the Grip of Manu Mania
By LARRY ROHTER
AHIA BLANCA, Argentina, June 2 - To Argentine sports fans, a Boca
Juniors-River Plate soccer game is the equivalent of a Yankees-Red
Sox matchup. Yet last Saturday, one day before this year's grudge
match, the front pages of sports sections of the country's main
newspapers focused on a basketball player who plays for a
team nearly 6,000 miles away, in San Antonio.
With the N.B.A. finals scheduled to start Wednesday, this soccer-obsessed
nation is being swept by basketball fever and, more specifically, what is
being called Manu Mania. Thanks to the playoff exploits of Manu Ginobili,
the San Antonio Spurs' gifted 25-year-old rookie guard, Argentina suddenly
has a new hero, a new passion and new hopes.
「我不記得之前曾經有足球以外的運動曾經掀起如此熱潮的。而現在這一切
全都是因為 Manu。」在阿根廷一位有名的運動電視播報員 Gonzalo Bonadeo
道。「雖然今年還沒過到一半，但我可以很確信地說，他絕對會是阿根廷今年
年度運動員。」
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阿根廷的危機，以及他們如何需要Manu
Ginobili's emergence comes at a time when Argentina is in desperate need of
good news. For the last 18 months, this country of 37 million people has
been struggling to rebound from the worst economic crisis in its history,
one that has plunged 60 percent of the population into poverty, had the
peso lose more than 70 percent of its value against the United States
dollar and pushed unemployment to a record high of more than 20 percent.
At the same time, Argentine sports fans are struggling to recover from the
shocking and unexpected failure of their national squad at soccer's World
Cup in Japan and South Korea a year ago this month.
After so many disappointments, the sight of an Argentine thriving in the
N.B.A. and playing a crucial role in the playoffs has come as balm to
people here, reawakening dreams of achievement and acceptance that the
sporting press is eager to exploit. ''Pinch Me!" blared the front-page
account of San Antonio's advance to the N.B.A. finals against the Nets
in Saturday's edition of Ole!, the country's leading sports daily.
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「看到了 SBC Center 中，居然有這麼多馬刺球迷身著 20 號球衣！這看
起來真像是一場夢。」阿根廷當地報紙 La Nacion 的專欄作家 Miguel Romano
某一日中如此寫道。
Ginobili, who is 6 feet 6 inches and 210 pounds and averaged 7.6 points
during the regular season, has also won praise for being a model citizen.
Argentines are accustomed to sports idols like Diego Maradona, the soccer
star whose problems with drugs and alcohol and quarrels with other players
and the news media have come to overshadow his achievements on the field.
Ginobili 這位六呎六吋、210 磅的得分後衛，亦是得到了模範公民的褒揚。
「Manu 並不是在像金州勇士這樣的球隊打幾場無關緊要的例行賽。他是在
充滿了嚴峻考驗的季後賽中奮鬥--那是全世界都在看的比賽。」 Bonadeo 道。
「而他仍然持著一貫冷靜、謙虛、隨和的態度來面對所有集中在他身上的注意力，
所以他很自然地就成為了大家心中的模範人物。」
在 Clarin 的一次專訪中，Manu 非常謙虛地提到了，他在阿根廷成長的種種背景
也讓他更為珍惜現在他所獲得的一切。「我很清楚這一切就像是你花了 15 個小時
、坐一輛破舊的巴士，只為了去打一場球，那是要付出代價的。我經歷過那一切
的事情，而那也幫助了我，在成功之後不會迷失了方向。」
Before he was drafted by the Spurs, Ginobili played for several years in
Argentina's ramshackle pro league and later in Italy, for Reggio Calabria
and then Bologna. He was the most valuable player in the Italian league
in the 2000-1 and 2001-2 seasons. He led Bologna to the championship of
the Euroleague in 2000-1.
The burst of interest in basketball and Ginobili can be traced to last
August, when the Argentine national team shocked everyone by defeating
the United States, 87-80, at the world championships in Indianapolis.
Ginobili scored 15 points in that game, but he sprained his ankle
against Germany and was unable to play in the final, which Argentina
lost in overtime to Yugoslavia.
The fever is strongest here in Ginobili's hometown, a port city of 350,000
people more than 400 miles south of Buenos Aires, where the pampa begins to
give way to Patagonia. 在機場，有一個大告示牌寫著：「歡迎來到阿根廷籃
球首都」。在地方上的一家 Legends 酒吧中，他們為 Manu 特別設立了一間房
間，專門收藏記載著他的豐功偉業。
「一種近乎瘋狂的熱潮襲捲著這個國家，但當我在街上走著的時候，我
的感受特別的深刻。」Manu 62 歲的父親 Jorge Ginobili 道。「人們總是不時地
問著我馬刺的比賽在什麼時候開打，並且也搶著跟我分享他們熬夜看比賽的
經驗。」
Manu 在家中三個兄弟中排行老么，但他很早就開始接觸比賽了。他家離
Bahiense del Norte 俱樂部只有 100 碼，除了籃球場以外，附近還有網球
場、溜冰場。除了當學生以外，Manu 更是一個運動場上的常客。
孩童時期，Manu 是公牛隊的球迷，他的房間掛有一幅Michael Jordan 的海
報。現在，那張海報仍然貼在上面。而當他的母親 Raquel 半開玩笑地問他
兒子，可否用 Manu 的海報來代替 Jordan 的海報，「他很意外我會提出這
樣的主意，然後，他丟給我兩個字：『No way.』」她說。
There is no denying, however, that basketball courts all over the country
are now filling up with youngsters who want to be like Ginobili. Though the
game's new prestige has not reached the level of soccer, and probably never
will, it is now challenging rugby and field hockey as the country's second
favorite sport.
''Kids who never showed any interest in basketball before now come up to us
at school all excited the day after a playoff game," Mauro Jimenez, a
15-year-old member of the Club Bahiense del Norte's junior varsity, said.
''They want to know more about the rules and where they can learn to play."
More than 2,500 children between ages 8 and 18 are already playing in a
22-team league here. Bahiense del Norte stands above the rest, however.
Besides Ginobili, the club has also sent Pepe Sanchez to the N.B.A. - he
is with the Detroit Pistons - and several other prospects have gone on to
play for teams in Spain and Italy, including Ginobili's older brothers,
Leandro and Sebastian.
Juan Alberto Anton, president of Club Bahiense del Norte, said that scouts
for at least two other N.B.A. teams had recently attended games. He also
issued a friendly warning to Nets fans, arguing that the Spurs, with
Ginobili, are a team of destiny.
''We're proud and happy at what Manu has done, but we also know from having
watched his game grow over the years that there are even bigger surprises
to come," he said. ''Manu hasn't even come near his limit yet."