MANU GINOBILI

Q: Is this just the start of players coming from South America, like Europe was
five years ago? Ginobili: At least three or four Argentineans can already can pl
ay here. But some problems with the contracts, probably some of them will come.
It’s just the beginning.

Q: It seems it’s been play South America, play the European leagues and then co
me here. Might we get to a point where players just from Argentina come right to
 the NBA? Ginobili: It happened with (Ruben) Wolkowyski who was playing in Bosto
n this year. It’s not usual. The Argentinean league is having some problems. Wh
en you are young and you want to succeed, you go straight to Europe. After that,
 once you get better there you have to have better competition, then you have a
chance at coming here. It’s not usual to go straight from Argentina (to the NBA
). I don’t think it’s going to happen many times.

Q: How does the pressure of the NBA Finals compare to the big international game
s you’ve played for Argentina? Ginobili: There’s not so much difference. The m
ain thing is the same, you want to win, and you want to succeed. You want to get
 the trophy because you work so hard for it, so you feel the responsibility to d
o your best. Over here, the media and so many people watching probably adds a li
ttle bit. But I think that pressure is a lot about each person, so if the Italia
n League was so important for you. It’s the same pressure over here.

Q: What about international play, like when you guys beat the States, last summe
r? Ginobili: That was huge. We didn’t have pressure that game, we had pressure
in the other games. We felt great. We had a great group of players that played t
ogether for a long time. There was pressure there because we had a lot of respon
sibilities too because they were saying that we were the best Argentinean team e
ver. It wasn’t easy to make other people happy, and we needed to win.