One Ginobili is playing in his 14th NBA season. The other is 10-year-old Ginobili San Miguel-Ramirez, who became the most awestruck fifth-grader at the AT&T Center on Monday.
The two Ginobilis met for the first time before the Spurs faced the Jazz, as the younger Ginobili was the Pizza Hut Ball Kid and got to see his namesake live.
“This is the best,” said Ramirez, a student at Perales Elementary. “I’m going to tell everybody at school about it tomorrow.”
Young Ginobili was born on June 3, 2005, a couple of days before the Spurs were to face Detroit in the NBA Finals.
His parents, Renee and Jorge Ramirez, had three children whose names all started with the letter G.
“We were thinking about naming our son Gino,” Renee said. “But then we started joking about Ginobili and figured, why not?”
Ramirez does not go by Gino, he goes by the full Ginobili. He’s about four feet tall and 60 pounds, so he’s still a little bit smaller than Manu.
Ginobili Ramirez has heard clips of Charles Barkley yelling his name thousands of times. It’s also a useful tool for Ginobili’s parents to get him to come to the dinner table.
When he was younger, Ginobili would see Manu on TV and say, “that’s me!”
“He’s going to have to deal with that name forever,” Manu said. “So we’re always going to be linked.”
Little Ginobili recently began playing basketball, too.
“Ginobili’s the best player in the NBA,” Ramirez said, without a hint of bias. “He’s why I joined a basketball team.”
Living in San Antonio’s West Side, watching the Spurs has always been part of the Ramirez family. When Renee’s grandfather died in December 2013, the last thing the family did together was watch the Spurs play the Mavericks in the hospital room.
But the family hasn’t been able to go to a game since Ginobili was born. Before Monday, Ginobili had only seen other Ginobili on TV.
Little Ginobili, whose full name is Ginobili Jose Rey San Miguel-Ramirez, admitted to being very nervous as he walked onto the AT&T Center floor. After big Ginobili was finished with his pregame warm-ups, he walked over to introduce himself.
Manu asked Ginobili how he was doing in school. Ginobili said he was getting good grades.
“You have to be a good student,” Manu said. “You’ve got to represent with that name you have.”
Ramirez, wearing a jersey with his first name on the back, got the jersey signed by Manu. He then met the rest of the Spurs as the Pizza Hut Ball Kid, feeding the team balls in warm-ups and high-fiving players during introductions.
Renee San Miguel-Ramirez said Ginobili has always loved his name. Ever since the hospital nurses from the day Ginobili was born, everyone around him has gotten a kick out of it, too.
Aside from all the gold medals and championships, one stat may show Manu’s appeal the most: the Social Security Administration recorded seven boys named Ginobili born in the year 2005.
“The best thing about naming him Ginobili,” Renee said, “might be that he’s named after such a great role model.”
lchan@attcenter.com
Twitter:@lornechan
To nominate someone for the Pizza Hut Ball Kid, visit Spurs.com/ballkid. All Ball Kids must be between the ages of 7 and 14 and live within 75 miles of the AT&T Center.