Duncan, Ginobili Garner MVP Votes

We all know who the real 2008 MVP is, but its of interest to Spurs fans that two of our favorite players received votes this year. Tim Duncan got two fourth place votes and 19 fifth place votes while Manu Ginobili received nine fifth place votes.

I know of at least one columnist who voted for Manu and here's why:

Ginobili's particularly unique impact this season defied any conceivable statistical measure until our friends at 82games.com unveiled "Clutch Stats" (fourth quarter or OT, five minutes or less, five-point margin or less) and "Super-Clutch Stats" (fourth quarter or OT, two minutes or less, three-point margin or less). In "Clutch" situations, the Argentinian (I love calling him that) averaged nearly a point a minute and shot 57 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3 and 93 percent from the foul line. In "Super-Clutch" situations, Manu was the third-best scorer (behind LeBron and Kobe) and shot a jaw-dropping 62 percent from the field. Throw in free-throw attempts and you could make a case that Manu was a lock to score seven out of 10 times in the last two minutes of every close game. There might be better players, but nobody's better with the bread in the toaster. Not even Kobe.

To put things into perspective, only 17 players received any votes this year, and Manu received more votes than Dirk Nowitzki, more votes than Deron Williams, and more votes than Carmelo Anthony, Paul Pierce, Rasheed Wallace, Carlos Boozer and Antawn Jamison combined. Impressive.

Wait a second, someone voted for Antawn Jamison?!