Manu Ginobili Bat Average Increases

A bit of the Halloween mystique and mayhem found its way onto the hardwood court in San Antonio this October 31st, 2009. A mysterious bat decided to show up and fly around on the court during the Spurs versus Kings game Saturday night. The bat came down to the court from the AT&T Center rafters during the first period of the NBA game and continued to flutter around. Players on both teams tried to get out of the creature's way as it continued to dive around near the court.

Luckily, a trained bat handler was on the scene. Well, sort of. Spurs All-star Manu Ginobli noticed the winged creature fly too close to him for comfort. Using his quick hand-eye coordination reflexes, Ginobli was able to swipe the flying monster right out of the air near him. After batting down the bat which hit the floor, Ginobli picked it up and palmed it. The Argentinian baller handed it off to someone else to dispose of, before getting a hand sanitizer treatment. Play resumed but only after the Batman theme song was played and kudos was given to Manu. Even the opposing Sacramento Kings players were in awe of Manu Ginobli's bat boy skills, and gave him generous applause, as did the hometown fans.

The bat apparently interrupted the basketball game twice before Ginobli the bat handler finally took action. Ginobli claims he had to find a way to make it into the news now that he can no longer dunk anymore. Both his coach Gregg Popovich and Spurs teammate Tony Parker also commended him, saying that his legend grows and he continues to amaze them with his newfound skills. According to Yahoo's recap of the incident, Coach Poppovich was quoted as saying:

"The drummer that he (Ginobli) marches to sometimes is a little bit different," Spurs coach Greg Popovich said. "He never ceases to amaze me and he just did it again. The legend grows. It's incredible on Halloween night. You would call someone a liar if they told you that story."

Ginobli ended up with 13 points, 3 asssists, a rebound and a steal to help his team in just over 21 minutes of play. Still, his batman heroics were the talk of the game afterwards. While there's no official "bat average" stat in NBA basketball, it's often the unseen stats done on the hardwood that have the most impact on the games. The Spurs ended up routing the Kings 113-94 to go 2-1 on the young season.

Witness the skills of Manu Ginobli as he bats the bat down to save the game on Halloween, October 31, 2009 during the Spurs versus Kings NBA game. Check out the Manu Ginobli bat boy video!