While most players want to have their name announced in the starting lineup, Manu said he only had the team goals in mind.

“I really don’t care about coming from the bench if that helps the team to win a championship,” said Manu.

Manu Ginobili ran away with the 2007-08 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award, receiving 615 of the 620 points – including 123 out of 124 first-place votes. Despite coming off the bench in 51 of the 74 games, Manu still led the San Antonio Spurs in scoring with 19.5 points per game. Manu finished the season with more than twice as many points as the second-place player in the award voting. It is the highest scoring average of Manu’s career, more than 6 points higher than his career average of 13.7 points per game coming into the 2007-08 season.

Manu Ginobili Dunking

Manu ranked near the top of nearly every offensive basketball statist category in the NBA’s 2007-08 season, including three-point field goals made (16th), free throws made (16th) and free throw percentage (16th). And the fact that he didn’t start made his ranking for points per game (31st) and assists (28th) that much more impressive.

Ginobili spent the early half of his basketball career in Argentina and Italy, where he won several individual and team honors.

His stint with Italian side Kinder Bologna was particularly productive, earning two Lega A Most Valuable Player awards, the Euroleague 2000-01 Finals MVP award and the 2001 League Championship.

The San Antonio Spurs drafted the shooting guard as the 57th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, but Ginóbili returned to Italy and only joined the Spurs in 2002.

He did not take long to establish himself as a key player for the Spurs, and has since won three NBA championships as well as being named an All-Star once. In the 2007–08 season, he was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year.

Tags: NBA, News by DotGuap
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Star Athletes Go Online to Teach

Scottsdale, Arizona — March 6, 2008 — When it comes to helping young athletes fulfill their potential, Ron Shaffer doesn’t pretend to have all the answers. But he knows the people who do, and he’s making them available to anyone with access to a computer or a mobile device.

Shaffer is president of Protégé Sports, a recently formed company based in Scottsdale that is connecting professional athletes with coaches, parents and young athletes seeking to sharpen their skills and raise the level of their game.

Can’t figure out how to push your basketball skills to the next level? Perhaps spending a few minutes with Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash might help. Want to learn how to hit a curveball? How about some tips from former California Angels outfielder Tim Salmon.

These are just two of the many top-tier athletes that can be reached anytime, anywhere through Protégé Sports’ website, www.protegesports.com

“Our goal is to provide a single location where young players or anyone else involved in youth sports can get instruction from the pros or talk with each other to share ideas,” said Shaffer. “Anyone can search the Internet and find sports tips, but only Protégé Sports offers a combination of expert drills, private lessons and community sharing that’s available whenever its convenient for you. We’re providing a social network that’s a combination of MySpace, iTunes and online learning, but for sports.”

Protégé’s interactive website makes it possible for a player, coach or parent to download any of the more than 2,000 drills and instructional videos featuring sports stars. Protégé plans to eventually provide over 10,000 videos for baseball, basketball, football, golf, soccer, tennis and more.

In addition to Nash and Salmon, Protégé’s roster of more than 50 star athletes includes WNBA star Katie Smith, NBA Hall of Famer Bob Lanier, golfer Peter Kostis and tennis great Jimmy Connors.

To get started, a person creates a username and password at Protégé’s website. The cost to join is free, but the cost of downloading a video can range from 99 cents to $5, depending upon the length of the instructional drill.

More personalized service is also available. For instance, a baseball player can upload a video of his swing, and one of the pros will analyze the action and create a custom video with advice on how to improve. The private lesson includes lines, arrows and side-by-side stop-action frames to show where hands and feet should be during specific moves. Most of these custom videos run 10 to 15 minutes and cost about $75.

“You really are learning from the pros,” said Kevin Young, former first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Protégé’s baseball director who is helping to line up major leaguers as instructors.

Former St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants catcher Mike Matheny, a four-time Gold Glove winner, is another instructor. He decided to participate because of the opportunity to share what he learned during his 13-year big-league career.

“I’ve had some of the best coaches on the planet, and to keep that knowledge to myself would be a crime,” said Metheny.

In addition to the drills and instructional help, Protégé also provides sports-specific communities where users have the capability to blog, invite friends, schedule games and organize teams. And all of these services are available by using a computer or a mobile device.

“We’re really at the forefront of modern athletics,” Shaffer says. “And more importantly, we’re providing professional coaching that is available and affordable. That’s a tough combination to beat, no matter what sport you play.”

Tags: Streetball by DotGuap
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Dave Morgan, Executive Editor, Yahoo Sports

While Yahoo! seeks to emerge from some public and painful turnover among its executive leadership ranks, the portal’s sports division quietly is making a legitimate name for itself. Morgan, former sports editor for the Los Angeles Times, is a primary reason why, as he brought to Yahoo! serious journalistic credentials to supplement the company’s traditional strength in fantasy sports. Under Morgan, Yahoo!’s editorial team broke several elements of the ongoing Reggie Bush cash-and-gifts saga, and gained entry into the AP Sports Editors Association, a first for an online sports site.

Tags: Online Sports Executives by DotGuap
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Shannon Terry

CEO Rivals.com

Shannon Terry serves as CEO and President of Rivals.com, overseeing the corporate strategy, new product development and day-to-day management of the leading internet site in college sports, high school sports and college recruiting. Through his influence and vision, Terry has led the rapid growth of Rivals.com to more than 180,000 active subscribers and 2.5 million unique visitors per month via a national network of 300 college, high school and recruiting reporters generating in excess of 500 content items per day. Rivals.com has achieved more than 50% annual growth revenue since the company’s inception in 2001. Terry was named to the SportsBusiness Journal’s Forty Under 40 in 2006 and 2007 and was named to the trade publication’s 20 Most Influential People in Online Sports (ranked No. 11) list in February 2007.

Terry spearheaded Rivals.com expansion and delivery via other outlets syndicating a variety of its content to major media outlets such as Yahoo! Sports, AOL Sports and Sirius Satellite Radio. In 1996, Terry co-founded AllianceSports, the first premium subscription network of college team and recruiting sites – which was subsequently acquired by then Seattle-based Rivals Networks. In May 2001, after Rivals Networks ceased operations, Terry led the effort to purchase and license most of the remaining assets of that company and relaunched the network under the market-leading Rivals.com brand. A 1992 graduate of Lipscomb University, Terry also was co-Captain of the University’s basketball team where his senior class posted more total wins during its 4 years than any class in the history of college basketball with 145.

Tags: Online Sports Executives by DotGuap
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There is no secret that basketball is a global sport that connects to all types of people.  Corporate sponsors have found that Basketball connects their brands on a personal level to the people most likely to buy them.  Basketball websites and big media networks are looking to capture this lucrative market.

Atomic Online recently acquired StreetballTalk.com and Hoopsvibe.com - two basketball centric websites that despite active users and original content, had great organic traffic and great website rankings according to compete.com and Alexa.com.

Streetballblog.com will be reviewing on a regular basis the hottest basketball websites around and those with great promise.

One such site recently launched is HoopsTalk.com.  HoopsTalk.com is a powerful web based forum that covers NBA news, rumors and trades, transactions, schedules and scores.  In addition, Hoops Talk has discussions about basketball lifestyle, streetball, sneakers and kicks, video games and posts news and discussion topics about college hoops, high school preps, CBA, NBA D-League and International basketball teams, leagues and players.

Basketball Forum HoopsTalk.com

Tags: Basketball Websites by DotGuap
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