The sixth man is one of the most vital roles in the NBA and has been since the sixties when John “Hondo” Havlicek revolutionized the role as part of the Celtics dynasty. Havlicek served as a super sub in the first half of his NBA career. The guy would come in and just wreak havoc on both ends of the floor scoring at a high rate and hounding the opposition’s best defender. Havlicek was lauded as a great teammate and an amazing athlete that almost never got tired. Whenever I read about Havlicek’s athletic ability, I always think about when my dad told me about Mickey Mantle’s speed before his knee injury. Supposedly, he was the fastest guy anybody had seen on a baseball diamond before he tore ACL at 19-years-old (played rest of his career with a torn ACL and still had 536 HR’s 1,509 RBI and won 3 MVP’s - What have you done lately?). Havlicek, luckily, did not tear his ACL and had an extremely productive 16 year career with the Celtics with over 26,000 points. In addition to his six championships as Robin to Bill Russell’s Batman, John Havlicek won two more titles as Batman for the ‘74 and ‘76 Celtics.
Another sixth man that never became Batman for his team was Emanuel “Manu” Ginobili. Consistently underrated, Ginobili could have been the Batman for a lot of other teams but he sacrificed minutes for success of the San Antonio Spurs - something that coach Gregg Popovich has praised him for. Manu should go to the Hall of Fame despite the fact that he was primarily a bench player for his team. Why? He was a key player for four championship teams, and his numbers, while not gaudy, are consistent and efficient. Plus, Manu's minutes always increased in the playoffs and his production followed suit. Let's not forget Manu's stardom in the international basketball scene, highlighted by Team Argentina dethroning USA and winning gold at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Ginobili did not play the amount of minutes that Havlicek played, exhibited by Havlicek almost doubling him in terms of career points. Havlicek averaged 36.6 minutes per game for his career while Ginobili averaged 25.4 minutes a game. Advanced analytics can paint a clearer picture for us however. Let’s take a look at each player’s stats per 36 minutes of game time.
Havlicek has the superior raw numbers, but Ginobili has the better shooting percentages. Look, Havlicek is the better player but this just goes to show that the gap between Hondo and Manu isn’t that wide and Manu made the ultimate sacrifice for the betterment of the team by coming off the bench. When discussing sixth men in the NBA, the conversation should always start with John Havlicek and Manu Ginobili.
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