In a Q&A session  with the media today after a team practice, Manu Ginobili stated he went through a lot of emotions during contract negotiations with the San Antonio Spurs. In the end, I am sure fans are happy he will be with the team for another three years and even said he is willing to pick up the tab for season ticket holders. Of course he was kidding.

"I was a little upset, then understanding, and then I just let it go," Ginobili said. "I went through all the moods possible, and now it's gone. We are good friends again. We love each other again."

Ginobili on whether he will pay the season tickets for those season ticket holders who would not renew if he wasn't a part of the team next season: 

Q: Does this mean you're going to pay for their tickets next year?
A: (Laughing again) "It's on me. It's on my tab."

Ginobili on whether he will play beyond the contract well into his late 30's:

Q: Does this contract mean you'll end your career with the Spurs?
A: "No idea. There are a lot of players who play over 35 years old. I don't know how I'm going to feel, so I'll take it year-by-year. Well, not year-by-year (laughing) but three years by three years. When this contract ends in three years, I'll figure it out."

Now Manu, about you picking up the tab for season ticket holders?

Click HERE to read the complete Q&A session.

Now that it is official that the San Antonio Spurs and Manu Ginobili have agreed on a $38.9 million contract extension for three years, Spurs nation could not be any more excited.

The break down is as follows:
2010-2011 -- $11, 854, 584.00  
2011-2012 -- $12, 981, 038.00
2012-2013 -- $14, 107, 492.00

But what will be the impact on the Spurs in retaining Ginobili? Is this a good or bad thing? Here are some pros and cons for you to look at now that the deal is official. Oh and I am not good at math so forgive me.

Pros:

• Ginobili retires a Spur as he should.
• No other elite Western Conference team picks him up. Imagine him in a Dallas Mavericks or Phoenix Suns uniform? The horror!
• The reported deal is short term at three years.
• Spurs will be retaining a player with more overall value to the team than any other player brought in through free-agency.
• His final contract year might be a good bargaining piece to get a younger player.
• The "Big Three" stay intact at least through the 2010-2011 season.
• The "worst" season, financially, will just be the 2010-2011 season.
• The Spurs will not face a fan backlash if Ginobili walked away to another team.

Cons:

• $38.9 million is a lot for a player at this stage of his career. Do the Spurs risk the chance he gets injured again?
• The Spurs will be at $54,135,160.00 in guaranteed contracts next season, not including Ginobili's deal.  Add the $11.8 million due to Manu next season, that pushes the Spurs to $65, 989, 744.00 in guaranteed contracts. With the salary-cap lowering to what is being speculated to be around $50.4-$53.6 million dollars. That puts the Spurs way over the cap.
• If you take the lower speculated figure of $50.4 million, that puts the Spurs at $15, 589, 744.00 million over the cap.
• The NBA luxury tax is speculated to be at $61.2 million dollars. After the math is done the Spurs will be paying $15.5 million for being over the cap and an additional $9.4 million in luxury taxes. Spurs will be $4.7 million over the luxury-tax and an NBA team pays dollar-for-dollar over the luxury-tax line.
• Grand total for the Spurs will be paying $24.9 million for being over the salary-cap and into the luxury-tax.
• This will hamper the Spurs in retaining key role players such as Matt Bonner, or offer Tiago Splitter more than just the mid-level exception not to mention attracting a quality free-agent this summer to play for the team next season.
• It will be doubtful the Spurs can keep soon-to-be free-agents Roger Mason, Ian Mahinmi, Keith Bogans, Garrett Temple, Alzono Gee and Matt Bonner.
• What about Malik Hairston and Alonzo Gee? The Spurs have the team option whether or not to pick up their last year of their contract.
• Richard Jefferson will STILL be making more than Ginobili next season at $15 million. Where is the justice?

Of course there are so many outside factors affecting the Spurs including a possible NBA lock-out, the "Bird rights" option, but for now, do the cons outweigh the pros? 

If we take a step back, keeping the "Big Three" together is expensive. Is it worth going over the salary and luxury-tax threshold on a 32 year-old player, who has been injury prone, and plays in the summer for his home country of Argentina? Will the Spurs fans pay the increased ticket prices to see the Spurs in action?

Again, with the NBA salary-cap speculated to go lower, this will be a deterrent for the Spurs to spend in free-agency because of the dollar-for-dollar penalty.

Or is this a situation of "who cares about the money" and Ginobili deserves every penny for what he has brought to the team, including helping win three of four NBA titles for the city of San Antonio?

The wait is almost over Spurs fans.

According to Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports, the San Antonio Spurs and Manu Ginobili will finalize the reported $38.9 million three-year contract extension this Friday morning.

Manu Ginobili underwent a physical Thursday afternoon that revealed no concerning health issues, the last significant hurdle he had to clear before completing his three-year extension with the San Antonio Spurs, league sources said.

Spurs officials have a couple minor issues to work out with Ginobili’s agent, but the extension should be signed and finalized by early Friday morning.

And of course the news would come out on a Friday where Spurs fans can rejoice and enjoy happy-hour much more. Now let's hope he stays healthy and he helps the Spurs go deep into the playoffs.

UPDATE:

Accoring to Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski, Ginobili has officially signed the three-year contract extension with the Spurs.

Looks like Spurs fans will have to catch an Austin Toros game if they want to see one of the newest Spurs in action.  The Spurs have assigned Alonzo Gee to the Toros:

The San Antonio Spurs announced today that they have assigned guard Alonzo Gee to the Austin Toros, the NBA Development League team owned and operated by the Spurs.

The 6-6, 220 lbs. Gee was signed by San Antonio on 3/29. He had previously appeared in 11 games with the Washington Wizards where he averaged 7.4 points and 2.9 rebounds in 16.5 minutes. Prior to joining the Wizards, Gee had appeared in 36 games for the Toros where he averaged 21.0 points and 6.6 rebounds in 38.2 minutes. Gee has recorded four double-doubles for the Toros this season and notched a season-high 34 points vs. Sioux Falls on 1/6.

If you missed our Spurs vs. Suns postgame show and/or you want to relive the pain that was the Spurs loss to the Suns, we've got you covered.

Jeff and I did quarter-by-quarter analysis, went over the Spurs strengths and weaknesses, looked at the stats and gave out Shiny and Rusty Spur awards.

Our next live show will be for our 200th episode early next week.

According to ESPN's Ric Bucher, Manu Ginobili and the San Antonio Spurs have agreed to a deal. The deal is to be worth $38.9 million for three years.

However, it is reported the deal could fall through.

The San Antonio Spurs and guard Manu Ginobili have agreed to a three-year extension worth $38.9 million, a league source confirmed Wednesday.

The deal is the maximum the Spurs are allowed to offer Ginobili under the current collective bargaining agreement, based on Ginobili's current salary and age (32).

The contract will not be completed before Ginobili and the team return to San Antonio from their current road trip and the possibility remains the deal could fall apart. Whatever concerns the Spurs might have about Ginobili's injury issues over the last few seasons, though, have been allayed by his performance the last two months.

With tonight's game against the Phoenix Suns just a few hours away, I spoke to Greg Esposito, Senior Content Director at Fanster, writer of The Sports Retorter and an avid fan of the team the Spurs love to beat.

Every time Greg and I get together, we let the cheap shots fly, but you can always expect a pretty balanced game preview.

The following are his answers to my pregame questions.

1. The Spurs and Suns have some history, but has this once rivalry (at least in the eyes of Suns fans) flamed out?

It hasn't flamed out from a Suns perspective. We have inshrined an eternal flame of hate that will forever burn brightly for the Spurs. No matter who is the coach or who is playing, as long as they have silver and black on there will be a rivalry from a Phoenix perspective, at least until we beat the Spurs in the playoffs on the way to an NBA title. (Editors Note: Yea, that's never happening.)

2. Prior to their last loss, the Suns seemed to be on fire, but the Spurs just finished a grueling stretch with wins over the Celtics, Magic, Cavs and Lakers. Records aside, which team is at their best right now?

I think these two teams are about as even as teams can be. Both have gotten hot at the right time and are playing their best basketball right now. Also, both are battling injuries while doing it. Like most of the teams in the West, these two are so close in talent it's tough to call.

3. The Suns are hosting Clone Wars night on Sunday. Will the Suns ever be genetically-modified clones of NBA champions?

We were actually hoping that the Spurs were in town for this night. Since you are, of course, the evil empire. With that said, I think if the Suns are to win a championship it will be in an unconventional way. This franchise has never been willing to accept the "status quo" and will never play the boring, yet efficient, style that Gregg Popovich has brainwashed...I mean coached the Spurs to play. Eventually there will be an NBA title in Phoenix, I'm just not sure when.

4. Steve Nash is as good as any player to test and see how far along and healthy Tony Parker really is now that he's making his return. We've seen some great matchups between these players, but who would you give the edge to in this case?

Steve Nash hands down. At 36 he's in the best shape of his life and has played at an MVP level again this year. About the only thing Parker has on Nash is Eva Longoria. Plus, Parker will have to work harder against Goran Dragic than he ever has against any Nash backup before. It's not even a contest, Nash by a mile.

5. What will the Suns have to do to stop Manu from going off like he has since Parker has been out?

To be honest, nothing. If Manu is going to get his, it's about containing the other guys on the floor for the Suns. As usual this team isn't lacking in offensive fire power so seeing one player score 25+ isn't anything new. Containing Duncan, Blair and the rest of the Spurs bigs is more important than worrying about Manu. The only thing I wish the Suns could cover on Manu is that bald spot, it's just distracting.

6. Who wins tonight and why?

After all the trash talk and banter earlier in this post, I'm going to say the Spurs. Not because I think that they are a superior team and not because they're playing better right now. No, I'm picking the Spurs for two reasons. One, I've been conditioned to believe anytime the Suns face the "evil empire" that inevitably something will go wrong for them. And two, because I'm terrible at picking games and usually whoever I pick loses. So Spurs with the win (let the reverse jinx happen).

7. Oh, just one more thing:

According to Johnny Ludden and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, Manu Ginobili may be getting his extension after all.

Manu Ginobili and the San Antonio Spurs are close to reaching agreement on a three-year extension that would keep the guard from entering this summer’s heralded free-agent market, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

There are still a couple of significant issues to be resolved within the next 24 to 48 hours, but the two sides have established the framework of the extension – which could be a worth a total of up to $40 million over the three years – and think the deal could be completed by the end of the week. Ginobili’s agent, Herb Rudoy, is expected to meet with Spurs officials after the team returns from Phoenix Thursday morning.

With the way Manu has played of late, it's about time the Spurs front office realized that it was in their best interests to retain Manu and keep him from a few teams with deep pockets this summer.

In 17 games since March 6, he is averaging 24.4 points. He's also scored 30 or more points in five of those games, including a 43-point outing against the Orlando Magic.

Ginobili is reportedly earning $10.7 million this season. With this extension, it's clear Spurs' owner Peter Holt is willing to bite the bullet again, even if it means paying another $10 million towards the luxury tax.

Manu has willingly put this team on his shoulders and kept them afloat with Tony Parker out and Tim Duncan seemingly struggling every couple of games. And a well-earned extension is exactly the kind of thanks he deserves.