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There’s only so much you can do to prevent nature from interfering when you hold a sporting event outdoors, but the NBA usually doesn’t need to worry about bad weather or rogue wildlife interfering with a game. With that said, we were treated to a very notable exception on Halloween in 2009 during a pretty iconic moment involving Manu Ginobili and a bat.
The legendary Argentinian guard had recently kicked off his eighth season with the Spurs and had already put together an incredibly impressive résumé by that point.
He’d used his deadly shooting, mesmerizing passing ability, and patented Eurostep to help San Antonio win three of the four titles he’d secure during his career, and also had an Olympic gold medal and EuroLeague championship under his belt.
There are plenty of plays you can point to in order to highlight Ginobili’s stellar athleticism, but I’d argue there’s not a single no-look pass or acrobatic layup that’s as impressive as the lockdown defense he played at the expense of a flying mammal that managed to infiltrate what was then known as the AT&T Center on All Hallow’s Eve.
The most impressive achievement of Manu Ginobili’s iconic career may have been his ability to swat a bat out of midair
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The Spurs were hosting the Kings on October 31, 2009 when an unexpected visitor made an appearance during the first quarter in the form of the bat that had managed to make its way inside the arena and was seen repeatedly swooping down toward the court.
We were initially treated to what I can only assume was the first “Bat Delay” in NBA history when referees whistled the play dead while someone attempted to capture the bat with a towel. They were unsuccessful in that quest, but they did manage to scare it away from the court.
Unfortunately, things came to a halt yet again with around 1:40 left in the first frame, which is when a net was procured in yet another unsuccessful attempt to nab the animal. Play eventually resumed with the bat still on the loose, and it didn’t take long for Ginobili to literally take matters into his own hands.
Manu was standing near the top of the three-point line when the bat ended up in his vicinity before he swatted at it with his left hand. His impressive hand-eye coordination helped him knock it out of the air, and he quickly scooped the stunned animal off of the court before delivering it to an arena employee.
I can’t help but watch that video without thinking about the time Randy Johnson inadvertently caused a bird to explode into a cloud of feathers after hitting with a pitch, although Ginobili was obviously trying to make contact in this particular situation.
The man who saved the day was quickly dubbed “Batmanu” and had to be vaccinated against rabies as a precaution but thankfully emerged unscathed.
There are conflicting reports concerning the fate of the bat; a spokesperson for the Spurs initially claimed it had died after being struck, but they reversed course the following day by claiming it had managed to recover and flown away (PETA unsurprisingly issued a statement bemoaning what unfolded while accusing the guard of “bludgeon[ing] a 4-ounce animal to death”).
The origins of the bat are also a mystery. Richard Jefferson seemed to think something fishy was going on, as the situation unfolded on Halloween during a game where the mascot for the Spurs had decided to don a Batman costume in honor of the holiday. However, there’s no proof it was an inside job.
This actually wasn’t the last time a bat ended up disrupting a game in San Antonio, as the team’s mascot was once again dressed as Batman when it used a net to catch another one in 2019.
What a world.