Manu Ginobili retiring means Patty Mills (!) is the longest-tenured Spurs player. That’s wild

In what world did you think Mills would be the last Spur standing?

One by one, the pillars of the San Antonio Spurs’ sustained excellence have moved on. First, it was Tim Duncan, who retired in 2016 and didn’t even show up for his own news conference. Two summers later, Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green were traded to Toronto and Tony Parker left for Charlotte. On Monday, Manu Ginobili called it quits. He retires at age 40.

The Spurs as we knew them are virtually finished. This isn’t the same team loaded with veterans who were a threat to win it all every year they were in the playoffs. This is the same management building for the future on the fly while keeping together what’s left of that team.

Need proof? Aside from head coach Gregg Popovich, the longest-tenured Spurs player remaining is Patty Mills. With all the San Antonio lifers retired or playing elsewhere, Mills is the captain aiming to right this ship now.

Of course San Antonio still has a talented roster. LaMarcus Aldridge is fresh off one of the best seasons of his career. Leonard only played nine games last season, and the Spurs still made the playoffs — newsflash: they traded nine games of Leonard for (hopefully) 82 games of DeMar DeRozan. Parker left town so DeJounte Murray could grow in the starting point guard position. You can’t forget Pop is still the best coach in the business, and the Spurs have veterans in Rudy Gay, Pau Gasol, and Marco Belinelli to guide their promising young players, like Davis Bertans, Bryn Forbes, and rookie Lonnie Walker IV.

We’re just not used to seeing so many new names on the Spurs. It was Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. Then it was Leonard, Green, and Mills in the mix. Now, one by one, the dominoes have fallen. It might not be for the worse; it’s just odd.

The Spurs might not be championship contenders — not with the Warriors looking more like a cheat code every year. But they’re still a team you don’t want to see in the Western Conference. And they’ve still got Patty Mills, who can come off the bench and light it up from deep.

He’s the last longstanding Spur left in town. Look at him. He’s the captain now.