Kidd has talked before about how close he came to joining the Spurs and joked he had some good wine while in talks with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
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The Spurs announced Duncan’s retirement on Monday.
Duncan played the game not to log gaudy numbers but to create advantages for his team. Duncan is one of only five players in league history with 14 All-NBA selections. A two-time league MVP, he was named an All-Star 15 times.
Tim Duncan (center) celebrates after defeating the Miami Heat in game five of the 2014 NBA Finals.
Tim Duncan reached his peak in the 2003- 2004 season.
Duncan was best known for not wanting to be known. After being ineffective for most of the series, Duncan scored 19 points and teamed with fellow 40-year-old Andre Miller to trim a 26-point lead to nine in the fourth quarter before Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant closed out the series. A two-decade chapter of National Basketball Association history has closed. “I said it many times”.
Like what most fans and professional athletes had previously said, Duncan is the epitome of a ideal player.
He is in the sixth rank on the all-time list with 15,091 rebounds. He is leaving with no retirement ceremony or no last game announcements during the season.
The Spurs kept fans lurking in the dark as they forbid any live broadcasts of the event, including radio, television or digital.
Duncan is leaving. Other than that, nothing’s changing. And when the game was over, Duncan waved to the visiting crowd and pointed a finger toward the roof as he headed to the locker room.
There were reports that Duncan would hold his own news conference later this week, but the team dashed those reports on Tuesday. The Spurs had a winning percentage of at least.
Duncan has achieved virtually everything throughout his career. During his 19 years of service with San Antonio, he never had problems with his teammates, the team or the coaching staff. Duncan ranks No. 3 in regular-season wins with 1,001. One year later, they won their first championship together.
Sounding as if he were choking up at times and wearing a T-shirt with Duncans face printed on the front, Popovich spoke at the Spurs practice facility in San Antonio. “I committed when I was down there on my visit [to San Antonio]”.
For current TV analyst and former head coach Jeff Van Gundy, the Spurs’ transition will be seamless, as he said in an ABC News report.
Duncan is a sure bet for the Basketball Hall of Fame. “He is very sound fundamentally, of course, and always gives credit to others”.
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“He’s going to be a better pro than he was a college player”, Odom promised. “Not every talented player can do that”. We’ve been saying it for 19 years, and the only thing he ever really cared about (was) doing the best job he could basketball-wise and being who he was for his teammates, and being somebody who loved his family. So he’s been a consistent guy for me to look up to.
