Duncan, together with Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, formed one of the most successful trios in National Basketball Association history. This caused Kidd to regret his decision, calling it “the biggest disappointment” of his career.
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Popovich said Duncan is “irreplaceable” and “it’s really hard to imagine” the Spurs playing without the five-time National Basketball Association champion. While the move was a mere formality, the club needed to do it to “waive and stretch” Duncan’s $6.4 million salary for the 2016-17 season so that it’s spread out over three seasons instead of one, which lessens the cap hit the team will take. The Spurs originally drafted Duncan as the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft.
Popovich has guided San Antonio to five National Basketball Association titles to date-all with Duncan on the roster.
“I remember a pretty neat summer league game when he first came in and (Greg) Ostertag blocked his shot”, Popovich said when asked what moment of Duncan’s career he enjoyed most.
Shea Serrano, a writer for The Ringer and San Antonio native, wrote the personal essay “Tim Duncan and Me” about yesterday’s news.
Duncan has 15 All NBA Team Selections, Rookie of the Year 1998, 3-time NBA Finals MVP (1999, 2003, and 2005) and NBA MVP (2002 and 2003).
Several Hawks players acknowledged Duncan on social media. Tim Duncan put Spurs in a position where they can achieve anything without him.
He averaged 19 points and 10.8 rebounds per game during his career. But it’s madness to think that they had the chance to add a prime Kidd, an unselfish player who would have fit seamlessly into their culture, into the mix and have him run high screen-and-rolls with a prime Duncan for years on end. When you talk about Duncan, you can’t say that I got cheated [out of MVP in 2001-02]. Duncan then played all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter without coming out for a rest, perhaps soaking up every second he could in the last game he would ever play.
Coach Gregg Popovich talks to Nando de Colo during a game against the Miami Heat in November 2012. This is actually also one of the most admirable things about him because even though he’s already pushing 40 years old, he still show the same dedication to the game.
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Tim is a positive enigma to most, but now that he has retired, his teammates and those who know him most are telling some fantastic stories about their relationship with him.
