He never wanted the endorsements, only the camaraderie.
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So when one of the most understated superstars in sports chose to finally call it a career after almost two decades of excellence, he made the announcement with a 15-foot bank shot and not a boisterous slam dunk.
No news conference. No public rally. No victory lap. Not even a canned quote in the press release. At the ripe age of 40, Tim Duncan still has his entire life ahead of him.
“I would not be standing here if it wasn’t for Tim Duncan”, Popovich said.
Calling it “the biggest disappointment”, Kidd said he still has nightmares about his decision to stay in New Jersey and sign a six-year, $103 million deal with the Nets, who were shortly later broken up by new ownership despite having a roster featuring the key players from two consecutive NBA Finals. “Wow, what a career”.
A Wake Forest graduate, Duncan also played in 15 NBA All-Star games, and is the only player in league history to make the All-Defensive Team 14 times. And while San Antonio wound up seeing its season end, the Spurs only made that game interesting after falling far behind early on because of Duncan’s iron will driving them back into it the way he’d led the Spurs to a thousand-plus wins over his 19 National Basketball Association seasons.
“The Spurs tweeted: “#ThankYouTD, for everything”. “Thanks for the memories old man”.
The.710 winning percentage the Spurs have posted since drafting Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick in 1997 is the best of any team in the four major American professional sports leagues.
And Duncan paired with Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker to form the most enduring trio of Hall of Fame stars of his generation.
Duncan was an anachronistic player in a league that celebrated showmanship and celebrity stardom, but he had perhaps the greatest impact on basketball’s evolution in the last two decades of the NBA.
It’s a day Popovich knew was coming. What a HUGE honor to have played with him for 14 seasons!
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement that Duncan had earned, “a place among the all-time greats, while his understated selflessness made him the ultimate teammate”.
He was the foundation of the remarkable run of success and 1,072-438 regular-season record over the past 19 years for the Spurs, one of the great stretches of play by a franchise in modern sports history.
“This will always be Timmy’s franchise”.
“We all changed along the way”, Duncan said in a taped sitdown with Parker, Ginobili and Popovich for ESPN. “Should do a statue for him outside the AT&T Center”.
San Antonio was eliminated in the playoff this past season by the Oklahoma City Thunder. I talked to him after the game we played in San Antonio, back and forth a little bit during the game.
With the Spurs getting blown out and the fourth quarter set to begin, Popovich and his veteran star had a brief conversation on the bench.
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He averaged 19 points and 10.8 rebounds per game during his career. 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.
