If Kidd was around, it’s not insane to think Duncan could have won five in a row and seven total NBA Finals.
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There couldn’t have been a more fitting time for the news of Tim Duncan’s retirement to begin to leak out than in the aftermath of Kevin Durant’s announcement to switch teams on the morning of July 4.
“I’ve been watching Tim Duncan play basketball for more than half my life”, he says. “For as long as I’ve been alive he’s been in the National Basketball Association”. Check out the oversized t-shirt San Antonio’s head man wore to today’s scrum.
Thomas said that during a game once, Duncan corrected him on a technique that would make it harder for him to defend Thomas. This move also helped the Spurs have more room in their salary cap in order to sign some free agents. “It’s really, really, really big – it’s three reallys, that’s how big it is”.
‘He’s one of the 10 best players of all time.
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who played with Duncan for four seasons, said it will not be the same without Duncan on the court.
“The 40-year-old Duncan comes off of a season in which he led the National Basketball Association in Defensive RPM (5.41) and became just the third player in league history to reach 1,000 career wins, as well as the only player to reach 1,000 wins with one team”.
“He was unstoppable”, Kidd said of Duncan’s Finals performance. “You sort of keep to yourself”. I think in this case, it feels very true.
Your teams on the go or at home. He just played for his team to achieve what they are fighting for.
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“We all changed along the way”, Duncan said in a taped sitdown with Parker, Ginobili and Popovich for ESPN. For San Antonio, the Spurs are theirs. From every Spurs fan in San Antonio and around the world, good bye Tim Duncan, and thank you for all your years of dedication to the Spurs organization and the city of San Antonio. “It was the same sort of feeling”, he says, “where these are just your guys and you can ride with them”. 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.
