J-Speaks: Saying Farewell To A Legendary Spur

In the 1997 NBA Draft, The San Antonio Spurs selected out of Wake Forest University forward Tim Duncan. In the years that followed, the product of the Virgin Islands, who first love was being a swimmer would help lead the Spurs to multiple championships, playoff appearances in each of his 19 seasons and turn them into one of the most respected, revered and successful franchises in North American pro sports. On the surface he did it in a quite business like way, the numbers he put up spoke loudly of his greatness. This past week, that legendary pillar of the team from the “Lone Star state,” put a period to the paragraph of his basketball life.

On Monday, the 40-year-old Duncan, a sure first ballot Hall of Famer announced his retirement after 19 seasons on the NBA hardwood.

This announcement comes two months after the Spurs, who won a franchise record 67 games this past season, but were upset in the West Semifinals by the Oklahoma City Thunder in six games, which had many people asking if this was the last game of Duncan’s career, which it did turn out to be.

Its brings to an end to not just the career of what many consider the greatest power forward in NBA history, but it marks the end of an era for the Spurs and the league.

Duncan, whose nickname was “The Big Fundamental,” for his clinical approach to the game like shooting bank shots over dunks alongside the only head coach he ever had in his career in Gregg Popovich, fellow perennial All-Stars in starting lead guard Tony Parker and on-and-off again starter Manu Ginobili who at one point were on the presuppose of the championship into a five-time winners of the Larry O’Brien Trophy.   

“The constant staple of their franchise,” Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star forward and 2016 champion and Finals MVP LeBron James, who lost to Duncan and the Spurs twice in three chances in the championship round said earlier this past season.

“The greatest power forward ever,” Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford said at the start of this week.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called Duncan, “one of the most dominant players in NBA history,” and lauded him for an “understated selflessness (that) made him the ultimate teammate.”

From his first moments on a professional court at the Denver Nuggets former gym McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, CO in 1997 to his final appearance at Chesapeake Arena in Oklahoma City, OK back on May 12, Duncan put together a career resume that spoke very clear and concise about his career even though he did on his own.

Rookie of the Year in 1997-98; five-time NBA champ; three-time Finals MVP; two-time NBA regular season MVP (2002, 2003); 15-time All-Star; eight-time NBA All-Defensive First-Team Selection; 10-time All-NBA First-Team selection and Spurs all-time leading scorer with 26,496 points.

To expand on how great of a player Duncan was in his 19 seasons, his 15 All-NBA selections tie him with Hall of Fame center of the Los Angeles Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and recently retired five-time champion with the Lakers Kobe Bryant for the most in league history.

Duncan along with Abdul-Jabbar and former Celtics great Robert Parrish are the only players to win at least 1,000 regular season games in their careers with Duncan winning 1,072  

Duncan’s 15-time selections to the NBA All-Defensive Team are three more than any other player in NBA history.

On top of that, he and Abdul-Jabbar are the only players in NBA history to score at least 26,000 points; pull down 15,000 rebounds and block 3,000 shots.

What separated Duncan from most of his fellow star counterparts in “The Association” during his career is that he was never for big endorsement deals or being the center of attention in press conferences, particularly during the playoffs.

To him, if it was not going to help the team become more cohesive on the court and give them the best chance to win, it did not interest him. That is probably one of the reason he and coach Popovich were so great together as a star player and head coach tandem and is why he gained a high level of respect from the opposition.

“For us as players, we just enjoy and appreciate each other,” Bryant, who became the only guard to player 20 years on the NBA said earlier this past season. “It’s not a matter of who’s better or who’s greater. You just accept the careers that you’ve had. I appreciate his career, and vice versa.”

The Spurs got the opportunity to draft a player who would become one of best ever when eventual Hall of Famer and then face of the Spurs in David Robinson played in just six games in 1996-97 season because of a back injury he sustained in preseason.

The Spurs as a result fell in the standings finishing 20-62 on the season, which gave them though the best chance to receive the No. 1 overall pick in that June’s draft via the lottery.

The did win the lottery and it focused on the most polished, two-way front court player in the country who spent four seasons at Wake Forest.

In his first season Duncan averaged 21.1 points and 11.9 boards on his way to capturing as mentioned earlier Rookie-of-the-Year and helping the Spurs win 36 more games than the year prior as they went 56-26 in 1997-98, which is very close to what happened to the team back in 1989-90 when Robinson captured Rookie-of-the-Year honors and the Spurs went from 21 wins the year before to 56 wins..

The Spurs captured their first of five titles in Duncan’s second season when they defeated the New York Knicks in the 1999 Finals in five games.

Over the past five seasons, Duncan faced questions of retirement and while team evolved into more of high up-tempo team with and this past season the centerpieces of the offensive attack were forwards Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, Duncan stills was a major part of the team, especially defensively and was a solid leader on the court, on the bench and in the locker room.

Back in 2014-15 at the age of 38, Duncan was an All-Star and even playing reduced minutes, he continued to be a major force defensively and rebounding wise.

Through an exhaustive work regimen over the past few off-seasons like boxing, swimming and a solid diet, he was able to keep pace with younger, faster and stronger players that he went up against the past few years.

That same workout regimen is what Duncan called upon in his last appearance on the court in Game 6 of the West Semis back on May 12 at the Thunder.

Before the start of the fourth period, Duncan and coach Popovich had a brief conversation on the bench.

While he was ineffective for much of the series, Duncan scored 19 points with five boards and along with fellow 40-year-old in back-up guard Andre Miller cut a 26-point deficit to nine in the fourth quarter before former Thunder player Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook closed the game and the series out 113-99 back on May 12.

Duncan played the entire 12 minutes of the period, more than likely taking in every last second in what was the last game on an NBA court.

When the game was over, he waived to the fans in Chesapeake Energy Arena and the always stoic forward pointed a finger towards the roof as he walked towards the locker room.

For 19 seasons, Tim Duncan was a model of consistency. He played every one of the 56,738 minutes of his career on the hardwood with a quiet confidence and a stoic calmness that made him a Sphynx to the average NBA fan, but one of the best by many others. He earned the respect from all 140 of his teammates that he played with, the one coach he played for his entire career in Gregg Popovich.

We will not get a final arena-to-arena tour nor a 60-point on 50 shots send off like we got from Bryant this past season. Tim Duncan went out like the way he came into the NBA. Quietly and quickly. He came, he played, he won and he left and earned the respect of all that saw him.

“For two decades Tim represented the Spurs, the city of San Antonio and the league with passion and class,” Commissioner Silver said. “All of us in the NBA family thank him for his profound impact on the game.” 

Information, statistics and quotations are courtesy of 7/4/16 11 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Matt Winer, Ron Thompson and David Aldridge; 7/11/16 NBA.com article via Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press “Duncan Calls It a Career, Retires After 19 Seasons;” 7/11/16 NBA.com article “Contrary To Belief, A Deep Fire Burned Inside ‘Quiet’ Duncan,” by Fran Blinebury; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Robinson; www.google.com and Year-by-Year Record of San Antonio Spurs in Sporting News “Official 2006-07 NBA Guide: 2006-07 Preview/2005-06 Review.”