Impetus: Tim Duncan announces his retirement after playing 19 years in the NBA
I wax poetic about professionals occasionally, in the spirit of writing about professions. Chris Benoit was a wrestler I loved to watch. David Ross is a baseball player that I love. Kobe Bryant was the successful successor to Michael Jordan. Etcetera, etcetera.
In the right context, I can appreciate damn near anyone. I’m under the belief that under the right context, anyone can appreciate anyone if glazed in the appropriate words and descriptions.
Tim Duncan was one of my all-time favorite players, ever. Full stop, period.
When I’m 78 years old and talking about basketball, I’ll have forgotten about a lot of guys; Anfernee Hardaway, Grant Hill, Gilbert Arenas, Ben Wallace, Steve Nash. Maybe even Stephen Curry. Maybe even Hall of Famers like Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley. When I reminisce about basketball, there are a few names that I just know will have stuck with my psyche for the long haul – Michael Jordan, Larry Bird. Shaq. Kobe. Even LeBron James. But in that conversation, will also be, without any question, Tim Duncan.
Not bad for a guy whose career was best defined by the notion that he was an unemotional, methodical, fundamentally perfect basketball machine; AKA a big square, in a giant pegboard of circles, stars and dodecahedrons. A guy who had a nickname that glorified the idea that he dared play fundamental, team-oriented basketball, and said often times tongue-in-cheek, when Duncan was referred to as “The Big Fundamental.”
If anything at all, that’s more of an insult to the rest of the NBA, that apparently can’t play fundamental basketball to the point where someone who does, is singularly identified with a nickname that glorifies that they do.
The departure of Tim Duncan from the NBA marks the true end of an era. A Jordan era never truly ended, because a Kobe was there to take the mantle, and then a LeBron to resume it with Kobe’s retirement. Stalwart passers and defenders continue to advance from Stockton to Nash to Paul and Mutombo to Wallace to Leonard. A guy like Tim Duncan, as far as I’m concerned, looking at the basketball landscape from the pros to college, to the hotshot high school prospects that feed the beast, a guy like Tim Duncan will never be replaced.
First of all, Duncan was once criticized for daring to forego the NBA draft after two years in college, because he was a surefire #1 pick then, because he wanted to finish college; and then went #1 anyway, after graduation from Wake Forest.
Upon his arrival into the NBA, Duncan immediately made the Spurs back into a playoff team, even in spite of the transitional period where the team’s responsibilities gradually shifted from David Robinson to Tim Duncan. And in Duncan’s second season in the NBA, the Spurs would go on to win the NBA Championship, although many are quick to notate that it was during the lockout-shortened year.
But no problem, Duncan and the Spurs would go on to bury the fluke stigma, and proceed to win four more championships in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014.
Tim Duncan’s style of play is something that will probably never be seen again, unless the NBA were to completely dissolve, basketball becomes a forgotten concept, and is rediscovered in another lifetime, and only through descriptions of the 1970s culminating with the Bird-Magic rivalry through both college and the pros.
Duncan was every bit the fundamental machine that miraculously survived nearly two decades of bastardization and mutation of the game of basketball. A selfless player that was always in the triple-threat position with the ball, and moved systematically into optimal positions when without it. He was a great passer that knew how to find the Bruce Bowen or Manu Ginobili on the wings whenever he drew a double-team. And his ridiculous arm length made him a defensive force, blocking a Mutombo-esque 2.2 shots average throughout his career.
But if there was one thing that defined Tim Duncan, his signature, the one thing that absolutely everyone throughout the history of the game will remember, will be the bank shot. Nobody after 1988 used the glass like Tim Duncan did. As far as Tim Duncan was concerned, the bank was never closed. And being practically seven-feet tall, it meant that he could clunk in bank shot after bank shot after bank shot over helpless defenders, thinking he would try to pound them into the post.
Nobody is going to open the bank like Tim Duncan did. Ever again. You ask kids on blacktops, and they pretty much deem shots made off the glass as not counting. Yet Tim Duncan won championships and made millions of dollars with this simple and fundamental basketball skill.
Ultimately, let us not forget that Tim Duncan simply, succeeded, throughout his whole career. For as much fanfare, pomp and celebration that Kobe Bryant was lauded with upon the end of his career, Tim Duncan won just as many championships as he did. Except along the way, Tim Duncan never was subject to juicy gossip and tabloids, feuds with teammates, infidelity accusations or most notably, any rape scandals.
That’s just not the way Tim Duncan was or ever will be. Despite the fact that he was more than worthy for the amount of praise, celebration and adulation for an incredible championship career that a guy like Kobe Bryant received, Duncan ended his career much the same way it operated; he announced his retirement through the team, by the book, and to absolutely no fanfare. ESPN, various sports outlets, and fans like me, are trying our best, but will ultimately fall short in honoring the man who played with honor throughout his 19-year career.
With the departure of Tim Duncan from the NBA, an era is truly over, where a player with fundamentals, maturity, and a team-first approach, can achieve the greatest successes.
