There are names (or initials) that automatically come to mind when thinking about NBA superstars drafted in the late 1990s. When you hear them, just about anyone can remember where they were when that transcendent player was drafted.
Kevin Garnett.
Allen Iverson.
Kobe Bryant.
Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki, and Paul Pierce (and that’s JUST from the 1998 NBA Draft).
Somehow, the name that almost always gets forgotten and overlooked is San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan – which is a shame because in my opinion, Duncan is the player of the 2000s. Jordan was the ’80s. Shaq was the ’90s. Duncan was the 2000s. Lebron James and Steph Curry are currently duking it out for the 2010s. (You can quote me, and I await angry tweets from Kobe people.)
Duncan announced his retirement from the NBA after 19 seasons with the Spurs in the most “Tim Duncan Way” possible. He simply told the team he was retiring. There was no Kobe Bryant/Derek Jeter-style farewell tour. There wasn’t a long penned letter made with Microsoft Word. There weren’t even any quotes from Duncan regarding his retirement in the Spurs press release. If you’re familiar with Duncan’s demeanor, you almost have to wonder whether or not he simply sent a text message to Adam Silver that simply said, “Hey, Adam, it’s Timmy. Yeah, I’m gonna call it a career. Thanks, man.”
That’s who Tim Duncan was.
He wasn’t flashy like Iverson or Kobe. He wasn’t verbally and emotionally menacing like Kevin Garnett. Sure, Duncan was an athlete, but he wasn’t anything compared to the young Vince Carter. Like Nowitzki (and to an equal extent, Pierce), Duncan was just consistent. He was always the perfect figure to point to of someone who “led by example”.
That was what was most admirable about Duncan. He didn’t have to make a scene to get noticed. He didn’t have to absolutely obliterate the competition in a slam dunk contest. Duncan was quiet on and off the court. You never heard about something he did (unless, of course, you ask Joey Crawford – who to this day still holds a little animosity towards Tim). His nickname always said it all: “The Big Fundamental”.
There were things about Tim Duncan’s game that were automatic. He was an incredible and tenacious rebounder who averaged 10+ rebounds per game in each season he was in the league from the day of his first game until 2010. In that same time span, his defensive rebound rate was never lower than 20%, and his total rebound rate always hovered around 18-20%.
Duncan was also a very underrated defender. Early in his career, he was sneaky athletic. From 1997-2007, Duncan averaged more than two blocks per game and had solid representation in DRtg numbers. Duncan’s DRtg never rose above 96, and he led the league in DRtg at ages 28-30 and again at age 36. The one big man who is always brought up in the same conversation as Tim Duncan is, of course, Shaquille O’Neal.
As dominant as Shaq was in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Duncan held his ground firm against him. Duncan has a career head-to-head record of 14-18 against Shaq, and they’re dead even in the playoffs (15-15). Statistically, both in the regular season and playoffs, the numbers are VERY close.
You have to respect someone that was able to be so consistent and keep up with the giant in the post that Shaquille was in his prime. (Seriously, Shaq in his prime is a force of nature, unlike any tornado or Sharknado.) In nearly 50 head-to-head match-ups, Duncan was able to hang in the storm.
The one word that is always synonymous with Tim Duncan is “boring”. Any time the Spurs were close to getting to an NBA Finals appearance, there was the theory that the NBA was colluding against the Spurs for a more exciting figure in an NBA Finals matchup. (That was never my personal theory because Tim Duncan can be in as many NBA Finals as he wants. I don’t care how boring he may or may not be.)
What’s boring about an NBA superstar that punches the clock, gets you at least 15 points and 10 rebounds on any given night? Maybe it’s his stone face that makes Duncan appear to have no personality? Perhaps, but we’ve seen Tim Duncan prank the likes of former teammate Sean Elliott and laughing like a kid after being pranked by Manu Ginobili — in the NBA Finals, no less.
Maybe Tim Duncan is just a jedi. “Adventure. Excitement. A jedi seeks not these things.”
Neither did Duncan.
Call him boring or unexciting if you want, but being boring, fundamental, and consistent led Tim Duncan to the following:
5x NBA Champion
3x NBA Finals MVP
2x NBA League MVP
15x NBA All-Star
10x First Team All-NBA
1998 Rookie of the Year
Duncan also retires as the all-time points leader for the San Antonio Spurs passing names like David Robinson and George Gervin. Duncan is also the Spurs all-time leader in every offensive category having nothing to do with the three-point shot not to mention every rebounding category plus blocks. Analytics love boring, too. Duncan is in the NBA’s top-15 in career PER and sixth in career win shares and VORP (value over replacement player). In the playoffs, he’s just as good — seventh in playoff PER, third in playoff win shares and VORP.
Duncan IS the face of the Spurs. Long after he’s retired, a long flag of his 6’11” body should always fly high outside whatever arena the Spurs play in. (The Spurs are never leaving San Antonio, but who knows if the AT&T Center will always be named the AT&T Center.)
In a league where Charles Barkley once said, “I am not a role model,” Duncan quietly was a role model. He may not have known such, but there are parents of basketball players that choose to teach their son or daughter about Tim Duncan’s game. It’s precise. It’s consistent. It may be boring, but boring wins.
Tim Duncan is proof.
(UPDATE: ESPN’s Michelle Beadle has contributed this one word description of Tim Duncan to this column. If you’re unaware, Beadle went to the University of Texas at San Antonio is a very loud and proud Spurs fan.)
