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Tim Duncan celebrates the San Antonio Spurs’ 2014 NBA title. Duncan announced his retirement Monday. (Chris Covatta/Getty Images)
San Antonio Spurs big man Tim Duncan, a five-time NBA champion, two-time Most Valuable Player and three-time NBA Finals MVP regarded by many as the greatest power forward of all time,announced Monday morning that he is retiring after 19 seasons in which he defined consistent brilliance and served as the cornerstone of the Spurs’ rise into the model NBA franchise.
Well, technically, he didn’t announce anything. The news came down, quietly, in a Spurs press release trumpeting the team’s sterling record since Duncan’s arrival out of Wake Forest with the No. 1 pick in the 1997 NBA draft: a 1,072-438 regular-season record, a .710 winning percentage, the best 19-year run in NBA history, the highest-such mark in any of the four major American professional sports over the duration of Duncan’s career. The release features no quotes from Duncan himself, which would be the most Tim Duncan thing of all time if not for this kicker:
The 40-year-old made 15 All-Star appearances, 15 All-NBA teams (including 10 appearances on the First Team) and 15 All-Defensive Teams (eight First Team) in his illustrious career; the All-NBA and All-Defensive berths are the most in league history. He retires in the top 10 in NBA history in regular-season games and minutes played, offensive, defensive and total rebounds, and blocked shots, and 14th on the all-time scoring list with 26,496 points. He is the Spurs’ record book, topping San Antonio’s franchise history in virtually every significant category.
#ThankYouTD, for everything.
Duncan is one of just three players in NBA history to spend at least 19 seasons with one team, joining John Stockton of the Utah Jazz and Kobe Bryant, who also retired this season after 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Spurs made the playoffs in every one of Duncan’s 19 seasons, the longest stretch of postseason appearances in the league, and won 50 or more games in 18 of the 19 campaigns, including the last 17 in a row. The lone exception? The 1998-99 season, which was shortened by a lockout to just 50 games. The Spurs went 37-13 — a 61-win pace over a full 82-game slate — and won the championship.
Even tho I knew it was coming, I'm still moved by the news. What a HUGE honor to have played with him for 14 seasons!#ThankYouTD
No player and coach in league history have won more games together than Duncan and Gregg Popovich, who totaled 1,001 victories in their unparalleled run together. Popovich, a three-time NBA Coach of the Year and a very smart man, never once made any bones about which member of that partnership deserved more of the credit for all those Ws and for those five championship celebrations.
“Every time I walk around the house, once a month, I tell my wife, ‘Say thank you, Tim,’” Popovich said a few years ago, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. “Before you start handing out applause and credit to anyone in this organization for anything that’s been accomplished, remember it all starts and goes through Timmy.”
The Spurs had been a top-tier NBA team before Duncan’s arrival, making the postseason in 17 of their 21 NBA seasons and standing as a Western Conference power in the mid-’90s thanks to the presence of All-Star center David Robinson, selected with the top overall pick back in 1987. But abroken foot sidelined Robinson for the bulk of the 1996-97 season, sending the snakebitten Spurs spiraling to a 20-62 record, the league’s third-worst mark and third-best odds of landing the top pick and a shot at Duncan, a two-time consensus All-American and ACC Player of the Year at Wake Forest who had averaged 20.8 points, 14.7 rebounds, 3.3 blocks and 3.2 assists per game during his senior season with the Demon Deacons.
“Whoever has a chance to draft him, they’ll be a contender – immediately,” said Larry Brown, then the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.
While the Vancouver Grizzlies and Boston Celtics entered the draft lottery with a better chance at the top spot, the ping-pong balls favored San Antonio, bringing Duncan to the Riverwalk to pair with a now-healthy Robinson in a Twin Towers frontcourt look that promised to instantly return the Spurs to the ranks of NBA contenders.
“If we’re healthy, we should win 50-plus games and be in the playoffs,” Spurs owner Peter Holt said at the time. “And if Tim Duncan is all that we believe he is, you’ve got to believe he puts us in a league of our own.”
For 19 years, he did exactly that.
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