12 Jul Reviewing Tim Duncan’s Legacy: San Antonio Spurs’ Future Hall-of-Famer Retires After 19 Seasons in the NBA
On July 11, Monday, the 40-year-old Tim Duncan, arguably the greatest power forward in the history of the NBA, announced his retirement in the National Basketball Association (NBA) after playing in the league for 19 years.
The Philippines have been a witness on Duncan’s epic career! Though most in our country are drawn into the NBA by the current hype brought by the Splash brothers in the bay area and the king in Cleveland, some have been avidly following the story of Duncan’s constant achievements through the years.
Are you ready to get drowned by records that Tim Duncan made in the NBA? Here we go.
Throughout Duncan’s 19-year career playing for the San Antonio, the Spurs did not miss any playoff appearance.
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The Spurs holds the longest active and current consecutive seasons with a playoff appearance and you guessed it right, it is 19 consecutive appearances, from the start of Duncan’s career in 1997 until this year. Duncan is born and chiseled to be a winner!
With the Atlanta Hawks holds the second spot of 9 active consecutive playoff appearances, we need to wait for at least 10 more years for a team to tie such feat.
Since drafting Duncan as the first overall in 1997, the Spurs franchise accumulated an impressive 1,072-438 regular season record (.710 winning percentage). It was the best 19-year stretch in the NBA history and the best in any major American sports in the last 19 years.
Spurs won 50+ games in all but one of Tim Duncan’s 19 seasons. After a 1999 lockout, they went 37-13 and won it all until the Finals.
Duncan is the only player in the history of the NBA to have played as a starter and won an NBA title in 3 different decades! Yes, three decades! That shows how consistent Duncan is as well as the Spurs franchise that honed the already capable Duncan way back then when he was still in his early years in the NBA.
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Speaking of consistency, under Duncan’s leadership that has been passed from his predecessor, David “The Admiral” Robinson, the Spurs has never been short of 50 wins every season from 1999-2016 including the shortened 2011-2012 lockout season. The Spurs posted a 50-16 record that year. Last season’s record is the best regular season standing where they recorded a franchise record of 67-15.
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Those 17 years of at least 50 wins in a season is the greatest manifestation of Duncan’s cemented legacy and leadership in the Spurs’ organization.
He was nicknamed by Shaquille O’Neal as the “Big Fundamental” because of his minor details in basketball efficiency, optimizing every opportunity to convert a basket in the most effective way possible giving the Spurs that winning culture through the years.
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In his last season with the Spurs, he recorded a league-best Defensive RPM (5.41) despite his old age. Rebounding and blocking are Duncan’s greatest strength, but his scoring is not lacking too. He is only one of the two players who have recorded 26,000 points, 15,000 rebounds, and 3,000 blocks in their career, the other one is the Laker legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
He had received 15 All-NBA Team selections (tied for most all-time) and 15 NBA All-Defensive Team honors (most all-time), and he did this all in the same season 15 times. He has also been an All-Star 15 times in his career.
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Twice, he was named MVP in the league in 2002 and 2003. In the 5 championships that the Spurs have made, three times he won the MVP award in the Finals (1999, 2003 and 2005). The other two were given to Tony Parker (2007) and Kawhi Leonard (2014).
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In NBA history, Duncan is fifth all-time in double-doubles (841) and blocks, sixth in rebounding and 14th in scoring.
He is a veteran not only in regular season but also in the Playoffs. He has a record of logging over 9,000 career minutes in the playoffs, ranks first all-time in postseason double-doubles (164) and blocks (568), third in rebounds (2,859) and sixth in points (5,172). For his career, Duncan appeared in 251 postseason contests (second all-time) and averaged 20.6 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in 37.3 minutes while shooting .501 (1,975-3,939) from the field.
He is part of the winningest trio in NBA history in both the regular season (575) and postseason (126). Included in the trio with Duncan are Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
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Also, Duncan and Gregg Popovich have the most wins by a player-coach duo in NBA history (1,001) and the Spurs forward finishes his career in San Antonio as one of just three players in NBA history, along with John Stockton and Kobe Bryant, to spend 19 seasons with one franchise.
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We may think that he has bloomed through the years and started weak entering the NBA, but Duncan is an exception. From the start of his career, he was impressive until the end. Duncan is the NBA’s rookie of the year in 1998 averaging 21.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 2.5 blocks and 0.7 steals a game.
Throughout his career, he averaged 19.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.17 blocks in 34.0 minutes.
The Spur’s transition and Duncan’s retirement has stemmed into its highest extent when Pau Gasol has been acquired by the Spurs last week to replace Duncan, joining the young core of Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge.
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We may be amazed by today’s long range splashes in San Francisco, the limelight of New York, the stardom in Cleveland, and much more, but we tend to forget that these current heroics and antics are just but a blip compared to Duncan’s humble yet formidable career.
Current NBA teams adopted the Spurs’ system to replicate the winning culture in the city, but nothing came close yet. The only ingredient they lack, yet essential in its deliverance is a Tim Duncan in their roster spot.
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This is not just a simple retirement of an average NBA player; this is the end of an era. The era that proved consistency is possible in a league where change is the only constant.
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