Tim Duncan exited the league just as many would have expected -- quietly and with little bravado. There was no season-long farewell with tributes at every arena and no article in the Players' Tribune to say goodbye. It was a quiet announcement with a big impact for the league. The greatest power forward in the history of the game is calling it quits, and it ends one of the greatest eras for a franchise the NBA has ever known.Duncan has a laundry list of accolades, but perhaps none is more impressive than this: his Spurs' teams won five NBA titles in his 19 seasons and NEVER missed the playoffs. Duncan never knew what it was like to have an offseason start early and his first championship (1999) and last (2014) came 15 years apart.
His 15 All-NBA honors are tied for the most all-time and the 40-year-old became the first player in league history to start and win a title in three different decades. Duncan is one of two players in NBA history, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to record at least 26,000 points, 15,000 rebounds and 3,000 blocks in his career and holds the record for All-Defensive Team selections with 15. The Big Fundamental is a two-time MVP, three-time Finals MVP and was named the 1998 Rookie of the Year. From start to finish, his career was something special.
And still, while his numbers are impressive and his awards list is long, there have been many others who have achieved those kinds of things. What made Duncan special is the way he went about it. Known for being quiet on the court, Duncan was purely business and earned the respect of many of his peers. Twitter was full of congratulatory tweets from fellow players today and many players in the league today cannot remember the NBA without Tim Duncan.
Duncan's career is great in its own right, but his legend only grew when paired with Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Gregg Popovich. The three players and coach won four titles together and the players own the NBA record for most wins by a trio in both the regular season (575) and postseason (126). Duncan and Popovich have the most wins by a player-coach duo in NBA history with 1,001. The quartet has provided a blueprint for success, but it's difficult to duplicate what they have achieved. The wins and titles are one thing, but the unity they have had is something truly special.
The NBA will go on without Duncan, but it certainly won't be the same. The big man was a winner from start to finish and led the Spurs to one of the most dominant runs in professional sports history. The Spurs can still be great next season and further into the future, and if they are it will still be because of the example Duncan has set for younger players for years.
19 years, five titles, two MVPs and 26,496 points later, Duncan's time has come. For a guy who has always let his play do the talking, perhaps I've said too much. He's earned the respect of everyone and there may never be another like him. So all that is left to say is t
hank you, Tim Duncan. Thank you for the memories.
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