duncan228
10-29-2008, 01:32 AM
Duncan savors current status (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Duncan_savors_current_status.html)
By Jeff McDonald
On Halloween night 1997, Tim Duncan walked onto an NBA floor for a regular-season game for the first time.
He did so without expectation.
I think that was probably best for me, Duncan said. I could come in, and just play.
Eleven years later, the gym in which he made his debut Denver's McNichols Arena is a parking lot. The four players who joined him in the Spurs' starting lineup David Robinson, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott and Vinny Del Negro have long since retired.
Meanwhile, Duncan has won four NBA titles, two MVP awards, and in a blink has become the kind of grizzled veteran he once looked up to.
When the Phoenix Suns visit the AT&T Center tonight, it will mark Duncan's 12th season opener. At 32, he straddles the divide between two generations of dominating NBA big men.
One is on its way out, the other on its way in. The circle of NBA life.
As you get older, everybody else gets younger, Duncan said. I'm going to have to face a lot of young, very talented individuals over the next couple of years. That's how it's always going to be.
If he needed reminding of the short shelf life of an NBA big man, Duncan ought to get it before October is out.
Against Phoenix, he will often find himself wedged between Shaquille O'Neal, at 36 the last of the old guard, and Amare Stoudemire, who at 26 hasn't hit his career crescendo.
Before the week ends, Duncan will also be privy to Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden, one barely old enough to drink, the other barely old enough to vote.
In between the two extremes is Duncan. No longer a spring chicken, not yet an old man, he's snuggled in basketball's version of middle age.
Every year, you end up going back to basketball, and it's a little more fun, Duncan said. I probably enjoy playing now more than before, and I've been a basketball junkie all along.
Duncan is coming off a season in which he averaged 19.3 points per game, only the second time he finished below 20. Yet he remains the kind of showpiece big man every team covets, but few possess.
He's still one of the top three big men in basketball, and you can make an argument he's the best, said Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, who was on the Phoenix bench last season. His game is great. I don't mean good I mean great.
Duncan isn't unstoppable every night anymore, but he can be unstoppable any given night. Just ask the Suns, who saw him climb into the way-back machine and drop 40 points on them in last season's playoffs.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich traces the incremental decline in Duncan's scoring to the rise in Manu Ginobili's. Ginobili, the Spurs' leading scorer for the first time last season, was rolling so well at times that Duncan didn't need to impose his will on the scoreboard.
I think in some situations, he's entirely too team-oriented, if that's possible, Popovich said. He probably tries, overly so, to get other people involved.
With Ginobili out until at least mid-December with an ankle injury, the Spurs are expecting Duncan to accept more of the scoring load again.
You'll find him, I think, trying to be more aggressive on the offensive end, Popovich said. That's something we wanted to attack this year, whether (the injury) happened to Manu or not.
For a lesson in how quickly and cruelly Father Time can claim a dominant big man, Duncan need only to glance across the court tonight. Just two seasons removed from averaging 20 points for the champion Miami Heat, O'Neal scored just 13.6 per game last season the fewest of his career while playing on bad knees.
D'Antoni doesn't foresee the same kind of breakdown on the immediate horizon for Duncan.
He's got three or four more great years, for sure, D'Antoni said. Then it's really up to him and how long he wants to play.
Duncan's contract runs through the end of the 2011-2012 season, when he'll be 36. There's no telling what happens after that.
For now, Duncan is thinking only about this season. He will approach it like his first.
Without expectation, he will just play.
By Jeff McDonald
On Halloween night 1997, Tim Duncan walked onto an NBA floor for a regular-season game for the first time.
He did so without expectation.
I think that was probably best for me, Duncan said. I could come in, and just play.
Eleven years later, the gym in which he made his debut Denver's McNichols Arena is a parking lot. The four players who joined him in the Spurs' starting lineup David Robinson, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott and Vinny Del Negro have long since retired.
Meanwhile, Duncan has won four NBA titles, two MVP awards, and in a blink has become the kind of grizzled veteran he once looked up to.
When the Phoenix Suns visit the AT&T Center tonight, it will mark Duncan's 12th season opener. At 32, he straddles the divide between two generations of dominating NBA big men.
One is on its way out, the other on its way in. The circle of NBA life.
As you get older, everybody else gets younger, Duncan said. I'm going to have to face a lot of young, very talented individuals over the next couple of years. That's how it's always going to be.
If he needed reminding of the short shelf life of an NBA big man, Duncan ought to get it before October is out.
Against Phoenix, he will often find himself wedged between Shaquille O'Neal, at 36 the last of the old guard, and Amare Stoudemire, who at 26 hasn't hit his career crescendo.
Before the week ends, Duncan will also be privy to Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden, one barely old enough to drink, the other barely old enough to vote.
In between the two extremes is Duncan. No longer a spring chicken, not yet an old man, he's snuggled in basketball's version of middle age.
Every year, you end up going back to basketball, and it's a little more fun, Duncan said. I probably enjoy playing now more than before, and I've been a basketball junkie all along.
Duncan is coming off a season in which he averaged 19.3 points per game, only the second time he finished below 20. Yet he remains the kind of showpiece big man every team covets, but few possess.
He's still one of the top three big men in basketball, and you can make an argument he's the best, said Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, who was on the Phoenix bench last season. His game is great. I don't mean good I mean great.
Duncan isn't unstoppable every night anymore, but he can be unstoppable any given night. Just ask the Suns, who saw him climb into the way-back machine and drop 40 points on them in last season's playoffs.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich traces the incremental decline in Duncan's scoring to the rise in Manu Ginobili's. Ginobili, the Spurs' leading scorer for the first time last season, was rolling so well at times that Duncan didn't need to impose his will on the scoreboard.
I think in some situations, he's entirely too team-oriented, if that's possible, Popovich said. He probably tries, overly so, to get other people involved.
With Ginobili out until at least mid-December with an ankle injury, the Spurs are expecting Duncan to accept more of the scoring load again.
You'll find him, I think, trying to be more aggressive on the offensive end, Popovich said. That's something we wanted to attack this year, whether (the injury) happened to Manu or not.
For a lesson in how quickly and cruelly Father Time can claim a dominant big man, Duncan need only to glance across the court tonight. Just two seasons removed from averaging 20 points for the champion Miami Heat, O'Neal scored just 13.6 per game last season the fewest of his career while playing on bad knees.
D'Antoni doesn't foresee the same kind of breakdown on the immediate horizon for Duncan.
He's got three or four more great years, for sure, D'Antoni said. Then it's really up to him and how long he wants to play.
Duncan's contract runs through the end of the 2011-2012 season, when he'll be 36. There's no telling what happens after that.
For now, Duncan is thinking only about this season. He will approach it like his first.
Without expectation, he will just play.