duncan228
05-02-2009, 11:47 PM
Spurs: Delaying the decline (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_Delaying_the_decline.html)
Jeff McDonald
Eleven summers ago, Tim Duncan arrived in San Antonio, not quite fresh off the boat from the Virgin Islands, but close to it.
He came to the Spurs long on promise but short on expectations. For instance, he did not expect to win an NBA championship in his second season.
“There are a lot of guys around the league who have played for years and years and years and haven't won a title,” Duncan said. “I walk in here my second year and win one. After that, everything else has been kind of a bonus.”
By the end of next month, it will have been 10 years since Duncan lifted his first Larry O'Brien Trophy. His arrival served as the starting gun for one of the great runs in American professional sports.
In the decade-long interim, Duncan has helped add three more title trophies to the Spurs' collection, amassing bookends on top of bookends. On his watch, the Spurs built a quasi-dynasty, becoming a late-June playoff fixture that has spawned many imitators but no match.
Which is why the dull quiet around San Antonio today is deafening.
The Spurs are out of the playoffs, having been unceremoniously dumped in the first round by Dallas last week. It was their earliest playoff exit since 2000, when Duncan was shelved with a knee injury. It took just five games to complete.
The premature ouster did more than just put an inconsistent and injury-marred season out of its misery. It sent the Spurs headlong into an offseason that should not only be their longest in recent memory, but also their most uncertain.
“We're going to do what's necessary to avoid having a lull,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “We wouldn't want to have a situation where we go right down into the toilet. We want to keep winning.”
In that, the Spurs are looking to delay a decline that seems as inevitable as gravity.
NBA history is littered with the carcasses of great champions that grew old and passed on, to be replaced by fresher, younger challengers. Eventually, there will be a headstone in this graveyard for the Spurs as well.
“It's a fine line between winning and losing,” point guard Tony Parker said. “I think with the character of this team, and our front office making good decisions, we'll be right back.”
It will be an uphill battle, for sure. The Spurs are fighting time itself, and so far, time is undefeated.
Duncan, though still an elite big man, is 33 and battling knee issues. In addition to his 12 NBA regular seasons, he has logged 160 career postseason games — carrying the equivalent of two extra seasons on his legs.
Manu Ginobili will turn 32 before the start of his next training camp. Thanks to several summers of deep playoff ball compounded by international competition, his odometer is about to turn over as well.
Ginobili missed 43 games and all of the playoffs this season plagued with a variety of ankle woes. Doctors say his latest ailment — a stress fracture in his right fibula — will heal. No amount of medical science, however, can make Ginobili 27 again.
The surest All-Star on the roster is Parker, the 26-year-old blur who, with his best season as a pro, boosted the Spurs to a 54-28 record and a Southwest Division title this season.
The cracks in the foundation are evident. The Spurs cling to the hope that with the right amount of spackle, they might patch things together for one more run at greatness.
“I don't think at all we are over,” Parker said. “I think with a healthy Manu Ginobili, and a couple changes in our role players, we will be right back for another run.”
If there was a moment during the Spurs' truncated postseason that seemed to symbolize the NBA's new world order, it came in Game 4 at Dallas.
Ryan Hollins, a third-year center who wasn't old enough to drive when Duncan won his first championship, finished a follow-up slam over the Spurs' Hall-of-Famer-to-be. He punctuated the dunk by shaking his fist in Duncan's general direction.
Hollins later apologized, but the image was indelible: The impudent young buck taunting the old, hobbling champion. There is a changing of the guard coming, if the guard hasn't been changed already.
Faced with this reality, Duncan will do what he has done for a decade of summers now. He will pick himself up and he will strike out again next year, in search of another bonus trophy.
And if this truly is the beginning of the end of the Spurs' golden age, well, it's been quite a ride.
“We've been blessed over the years to have a team that's right in contention, and that's where you want to be every year,” Duncan said. “Being at the top, and being in that area is an unbelievable feat.”
Jeff McDonald
Eleven summers ago, Tim Duncan arrived in San Antonio, not quite fresh off the boat from the Virgin Islands, but close to it.
He came to the Spurs long on promise but short on expectations. For instance, he did not expect to win an NBA championship in his second season.
“There are a lot of guys around the league who have played for years and years and years and haven't won a title,” Duncan said. “I walk in here my second year and win one. After that, everything else has been kind of a bonus.”
By the end of next month, it will have been 10 years since Duncan lifted his first Larry O'Brien Trophy. His arrival served as the starting gun for one of the great runs in American professional sports.
In the decade-long interim, Duncan has helped add three more title trophies to the Spurs' collection, amassing bookends on top of bookends. On his watch, the Spurs built a quasi-dynasty, becoming a late-June playoff fixture that has spawned many imitators but no match.
Which is why the dull quiet around San Antonio today is deafening.
The Spurs are out of the playoffs, having been unceremoniously dumped in the first round by Dallas last week. It was their earliest playoff exit since 2000, when Duncan was shelved with a knee injury. It took just five games to complete.
The premature ouster did more than just put an inconsistent and injury-marred season out of its misery. It sent the Spurs headlong into an offseason that should not only be their longest in recent memory, but also their most uncertain.
“We're going to do what's necessary to avoid having a lull,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “We wouldn't want to have a situation where we go right down into the toilet. We want to keep winning.”
In that, the Spurs are looking to delay a decline that seems as inevitable as gravity.
NBA history is littered with the carcasses of great champions that grew old and passed on, to be replaced by fresher, younger challengers. Eventually, there will be a headstone in this graveyard for the Spurs as well.
“It's a fine line between winning and losing,” point guard Tony Parker said. “I think with the character of this team, and our front office making good decisions, we'll be right back.”
It will be an uphill battle, for sure. The Spurs are fighting time itself, and so far, time is undefeated.
Duncan, though still an elite big man, is 33 and battling knee issues. In addition to his 12 NBA regular seasons, he has logged 160 career postseason games — carrying the equivalent of two extra seasons on his legs.
Manu Ginobili will turn 32 before the start of his next training camp. Thanks to several summers of deep playoff ball compounded by international competition, his odometer is about to turn over as well.
Ginobili missed 43 games and all of the playoffs this season plagued with a variety of ankle woes. Doctors say his latest ailment — a stress fracture in his right fibula — will heal. No amount of medical science, however, can make Ginobili 27 again.
The surest All-Star on the roster is Parker, the 26-year-old blur who, with his best season as a pro, boosted the Spurs to a 54-28 record and a Southwest Division title this season.
The cracks in the foundation are evident. The Spurs cling to the hope that with the right amount of spackle, they might patch things together for one more run at greatness.
“I don't think at all we are over,” Parker said. “I think with a healthy Manu Ginobili, and a couple changes in our role players, we will be right back for another run.”
If there was a moment during the Spurs' truncated postseason that seemed to symbolize the NBA's new world order, it came in Game 4 at Dallas.
Ryan Hollins, a third-year center who wasn't old enough to drive when Duncan won his first championship, finished a follow-up slam over the Spurs' Hall-of-Famer-to-be. He punctuated the dunk by shaking his fist in Duncan's general direction.
Hollins later apologized, but the image was indelible: The impudent young buck taunting the old, hobbling champion. There is a changing of the guard coming, if the guard hasn't been changed already.
Faced with this reality, Duncan will do what he has done for a decade of summers now. He will pick himself up and he will strike out again next year, in search of another bonus trophy.
And if this truly is the beginning of the end of the Spurs' golden age, well, it's been quite a ride.
“We've been blessed over the years to have a team that's right in contention, and that's where you want to be every year,” Duncan said. “Being at the top, and being in that area is an unbelievable feat.”