Spursfanfromafar
02-09-2011, 11:33 PM
Slightly pessimistic about this season's championship chances, but still..
Explaining Tim Duncan (http://getbuckets.fantake.com/2011/02/07/explaining-tim-duncan/)
Growing up in the Virgin Islands, Tim Duncan didn’t dream of NBA stardom. He didn’t start playing basketball competitively until ninth grade, after a hurricane destroyed the islands’ only Olympic-sized swimming pool.
So when he picked up a ball as a fourteen-year old, he was a blank slate. An athletic and coordinated seven-footer without any bad habits or pre-conceived ideas on how to play the game.
** The reason why so many NBA players have awkward-looking jumpers is because they started shooting at such an early age. Five-year olds don’t have the sufficient strength and hand-size to shoot a fundamentally sound jump-shot, so they power the ball towards the rim any way they can, developing bad habits that stick with them for life. **
It’s easy to see where Duncan’s humility and modesty come from — basketball always came extremely easy for him. So what exactly was the big deal?
At 16, he played Alonzo Mourning (the #2 pick in the NBA Draft) to a draw.
One year later he was playing at Wake Forest. He didn’t score a single basket in his first college game; it would never happen again the rest of his life.
His sophomore year he led the Demon Deacons to the Sweet Sixteen and was a 3rd-team All-American. Five years after he had first picked up a basketball, Jerry West said he would be the first pick in the NBA Draft.
He stayed all four years at Wake Forest, honoring a promise he made to his mother on her deathbed. Despite facing double and triple teams his final two years, he became a two-time first-team All-American and won the Wooden Award as a senior.
Success came just as easy in the pros.
He’s never missed an All-Star Game and his teams have never missed the playoffs. Tracy McGrady never made the second round; Tim Duncan’s only missed it twice in thirteen years.
Hakeem, Robinson, Ewing, Malone, Barkley, KG, Dirk, Kobe, LeBron — none of them won as consistently as Duncan. Not even Jordan.
** A fun hypothetical: A Tim Duncan/Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls team probably still wins six NBA titles. I doubt a MJ/Manu/Tony Parker Spurs team wins three.**
There’s only one modern player who has, and unsurprisingly, he was also a seven foot goliath who dominated the interior of the paint. Shaq, a boisterous 7’0 350+ behemoth who starred in Hollywood movies, attacked the rim with relish and played in the biggest media fish-bowl in the NBA, was Duncan’s polar opposite in almost every way.
Shaq is the only reason why Duncan isn’t approaching Bill Russell numbers for titles. In his prime, the nine seasons from the ages of 22-30, Duncan’s Spurs won four championships. In 2000, Duncan missed the playoffs with a knee injury. In 2006, they lost to Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks in a classic seven-game series that wasn’t decided until well into OT of Game 7.
** A crazy stat: Asides from Game 2, the outcome of every single game of that series was in doubt with 0:00 left on the clock in regulation. **
The other four times, Duncan lost to the Shaq/Kobe Lakers. Basically, unless you had a Hall of Fame seven-footer of your own, you were not beating prime Tim Duncan in the playoffs.
When he won his fourth ring in 2007, he became the first player since Bill Russell to win a championship with the same franchise but with an entirely different supporting cast around him. The Spurs have won 50 or more games, the mark of a good team, every single year of his career, all the while steadily transitioning from the Duncan/Robinson era to the Duncan/Ginobili/Parker era.
In 2003, he won a title with a supporting cast of 20-year old Tony Parker, a 37-year old David Robinson, Stephen Jackson, Malik Rose and a 25-year old Manu Ginobili (who averaged only 7.6 points a game that season).
Read more.. (http://getbuckets.fantake.com/2011/02/07/explaining-tim-duncan/)
Explaining Tim Duncan (http://getbuckets.fantake.com/2011/02/07/explaining-tim-duncan/)
Growing up in the Virgin Islands, Tim Duncan didn’t dream of NBA stardom. He didn’t start playing basketball competitively until ninth grade, after a hurricane destroyed the islands’ only Olympic-sized swimming pool.
So when he picked up a ball as a fourteen-year old, he was a blank slate. An athletic and coordinated seven-footer without any bad habits or pre-conceived ideas on how to play the game.
** The reason why so many NBA players have awkward-looking jumpers is because they started shooting at such an early age. Five-year olds don’t have the sufficient strength and hand-size to shoot a fundamentally sound jump-shot, so they power the ball towards the rim any way they can, developing bad habits that stick with them for life. **
It’s easy to see where Duncan’s humility and modesty come from — basketball always came extremely easy for him. So what exactly was the big deal?
At 16, he played Alonzo Mourning (the #2 pick in the NBA Draft) to a draw.
One year later he was playing at Wake Forest. He didn’t score a single basket in his first college game; it would never happen again the rest of his life.
His sophomore year he led the Demon Deacons to the Sweet Sixteen and was a 3rd-team All-American. Five years after he had first picked up a basketball, Jerry West said he would be the first pick in the NBA Draft.
He stayed all four years at Wake Forest, honoring a promise he made to his mother on her deathbed. Despite facing double and triple teams his final two years, he became a two-time first-team All-American and won the Wooden Award as a senior.
Success came just as easy in the pros.
He’s never missed an All-Star Game and his teams have never missed the playoffs. Tracy McGrady never made the second round; Tim Duncan’s only missed it twice in thirteen years.
Hakeem, Robinson, Ewing, Malone, Barkley, KG, Dirk, Kobe, LeBron — none of them won as consistently as Duncan. Not even Jordan.
** A fun hypothetical: A Tim Duncan/Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls team probably still wins six NBA titles. I doubt a MJ/Manu/Tony Parker Spurs team wins three.**
There’s only one modern player who has, and unsurprisingly, he was also a seven foot goliath who dominated the interior of the paint. Shaq, a boisterous 7’0 350+ behemoth who starred in Hollywood movies, attacked the rim with relish and played in the biggest media fish-bowl in the NBA, was Duncan’s polar opposite in almost every way.
Shaq is the only reason why Duncan isn’t approaching Bill Russell numbers for titles. In his prime, the nine seasons from the ages of 22-30, Duncan’s Spurs won four championships. In 2000, Duncan missed the playoffs with a knee injury. In 2006, they lost to Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks in a classic seven-game series that wasn’t decided until well into OT of Game 7.
** A crazy stat: Asides from Game 2, the outcome of every single game of that series was in doubt with 0:00 left on the clock in regulation. **
The other four times, Duncan lost to the Shaq/Kobe Lakers. Basically, unless you had a Hall of Fame seven-footer of your own, you were not beating prime Tim Duncan in the playoffs.
When he won his fourth ring in 2007, he became the first player since Bill Russell to win a championship with the same franchise but with an entirely different supporting cast around him. The Spurs have won 50 or more games, the mark of a good team, every single year of his career, all the while steadily transitioning from the Duncan/Robinson era to the Duncan/Ginobili/Parker era.
In 2003, he won a title with a supporting cast of 20-year old Tony Parker, a 37-year old David Robinson, Stephen Jackson, Malik Rose and a 25-year old Manu Ginobili (who averaged only 7.6 points a game that season).
Read more.. (http://getbuckets.fantake.com/2011/02/07/explaining-tim-duncan/)