boutons_deux
06-19-2013, 06:14 AM
Labels Don’t Fit Duncan, but Championship Rings Do
It is not an issue that should keep him, or anyone, up much later than an N.B.A. finals game ends, but someday Tim Duncan is going to be remembered as the greatest power forward in league history — or one of its most distinguished centers.
Perhaps it will be both, depending on the eye of the beholder.
Or neither, for the millions who watched the valiant Duncan come so close to a fifth championship, only to have the Spurs lose a 5-point lead in the final minute of regulation and lose Game 6 to LeBron James and the Heat, 103-100, in overtime Tuesday night at American Airlines Arena.
Duncan finished with 30 points — all in the first three quarters — and 17 rebounds in what looked like a vintage performance from one of his generation’s very best players, who can’t be categorically fit into any assigned place.
It is not an issue that should keep him, or anyone, up much later than an N.B.A. finals game ends, but someday Tim Duncan is going to be remembered as the greatest power forward in league history — or one of its most distinguished centers.
Perhaps it will be both, depending on the eye of the beholder.
Or neither, for the millions who watched the valiant Duncan come so close to a fifth championship, only to have the Spurs lose a 5-point lead in the final minute of regulation and lose Game 6 to LeBron James and the Heat, 103-100, in overtime Tuesday night at American Airlines Arena.
Duncan finished with 30 points — all in the first three quarters — and 17 rebounds in what looked like a vintage performance from one of his generation’s very best players, who can’t be categorically fit into any assigned place.
“It’s a big mistake to try to put Tim Duncan into a position,” said Bill Walton, who, when fully healthy early in his career, was as complete a conventional center as the game has seen. “He’s not a forward, not a center, he’s a basketball player.
“He’s like Larry Bird or Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson,” Walton continued. “They play the position that their team needs them to play or the game dictates they play. They define their eras by their ability to do whatever it takes.”
Not one ever to be accused of understatement, Walton may have been the first to include Duncan in such exalted company of do-it-all superstars. Many would consider that a reach. But whatever we called him, Duncan, for 16 years, has been the face of the franchise with the best winning percentage in any of the major North American professional sports.
For years there have been questions about Duncan’s true position, many of them technical, for the purpose of All-Star ballot listings, and some of them broader and addressing his eventual legacy. Back in South Florida with the San Antonio Spurs, it’s safe to say that Duncan would not have object to being called a point guard if that would have assured him the fifth ring of his 16-season professional career — the same number as Magic, and one fewer than Jordan.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/06/19/sports/Y-DRIBBLE/Y-DRIBBLE-articleInline.jpg
(http://mobile.nytimes.com/images/100000002288489/2013/06/19/sports/basketball/labels-dont-fit-duncan-but-championship-rings-do.html?from=sports.basketball)
But if the decision of Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich to start a small lineup in Game 5 and again in Game 6 achieved anything beyond rousing Manu Ginobili from a series-long slumber, it confirmed that Duncan, at his core, is a center. He was the guy towering over the rest of the Spurs’ starters, none of whom stood taller than 6-foot-7, or 4 inches shorter than Duncan.
(http://mobile.nytimes.com/images/100000002288489/2013/06/19/sports/basketball/labels-dont-fit-duncan-but-championship-rings-do.html?from=sports.basketball)
(http://mobile.nytimes.com/images/100000002288489/2013/06/19/sports/basketball/labels-dont-fit-duncan-but-championship-rings-do.html?from=sports.basketball)
At 37, Duncan has remained the Spurs’ hub at both ends of the floor, although Tony Parker has undeniably become the engine of the offense. Duncan’s ability to set the high screen and handle and shoot the ball away from the basket has formed the basis of the case for him as a forward.
But even when he teamed with David Robinson for his first six years in San Antonio, Duncan had the more potent post game of a traditional center, while
both were forces to fear in the lane on defense.
After Robinson retired in 2003, Duncan was paired with a variety of interior (and inferior) players nominally referred to as the center. This season, again listed as a forward on the Spurs’ roster, he started alongside the rugged but limited 6-11 Tiago Splitter until Game 5.
Of course, eras change, styles evolve. The influence of players imported from Europe and the greater reliance on the 3-point shot have opened up the game and unclogged the lane. In some respects, basketball analysts reacted to the Indiana Pacers’ 7-2 Roy Hibbert and his impressive post play as if he had been teleported from games played 30 years ago.
Meanwhile, the Pacers were eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals by Miami, which considers Chris Bosh, with his face-the-basket, perimeter-shooting skills, to be its center.
Playing in three decades, Duncan has been a major force in the paint, if not to the extent of Shaquille O’Neal. He has also been an effective jump-shooter, if not in the class of Dirk Nowitzki. But put it all together, while making the indisputable argument that no star in Duncan’s generation has been a better overall teammate, and what you have is a player who has soared above the sum of his hybrid parts.
It has long been speculated that the Spurs began listing Duncan as a forward to avoid having him compete with O’Neal and later Yao Ming, who benefited from the powerful Chinese voting bloc, for the starting position on the Western Conference All-Star team. Maybe there has also been some consideration of posterity.
It would no doubt be easier to sell Duncan over Karl Malone than Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
For now, Walton said: “I can guarantee you that all he’s thinking about is getting that title. And this is the hardest, against LeBron James and the defending champions, on the road.”
Duncan found out just how hard on Tuesday night after coming so heartbreakingly close. Game 7, Thursday night.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/sports/basketball/labels-dont-fit-duncan-but-championship-rings-do.html
It is not an issue that should keep him, or anyone, up much later than an N.B.A. finals game ends, but someday Tim Duncan is going to be remembered as the greatest power forward in league history — or one of its most distinguished centers.
Perhaps it will be both, depending on the eye of the beholder.
Or neither, for the millions who watched the valiant Duncan come so close to a fifth championship, only to have the Spurs lose a 5-point lead in the final minute of regulation and lose Game 6 to LeBron James and the Heat, 103-100, in overtime Tuesday night at American Airlines Arena.
Duncan finished with 30 points — all in the first three quarters — and 17 rebounds in what looked like a vintage performance from one of his generation’s very best players, who can’t be categorically fit into any assigned place.
It is not an issue that should keep him, or anyone, up much later than an N.B.A. finals game ends, but someday Tim Duncan is going to be remembered as the greatest power forward in league history — or one of its most distinguished centers.
Perhaps it will be both, depending on the eye of the beholder.
Or neither, for the millions who watched the valiant Duncan come so close to a fifth championship, only to have the Spurs lose a 5-point lead in the final minute of regulation and lose Game 6 to LeBron James and the Heat, 103-100, in overtime Tuesday night at American Airlines Arena.
Duncan finished with 30 points — all in the first three quarters — and 17 rebounds in what looked like a vintage performance from one of his generation’s very best players, who can’t be categorically fit into any assigned place.
“It’s a big mistake to try to put Tim Duncan into a position,” said Bill Walton, who, when fully healthy early in his career, was as complete a conventional center as the game has seen. “He’s not a forward, not a center, he’s a basketball player.
“He’s like Larry Bird or Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson,” Walton continued. “They play the position that their team needs them to play or the game dictates they play. They define their eras by their ability to do whatever it takes.”
Not one ever to be accused of understatement, Walton may have been the first to include Duncan in such exalted company of do-it-all superstars. Many would consider that a reach. But whatever we called him, Duncan, for 16 years, has been the face of the franchise with the best winning percentage in any of the major North American professional sports.
For years there have been questions about Duncan’s true position, many of them technical, for the purpose of All-Star ballot listings, and some of them broader and addressing his eventual legacy. Back in South Florida with the San Antonio Spurs, it’s safe to say that Duncan would not have object to being called a point guard if that would have assured him the fifth ring of his 16-season professional career — the same number as Magic, and one fewer than Jordan.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/06/19/sports/Y-DRIBBLE/Y-DRIBBLE-articleInline.jpg
(http://mobile.nytimes.com/images/100000002288489/2013/06/19/sports/basketball/labels-dont-fit-duncan-but-championship-rings-do.html?from=sports.basketball)
But if the decision of Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich to start a small lineup in Game 5 and again in Game 6 achieved anything beyond rousing Manu Ginobili from a series-long slumber, it confirmed that Duncan, at his core, is a center. He was the guy towering over the rest of the Spurs’ starters, none of whom stood taller than 6-foot-7, or 4 inches shorter than Duncan.
(http://mobile.nytimes.com/images/100000002288489/2013/06/19/sports/basketball/labels-dont-fit-duncan-but-championship-rings-do.html?from=sports.basketball)
(http://mobile.nytimes.com/images/100000002288489/2013/06/19/sports/basketball/labels-dont-fit-duncan-but-championship-rings-do.html?from=sports.basketball)
At 37, Duncan has remained the Spurs’ hub at both ends of the floor, although Tony Parker has undeniably become the engine of the offense. Duncan’s ability to set the high screen and handle and shoot the ball away from the basket has formed the basis of the case for him as a forward.
But even when he teamed with David Robinson for his first six years in San Antonio, Duncan had the more potent post game of a traditional center, while
both were forces to fear in the lane on defense.
After Robinson retired in 2003, Duncan was paired with a variety of interior (and inferior) players nominally referred to as the center. This season, again listed as a forward on the Spurs’ roster, he started alongside the rugged but limited 6-11 Tiago Splitter until Game 5.
Of course, eras change, styles evolve. The influence of players imported from Europe and the greater reliance on the 3-point shot have opened up the game and unclogged the lane. In some respects, basketball analysts reacted to the Indiana Pacers’ 7-2 Roy Hibbert and his impressive post play as if he had been teleported from games played 30 years ago.
Meanwhile, the Pacers were eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals by Miami, which considers Chris Bosh, with his face-the-basket, perimeter-shooting skills, to be its center.
Playing in three decades, Duncan has been a major force in the paint, if not to the extent of Shaquille O’Neal. He has also been an effective jump-shooter, if not in the class of Dirk Nowitzki. But put it all together, while making the indisputable argument that no star in Duncan’s generation has been a better overall teammate, and what you have is a player who has soared above the sum of his hybrid parts.
It has long been speculated that the Spurs began listing Duncan as a forward to avoid having him compete with O’Neal and later Yao Ming, who benefited from the powerful Chinese voting bloc, for the starting position on the Western Conference All-Star team. Maybe there has also been some consideration of posterity.
It would no doubt be easier to sell Duncan over Karl Malone than Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
For now, Walton said: “I can guarantee you that all he’s thinking about is getting that title. And this is the hardest, against LeBron James and the defending champions, on the road.”
Duncan found out just how hard on Tuesday night after coming so heartbreakingly close. Game 7, Thursday night.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/sports/basketball/labels-dont-fit-duncan-but-championship-rings-do.html