Spurs Brazil
06-04-2007, 05:21 PM
How long will Tim Duncan play?
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/spursmoment/
How long will Tim Duncan play?
Tim Duncan turned 31 in April. His contract runs through 2010. He's managed to stay injury free much of his career.
So does it all add up to him playing well into his 30s? Maybe even to 40 or beyond like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone?
"The thing that would go against that is he is intelligent," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich joked Monday. "He might say, 'To hell with this. Who wants to do this forever?' and go do something else, I don't know. But I'm going to keep a close eye on him so I know when he's leaving, which way he's going."
Duncan's future came up during a relaxed, 10-minute media session with the Spurs coach at the team's practice facility on the North Side.
Turning serious, Popovich suggested Duncan indeed could play for quite a while longer. The hall-of-fame bound power forward signed a seven-year, $122 million deal in July 2003.
"He takes good care of himself," Popovich said. "He eats the right things. He's not a liquor guy. He is pretty good about his training in the offseason. And his game isn't built on athleticism. His wisdom and timing and fundamental awareness should extend his career, if that's what he chooses to do."
Spurs great David Robinson, a player whose game was all about athleticism, retired in 2003 at age 37 and after 14 NBA seasons.
Robinson probably could have played longer, but he was never a guy who couldn't live without basketball.
So will Duncan be like Robinson and leave the sport in his mid-to-late 30s. Or will he linger like Abdul-Jabbar, who retired at age 42 after 20 seasons, and Malone, who called it quits at the same age after 19 seasons?
My guess is Duncan will stick around as long as Popovich, Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and team owner Peter Holt continue to surround him with a stellar supporting cast.
Which brings us to what Popovich said about the team Cavs GM Danny Ferry and coach Mike Brown have built around superstar LeBron James.
"They wouldn't be in the Finals without LeBron," Popovich said. "We wouldn't be in the Finals without Tim Duncan. That goes without saying. But they still would not be in the Finals nor would we if we didn't each have our supporting casts. Everybody else has to fit, whether it's defensively, offensively, role players. Teams get to Finals and teams get to championships when everybody fits and their team fits.
"Everybody knows what their role is on that team. Mike has done a great job of making sure everything fits around LeBron."
The best teams, in any sport, are always the ones that have at least two stars and then stock the rest of their roster with role players, including a decent amount of "grinders," players that do the dirty work, are unselfish and fit well in the locker room.
In the Finals, we'll see two teams that fit that mold to a T.
Here are some other subjects touched on by Popovich:
• On the Spurs following Sunday's hard workout with what amounted to an off day Monday: "Today is the last opportunity to do that. We had a good (two-hour) practice yesterday. Hopefully, we'll have a good recovery today."
• On Bruce Bowen needing help to defend James: "If we just say, 'Bruce, it's your job to stop LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers,' we're in big trouble. Bruce has done a great job, he's a tremendous defender and he sets the tone for us at the defensive end. But our team defense has to be good or, again, we'll have major problems."
• On the Spurs being a heavy favorite to win their fourth NBA title: "We've been the overdogs and the underdogs before in different series. We're just trying to get better every game as we do from the beginning of the year. We don't know if we are going to be in the Finals or not. We don't know what our team is going to do. We are going to do the best job we can to be the best team we can and then we go play. It doesn't matter if (pundits) are saying about us, they should win or shouldn't win. It doesn't really matter."
• On Cavs assistant and former Spurs assistant Hank Egan, who was Brown's coach at the University of San Diego and Popovich's coach at the Air Force Academy: "Mike and I both learned most of what we do from Hank. My relationship with him goes back to the 1970s. People talk about Mike and my relationship and what we've learned from each other. Well, we did. But most of what
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/spursmoment/
How long will Tim Duncan play?
Tim Duncan turned 31 in April. His contract runs through 2010. He's managed to stay injury free much of his career.
So does it all add up to him playing well into his 30s? Maybe even to 40 or beyond like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone?
"The thing that would go against that is he is intelligent," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich joked Monday. "He might say, 'To hell with this. Who wants to do this forever?' and go do something else, I don't know. But I'm going to keep a close eye on him so I know when he's leaving, which way he's going."
Duncan's future came up during a relaxed, 10-minute media session with the Spurs coach at the team's practice facility on the North Side.
Turning serious, Popovich suggested Duncan indeed could play for quite a while longer. The hall-of-fame bound power forward signed a seven-year, $122 million deal in July 2003.
"He takes good care of himself," Popovich said. "He eats the right things. He's not a liquor guy. He is pretty good about his training in the offseason. And his game isn't built on athleticism. His wisdom and timing and fundamental awareness should extend his career, if that's what he chooses to do."
Spurs great David Robinson, a player whose game was all about athleticism, retired in 2003 at age 37 and after 14 NBA seasons.
Robinson probably could have played longer, but he was never a guy who couldn't live without basketball.
So will Duncan be like Robinson and leave the sport in his mid-to-late 30s. Or will he linger like Abdul-Jabbar, who retired at age 42 after 20 seasons, and Malone, who called it quits at the same age after 19 seasons?
My guess is Duncan will stick around as long as Popovich, Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and team owner Peter Holt continue to surround him with a stellar supporting cast.
Which brings us to what Popovich said about the team Cavs GM Danny Ferry and coach Mike Brown have built around superstar LeBron James.
"They wouldn't be in the Finals without LeBron," Popovich said. "We wouldn't be in the Finals without Tim Duncan. That goes without saying. But they still would not be in the Finals nor would we if we didn't each have our supporting casts. Everybody else has to fit, whether it's defensively, offensively, role players. Teams get to Finals and teams get to championships when everybody fits and their team fits.
"Everybody knows what their role is on that team. Mike has done a great job of making sure everything fits around LeBron."
The best teams, in any sport, are always the ones that have at least two stars and then stock the rest of their roster with role players, including a decent amount of "grinders," players that do the dirty work, are unselfish and fit well in the locker room.
In the Finals, we'll see two teams that fit that mold to a T.
Here are some other subjects touched on by Popovich:
• On the Spurs following Sunday's hard workout with what amounted to an off day Monday: "Today is the last opportunity to do that. We had a good (two-hour) practice yesterday. Hopefully, we'll have a good recovery today."
• On Bruce Bowen needing help to defend James: "If we just say, 'Bruce, it's your job to stop LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers,' we're in big trouble. Bruce has done a great job, he's a tremendous defender and he sets the tone for us at the defensive end. But our team defense has to be good or, again, we'll have major problems."
• On the Spurs being a heavy favorite to win their fourth NBA title: "We've been the overdogs and the underdogs before in different series. We're just trying to get better every game as we do from the beginning of the year. We don't know if we are going to be in the Finals or not. We don't know what our team is going to do. We are going to do the best job we can to be the best team we can and then we go play. It doesn't matter if (pundits) are saying about us, they should win or shouldn't win. It doesn't really matter."
• On Cavs assistant and former Spurs assistant Hank Egan, who was Brown's coach at the University of San Diego and Popovich's coach at the Air Force Academy: "Mike and I both learned most of what we do from Hank. My relationship with him goes back to the 1970s. People talk about Mike and my relationship and what we've learned from each other. Well, we did. But most of what