Rikki Grooms continues her Legacy Friday series with San Antonio's Tim Duncan. The series has already covered the careers of Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady, and it will continue every other Friday through the entire 2010-11 season.
Quite possibly the NBA’s quietest player and poster child for near perfect fundamentals, Tim Duncan has been a superstar since he first stepped into the NBA in 1997, winning the Rookie of the Year award that year. Duncan wasted little time winning his first le and Finals MVP in 1999 on his way to winning two more Finals MVPs, four NBA les, and two regular season MVP’s. Duncan has been voted to the All-Rookie team, 12 All-Star teams, 13 All-NBA teams, 13 All-Defensive teams, and is one of four players to be voted to the All-NBA First team in his first eight seasons alongside Bob Pet , Larry Bird, and Oscar Robertson. For a man that did not play organized basketball until the ninth grade, I would say he’s done pretty well for himself.
Duncan was one of the few basketball players to play four years in college and then go on to be successful in the NBA during a time when the trend was to spend as little time in college as possible. In his four years at Wake Forrest, Duncan won just about every award college basketball had to offer, plus his all around game allowed him to become the first player in NCAA history to reach 1,500 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 blocked shots, and 200 assists. This was just a small picture of what was to come. Duncan was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs with the first pick of the 1997 draft; teaming him with another quiet, fundamental big man in David Robinson. In his first season, Duncan averaged 21.1 ppg, 11.9 rpg, 2.7 apg, and 2.5 bpg.
In his second season, the lockout shortened 1998-1999 season, Duncan and the Spurs won the front end of back-to-back NBA les. With Robinson retiring after the 2002-2003 season, Duncan became the undisputed leader of the Spurs. He led them to two more les, winning his latest in 2007. As his body has aged, his chances of winning another championship are slipping away. His numbers have declined along with the Spurs’ chances to make one more deep run into the playoffs. Duncan has averaged 21.1 ppg, 11.6 rpg, 3.2 apg, and 2.3 bpg over his career and is a 50% FG shooter with his best year coming during the 2000-2001 season. That season Duncan averaged 25.5 ppg, 12.7 rpb, 3.7 apg, and 2.5 bpg. The one place Duncan has consistently struggled is at the free throw line, averaging just 69%.
Duncan is a future Hall-of-Famer but has not been the typical NBA superstar, as he has remained out of trouble and out of the limelight while constantly winning. Clearly, he is the anti-superstar when compared to the rest of his NBA brethren. He goes out and does his job, game in and game out. With a few years left on his aging body, does Duncan have enough left for one more run at the le?
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/what-...urs-tim-duncan
thanks for the article - the author does not bring a lot of perspective in this piece though. i could have gotten all that info and more from timmy's wiki page. no need to see the spurs or watch tim play to write this general summary that leaves us with one question to which the author himself does not give an answer. nice!!!
how about this for timmy's legacy - the only player to LEAD his team to 4 les, while not having a top 15 player on the roster. shaq had kobe and d-wade. kobe had shaq and gasol. jordan had pippen, etc. (not to mention that shaq led his time 3 times; kobe did it 2 times)
you can wiki all-nba and check for yourselves - neither robinson, parker, nor gino have made at least 3rd team all-nba when the spurs won the les.
the only seasons when duncan had a supporting 3rd-team all-nba were 2000(robinson), 2008(gino), 2009(parker). 00 team was lifeless after the 99 crew disbanded. 08 team would possibly win the le if gino did not get injured in the PO and if gasol stayed in memphis. and 09 team had no manu.
Last edited by spectator; 09-03-2010 at 11:43 AM.
Spectator you are a god amongst us mortals. That is the most legitimate stat one can lay claim to.
Hakeem did it twice. Jordan did it once. BUt still Tim Duncan is the damn man
Take that, all you ppl who said the Spurs couldn't be a dynasty without winning back-to-back les! Rikki Grooms says we did it !!
Wow, I hope this person doesn't get paid for their work. All that writing and the only thing added to the listing of facts was "I would say he’s done pretty well for himself."
The author is a Fighting Squirrel that works for the government:
Rikki Grooms, Contributing Writer
Rikki Grooms earned a BA and MA in Sociology from Mary Baldwin College and George Mason University, respectively. While at Mary Baldwin College, she played basketball 3.5 years for the Fighting Squirrels and has been retired since. She has rekindled her love for writing while working her extremely unimportant government job and spends her days writing poetry and analyzing the deeper connections between sport and society. Rikki hopes to turn her love of sports, background in Sociology, and love of writing into a career…meaning no more working for the man.
http://www.hoopskarma.com/authors/
The Spurs won back-to-back les and David Robinson was a fundamental star.
Tiago Splitter is a bruiser that's never heard the word "soft" mentioned in reference to him.
I'm waiting for the next article on Derek Anderson's "loyalty."
Most lasting legacy??????
I'm betting there will never be another Virgin Islander who wins four NBA championships and cant jump over a matchbook.
"and poster child for near perfect fundamentals," well, yeah, sort of... except the free throw thing. Free throws seem kinda fundamental.
He won't say a word to you, and he will Bust. Your. Ass
tim duncan's legacy is well established. this writer over here just confused readers
The best power forward in league history, one of the two most dominant big men in his era (Shaquille O'Neal). He was a winner and the most fundamentally sound big man many have ever seen. One of my favorite players of all-time (although last season was hard to watch).
I stopped reading here.
Best PF of all time. Could have been even better.
The Greatest player post Jordan era.
Fiba sucks
Tim Duncan is the ONLY player in NBA history to win multiple les WITHOUT an All-NBA teammate
??
Haven't Parker and Ginobili made all-NBA? And Bowen was NBA all defense for many years...D-Rob was about as all NBA as it gets.
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