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Good read. Actually just read this on MySA, but thanks for posting it all the same.
NBA All-Star Game: Duncan is a fixture despite his style
Web Posted: 02/17/2008 01:15 AM CST
Mike Monroe
Express-News staff writer
NEW ORLEANS — Wearing hip-hop attire, the questioner had a yellow microphone and a breezy patter.
In the middle of a Friday afternoon interview session with players selected for today's NBA All-Star Game at New Orleans Arena, he asked Tim Duncan to record a voice mail message for his cell phone.
Sliding a "script" across the table at which Duncan was seated, he demanded Duncan read it, word for word.
Patiently, but firmly, the Spurs' All-Star power forward rebuffed repeated requests.
At last, the young man's persistence reached its limit. Dejected, he reached for his unused script and headed off to pester another All-Star victim.
"Nice try," Duncan said, rolling his eyes. "Maybe next year."
For a brief moment, the insolent interrogator shared something with LeBron James. During the 2007 NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers' All-Star discovered that no matter how hard you try, when Duncan is determined, he can make you wait until next year.
Today, Duncan will be the starting power forward for the Western Conference for a ninth consecutive All-Star Game. He still professes astonishment that fans who value highlights over consistent excellence choose him for a game dedicated not to fundamentals, but to showing off.
Only as a rookie did Duncan have to wait until next year for the fans to embrace him as one of the NBA's very best.
"Every year I get voted in, I say this, but every year I mean it," Duncan said. "It's amazing the fans continue to support me and vote me onto this team. It's an honor to be here, especially for the 10th time. I love playing this game."
Duncan's solid game is made for the championship grind, not the All-Star Game, when some players pass to themselves off the backboard for dunks that bring down the house. He has been called the most boring MVP in league history.
Let James and Amare Stoudemire get the "oohs" and "aahs" today. Duncan prefers to bide his All-Star time, hoping for a close fourth quarter, waiting for crunch time.
When a game is on the line, even one played mostly for entertainment value, he always has been a go-to guy.
The West went to him in the clutch in 2000, when it repelled a rally and earned a 137-126 victory in Oakland, Calif. Then, Duncan made 12 of 14 shots, grabbed 14 rebounds and shared All-Star MVP honors with Shaquille O'Neal.
"My game's not made to be All-Star MVP," Duncan said. "I got lucky one night. It just worked out the way it did."
Duncan has been making things work out well for the Spurs since 1997, when he was NBA Rookie of the Year.
His four championships in nine years make him the No. 1 NBA winner of the past 10 seasons. Though his scoring average for six seasons has been on a steady decline from his career-best 25.5 points per game in 2001-02 — it slipped all the way to 18.3 in '05-06 before a jump to 20.0 last season — his consistent excellence has remained.
"The better the team, the less important statistics are," said Hall of Fame center and ABC/ESPN analyst Bill Walton. "My guess is, as the team has gotten better and better and better, Tim's stats have gotten worse."
Of far greater importance, Walton said, is how Duncan has put his stamp on games. Few players in NBA history have had greater bearing on the outcome.
"In terms of impact and control, he has everything," Walton said. "He's like Oscar Robertson. He does everything fabulously well, and his team wins all the games. Is there anything else to ask of a player?"
Nobody asks more of Duncan than Duncan.
His work ethic is legendary. He was blessed with size (7-foot, 260 pounds), but not athleticism. He has remained an All-Star by constantly improving his skills.
Duncan's performance during the past six weeks has reminded the world he also remains basketball's best big man.
In 22 games since the start of the new year, he has averaged 21.7 points and 12.9 rebounds. His scoring average has crept up to 19.9 points per game. In the last four games of the Spurs' nine-game rodeo road trip, he had at least 21 points and 13 rebounds.
The headlines, of course, went to his teammates.
Robert Horry's wake-up call in Washington after a season of slumber helped produce a victory there. Michael Finley's clutch 3-pointers punctuated a win over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Then Manu Ginobili scored 34 and 46 in victories at Toronto and Cleveland.
Isn't that how Duncan likes it?
"It's not whether you like it or not," he said. "It is what it is. As long as we're winning games, it doesn't matter who gets the credit for what. At the beginning of the year, I was playing five, eight minutes less than I am now. I feel very good on the court now.
"I feel like I'm playing well, but in this league, one person doesn't win games. You need a bunch of guys playing well, and you can do your part as much as you can. When help is there, you appreciate help and give credit wherever credit is due."
Duncan never worries about getting proper credit himself. An All-Star amazed by the fans' acceptance of his excellence never judges his place among the pantheon of basketball greats.
Rest assured, others understand his legacy already is certain.
"Tim Duncan will go down as one of the handful of greatest players ever, regardless of position," Walton said. "Tim will be discussed not in terms of statistics; not in terms of highlight plays; not in terms of anything other than his overall brilliance and that his teams won all the games. And the teams that did beat him, you had to beat him with the best you had, and that would mean that you would get the championship."
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Online at: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...n.370dd61.html
Good read. Actually just read this on MySA, but thanks for posting it all the same.
Tim Duncan is not 260lbs, geez.
Just by looking at him he isn't a buck over 235
I don't get the begining of this article...who was trying to get Duncan to read what and why?
Another great article about the greatest player.
Good to hear
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