The late 90s saw Michael Jordan retire for a second time – it was time to find another person to head the NBA. Who would it be? Shaquille O’Neal or Kobe Bryant from the Los Angeles Lakers? Both were great options, but there was one more. No, not Penny Hardaway, Vince Carter, or even Tracy McGrady. It was a silent yet super-effective Tim Duncan. The Western Conference had many payers of flash – Timothy was the complete opposite. So much so that his nickname is literally “big fundamental”.
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Spending his childhood dreaming of becoming an Olympic swimmer, Duncan only became a basketball player due to changing circumstances. Having played all four years in college, he got drafted one year after Kobe Bryant did. And he was excellent. Not many players can say they became champions in their second year, but Duncan could.
Not just as a bench player, he was starting the majority of his team’s games. Theodore was a stalwart already – he was Kawhi Leonard before Kawhi was even a teenager. Sweeping the Lakers in the conference semis was a shocker – not for him, because he was supremely confident in himself.
Tim Duncan was not the typical face of the NBA – he represented the other side of basketball
With Basketball becoming more showbiz and Hollywood, people tended to forget that you still had to have the basics of the game right. And that is exactly what Tim did. He was that guy who cared about function over form – even his dunks were purely to attain points, not brownie points.
A straight-faced, Cigar store Indian he was called. A slightly better version, since he could move his eyes. Call him what you want, but no player wanted to match up with him. You couldn’t get under his skin, and he kept hitting you with ways to score points on you. Former Laker Robert Horry said this about The Big Fundamental,
“He doesn’t give the impression he’s doing something important, but then you look up at the scoreboard and it’s Lakers 20, Duncan 22. He was not like Shaq or Kobe, who could take out the crowd with a dunk or a drive. He’s got a lot of weapons, too many!”
A silent 20/10 night is so much better than a loud dunk to cap off your horrid performance. He had no gold chains, no tongues out, no “mamba mentality”, and certainly no rim-breaking dunks. What he had was an arsenal so huge, coach Gregg Popovich had the best time deploying him.
Truly fundamental – because of his deep roots in swimming, Tim Duncan used those philosophies on the hardwood. His teammates loved to have him on their side during games but hated practice against him. Learning from David Robinson, he just put up numbers that didn’t rock the floor, but had you scratching your heads after the game.
Gregg Popovich will join the Steven Naismith Hall of Fame – His time with the NBA has been elevated because of Timmy D
Not that Pop did not do bits with other team members, but the most success he’s enjoyed came with Duncan at the helm. The San Antonio Spurs dynasty was something to behold – some of the most unassuming players, doing things no big-name star could do.
They troubled Kobe and Shaq to no end and were undoubtedly more successful than them in the 2000s-early 2010s. Shaq and Kob may have been better individually, but that is still up for debate.
Tim Duncan is the type of player brands don’t care about – but are the most important. In an era of social media broadcasting every single move of a celebrity, palette cleansers like the dread-locked Hall-of-Famer are necessary.
