Tim Duncan, a five-time NBA champion and 15-time all-star with the San Antonio Spurs, called it quits Monday after 19 seasons.
Duncan, who turned 40 in April, is regarded by many as one of the greatest power forwards to ever play the game.
View highlights of Duncan’s career. Video by the NBA
After fours year at Wake Forest, where he earned First Team All-America two years in a row and the John Wooden Award as college basketball’s greatest player during his senior year, Duncan was drafted No. 1 overall by the Spurs in 1997. “He’s going to help us get back to where we were in the past,” then-general manager and head coach Gregg Popovich said at the time.
It did not take long for Duncan to make an impact. He was the only Spurs player to start all 82 games during his rookie year of 1997-98, averaging 21 points and 12 rebounds and earning the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. The next season, he led the Spurs to their first NBA title.
The Spurs would also go on to win championships in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014, with Duncan earning Finals MVP three times. The team never missed the playoffs during Duncan’s 19 years. He and Popovich are considered by many the most successful player-coach combination in the history of the NBA, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Duncan, a two-time MVP winner, ranks 14th all-time in scoring, sixth in rebounding and fifth in double-doubles, in which a player records double digits in any two categories of points, rebounds, assists, steals and/or blocks during a game. This past season, he became only one of two players ever to score at least 26,000 points, pick up 15,000 rebounds and block 3,000 shots over his career. The other player was Basketball Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Duncan’s regular-season averages included 19 points, nearly 11 rebounds, three assists and more than two blocks over 1,392 career NBA games.
Reaction to Duncan’s retirement on social media has been prolific. As of 12:30 p.m. EDT, “Tim Duncan” was the top trending topic on Twitter and a trending sports story on Facebook.
Longtime teammate Manu Ginobili:
Even tho I knew it was coming, I'm still moved by the news. What a HUGE honor to have played with him for 14 seasons! #ThankYouTD
— Manu Ginobili (@manuginobili) July 11, 2016
Congrats TD #19yrs #GoSpursGo
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) July 11, 2016
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban:
Upset at Tim Duncan we didn't get to honor him at a Mavs Spurs game. Happy I've had the opportunity to witness his greatness so often
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 11, 2016
Duncan grew up in the Virgin Islands hoping to become an Olympic swimmer. But after Hurricane Hugo destroyed his training pool in 1989, he traded lane lines for hoops. The rest, as they say, is history.
“Every time I walk around the house, once a month, I tell my wife, ‘Say thank you, Tim,’” Popovich said in 2014. “Before you start handing out applause and credit to anyone else in this organization for anything that’s been accomplished, remember it all starts with and goes through Timmy.”
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