![]() Croix as part of a basketball tour.īy 1993, a 17-year-old Duncan would step foot on campus at Wake Forest as the least-touted of the school’s three-man recruiting class.ĭuncan expected to redshirt, but his very first pick-up game on campus changed everything. Soon, the United States - specifically Wake Forest coach Dave Odom - would find out about the lanky kid from the islands after a group of American players visited St. Within a year of starting basketball, Duncan was already flashing potential at his high school, St. Before her passing, she made Duncan promise he’d obtain a college degree. That same year, his mother, Delysia Ione, would die from breast cancer. ![]() Like many other local swimmers, Duncan tried switching his training site to the ocean, but a fear of sharks pushed him out of the water.ĭuncan wouldn’t pick up a basketball until age 14. Croix as one of the most devastating hurricanes ever. That all stopped when Hugo, a Category 4 storm, hit St. Having learned to swim at an early age like most kids in the Virgin Islands, Duncan loved to swim competitively, and by 13, he had clocked some of the fastest times in the United States in the 400-meter freestyle. Croix, Virgin Islands in 1989, erasing his dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer because it destroyed all the local pools, eventually pushing him to the basketball courts. Hurricane Hugo swept through Duncan’s hometown of St. That’s how Duncan became the only player to start for an NBA championship team in three separate decades. 1 pick of the 1997 NBA Draft played for 19 years, making 19 consecutive playoff appearances in which he walked away with five titles and three NBA Finals MVP awards, not to mention two regular-season NBA MVP awards. It’s true, Duncan played one of the most fundamentally sound games of his era, but the stoic big man routinely flexed a penchant for pulling off the amazing. There’s the power forward catching errant shots off the rim with one hand, and switching hands midair for the putback jam, or Duncan hauling in the seemingly impossible alley-oop on the inbounds play from Sean Elliot. There’s Duncan snagging a rebound, dribbling coast-to-coast and breaking down LeBron James with the crossover to get to the rack. There’s the off-balance shot over Shaq, the off-the-glass alley-oop to himself, and the monstrous one-handed jam over Ben Wallace - none of the plays necessarily “fundamental” by definition - but fundamentally great, nonetheless. The Spurs had a winning record and made the playoffs in every single season of Duncan's 18-year career.Shaquille O’Neal’s nickname for Tim Duncan, “The Big Fundamental,” suggests boring and uninspiring, belying the beauty of the game orchestrated by arguably the best power forward to ever lace up a pair of sneakers. He played in 1,158 victories, including the playoffs, more than anyone in NBA history other than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. ![]() "Duncan won five championships over three decades, earning Finals MVP three times. "Duncan dominated for a generation while rarely showing any emotion, aside from shock when he was whistled for a foul," ESPN's Tim MacMahon said. 8, behind Bill Russell (six) and Larry Bird (seven), in addition to the previously mentioned top five. Then give me Kawhi as well."ĮSPN's list had Duncan listed at No. Give me a young Manu and a young Tony Parker. "He gave you five titles total, and he was a top-five player for 15 consecutive years. "Tim Duncan is one of two players in NBA history to win three titles in different decades. "He is the only player in the history of the NBA to make 15 All-NBA Defensive Teams and 15 All-NBA Teams," Acho said. It's tough to argue with a top five like that, but Acho brought up several great points while making a case for the former San Antonio Spurs legend.
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