Father Time Appears to Have Claimed Another Victim

First of all, allow me to say that I am a huge fan of Tim Duncan and of the San Antonio Spurs. I love the way the Spurs go about their business, both on and off the basketball court. I love how the team concept is more important than individual glory. I love how Duncan, a player who could be yelling about touches and shots and wages like so many current players, is willing to sacrifice his personal numbers and his salary so that the team can be more successful. I love how Duncan is willing to discuss areas where he can improve, instead of always placing blame on his lesser regarded teammates. I love all of these things about Duncan, which is what makes this so difficult.

There is a saying in sports that Father Time is undefeated, and nothing could be truer. Sometimes, with athletes, age comes on gradually, as it did with Ichiro Suzuki, and sometimes it happens all of a sudden, as it did with Peyton Manning. However, during the San Antonio Spurs 2016 playoff run, it appears that Father Time has claimed another victory.

In the Spurs Western Conference Semi-Final Series, won in six games by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Tim Duncan looked both brilliant and inspired, and past his prime and tired. In game 6, Duncan accounted for 19 Spurs points, but after only scoring 17 total points through the first five games of the series, and only 25 total points through the four-game sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Duncan was the anchor of a team that won 67 games through the regular season and that tied a league record with a 40-1 home record, but that was through sacrificing his game for the sake of younger players. However, throughout these playoffs, the man who is second only to Derek Fisher for most playoff games appeared in looked as if these games might actually be his last.

Some will point to his lack of production as Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich possibly saving Duncan for the inevitable meeting with the juggernaut Golden State Warriors, while others will say that Duncan was simply taking a back seat to the future of the franchise, namely Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Whatever the justification, to the uneducated eye, it appears that Duncan might not have much gas left in his tank, but that would be totally acceptable after 19 years in the league, and after contributing more wins to a single franchise than any other player in the history of the game.

If Duncan is finished in professional basketball, the man will leave the game with more personal and team accolades than can be listed in a short piece. He will also leave the game with the respect of his teammates and peers, who saw him as a man who played the game the right way and was rewarded for it. The next move, however, is up to Duncan, but instead of destroying the man for possibly staying in the game too long, I choose to remember the player and his unmatched career. I choose to remember the player who never played in less than 70% of his team’s games in any season; the player whose team never won less than 60% of their games, who made the playoffs all 19 years of his career, and whose team only failed to survive the first round of the playoffs four times in 19 years. That is the Tim Duncan I choose to remember, and that is the Tim Duncan I am a huge fan of. 

Follow me on twitter @ericejenkins65