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Tim Duncan Retires after 19 Years in NBA

It has been a great run to watch him play and see how to do it correctly and act how a pro athlete should act. Also what was fun back in Timmy D's undergrad years was being able to reff his practices for Coach Odom. Maybe most memorable was being able to do the ESPN Midnight Madness Timmy's senior year. Those type scrimmages were always short but fun.
 
I remember TD's first exhibition game. He didn't look great. He got his hands on a lot of rebounds but fumbled quite a few. Obviously, it must have been nerves.

He averaged almost 10 PPG a game as a freshman but a lot of it was on putbacks and dunks. There were many times he'd get it on the blocks and pass it right out, not yet confident in his post game.

The first time he caused me to say, "holy shit!" was when, as a freshman, he pinned Sharon Wright against the backboard nonchalantly. His defense and shotblocking were impressive right out of the gate. The ability to block shots and keep it in bounds. To contest so many opportunities and foul so rarely. Even his fouls could be argued because he would get so much hand on the ball. There were very few times (and, to be fair, Newton was one on a couple occasions) where a center would go 1:1 with TD and score against him. He was that dominant.

Randolph made the national team in 94 after TD's freshman year and ended up getting injured. For some reason, Tim ended up being his replacement. It seemed odd to replace a G with a C, especially since Tim wasn't considered that caliber a player yet. I remember watching that national team play against Dream Team 2 (?) and seeing TD get the ball in the post and, rather than pass it right out as he had done so much that year, he executed a perfect drop step and hook shot. Against an NBA player. I think he also blocked Shaq or Alonzo Mourning at the rim in that game. The progress he had made just seemed incredible.

By the time his sophomore season came around, he was making confident post moves with regularity. Obviously, Randolph was the #1 option that year but TD was so efficient in the chances that he got. As most know, by the time the season ended, TD was predicted to be the #1 draft pick if he left early as a sophomore.

My virtual assistant didn't have a chance to fact check my memory here so I hope the details are somewhat accurate.
 
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PhDeac said:
He's a week older than me. Been watching him my whole adult life.
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I think I was a sophomore when Duncan was a senior. ESPN In the Classroom did a bit on Tim and part of it was in Longino's sociology class. Got me on TV! I also did group work with Tim in that class and had the assignments for a while with his signature on them. Would have been cool to keep those. He was low key but was never a jerk to anyone.
 
maybe he come back for one more year when Chris Paul and Steph Curry come home to get CLT Hornets a few rings?!
 
BobHWS said:

LOOK: Remembering how incredible Tim Duncan was when he was at Wake Forest
Before Tim Duncan had a great career with the the Spurs, he was a dominant force for the Demon Deacons
cbssports.com

For as incredible as Tim Duncan's career was in the NBA -- all 19 years and five NBA titles with San Antonio -- it speaks to his decades-spanning greatness that people still frequently recall and reflect on his four years at Wake Forest.

On the day of his retirement, let's do that once more.

Because Duncan signaled the last of an era, a rare player who was both undeniably special but also opted to stay in college for four years when he could've easily left and been a No. 1 draft pick after his sophomore or junior season. There have been other tremendous four-year college players in the 19 years since Duncan left Wake Forest, but No. 21 did it right as the high school-to-NBA fad was blooming and soon to dominate the league's draft cycle for the next decade.

Duncan was the last four-year star at a major conference to be taken No. 1 in the NBA Draft. (Kenyon Martin is the only player since to play four years of college and go No. 1, but he was not a national college star until the end of his junior season at best, whereas Duncan was in the conversation to be a No. 1 pick by the time he played 50 college games.)

Duncan was a two-time ACC Player of the Year and a three-time All-American. He swept all six major, national player-of-the-year honors in his senior season of 1996-97. He won back-to-back ACC titles with Wake in 1995 and 1996. Those league titles were the first the program won since the 1960s. Wake Forest reached the NCAA Tournament every season he was there; the Demon Deacons reached the Sweet 16 when Duncan was a sophomore and the Elite Eight when he was a junior. Duncan won 97 games while at Wake -- the most of any player in program history -- back when teams played 25 or 26 regular season games, not the 30 or 31 scheduled these days.

Here's a glimpse at some of his biggest moments wearing black and gold.

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I am just glad he learned so much under the tutelage of Dave Odom & Ernie Nestor that it allowed him to become the NBA HOFer. He was such a raw talent and blank slate that it allowed Dave & Ernie to teach him the proper footwork and ball handling skills he would need for the rest of his basketball playing days! The bank shot he probably learned on his owned.
 
My favorite part of Tim's Wake Forest career was the way he mind-fucked Rasheed Wallace. Repeatedly, and at will.
 
TheReff said:
I am just glad he learned so much under the tutelage of Dave Odom & Ernie Nestor that it allowed him to become the NBA HOFer. He was such a raw talent and blank slate that it allowed Dave & Ernie to teach him the proper footwork and ball handling skills he would need for the rest of his basketball playing days! The bank shot he probably learned on his owned.
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That's good stuff
 
In its quest to pair the Duncan news with the All-Star game/HR Derby ESPN did a long segment comparing Duncan to David Ortiz...

It was a stretch and stupid, two hallmarks of ESPN. Duncan's stats, honors and accomplishments dwarfed Ortiz's plus Ortiz played most of his career on one side of the field and he is a known PED abuser.

Way to fuck it up ESPN!
 
Ralph Medlin said:
In its quest to pair the Duncan news with the All-Star game/HR Derby ESPN did a long segment comparing Duncan to David Ortiz...

It was a stretch and stupid, two hallmarks of ESPN. Duncan's stats, honors and accomplishments dwarfed Ortiz's plus Ortiz played most of his career on one side of the field and he is a known PED abuser.

Way to fuck it up ESPN!
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I agree the two are not even vaguely comparable. ESPN has always had a huge hard on for Big Papi.
 
Ralph Medlin said:
In its quest to pair the Duncan news with the All-Star game/HR Derby ESPN did a long segment comparing Duncan to David Ortiz...

It was a stretch and stupid, two hallmarks of ESPN. Duncan's stats, honors and accomplishments dwarfed Ortiz's plus Ortiz played most of his career on one side of the field and he is a known PED abuser.

Way to fuck it up ESPN!
Click to expand...

The HR Derby was also the lead story over Duncan's retirement. I doubt Tim minded, but I sure did.
 
They fapped themselves silly over Kobe. Figures.
 
Been awhile since I've posted, but Timmy D's retirement is certainly cause for reflection and pondering...

You knew the day had to come, but Tim was such a consistent presence and as someone mentioned above, the "Big Metronome" that it still comes as bit of a shock to the system. No more Tim Duncan on the hardwood!! Timmy's reliable play was so consistent that it seemed as certain as death and taxes. And now it's over. It's been 20 years since I graduated from Wake and now after 19 years in the pros, Timmy is hanging up the sneaks.

I'll never forget the first time I ever saw Timmy Duncan -- and by the way, how can I manage to walk around Wake's campus for a month and a half and never spot a 6' 10" teenager?? -- 23 years ago in mid-October of my sophomore year at the Black & Gold "Midnight Madness" festivities, one of the few (I think) that was actually conducted at or close to midnight. But while the exact time or date escapes me, I'll never forget how my friends and I marveled at this lanky kid from the VI whom we had never heard of until he stepped on the court and proceeded to block a bunch of shots and rebound every miss within his impressive reach. He had NO offensive game to speak of, or he simply was too shy to even attempt to showcase it other than a put-back layup or dunk off an assist from a teammate.

Anyway, we left Reynolds Gym that night pretty darn stoked for the upcoming season, but in the wake of losing Rodney Rogers to the draft, and the uncertainty of Ndiaye and Peral's recruitment situations, we never dreamed that we were about to embark on perhaps the most successful stretch of basketball success and prominence that Wake Forest will ever enjoy (apologies to Billy Packer and Lenny Chappell). Not to mention did we think he would develop into one of the best college center/forwards of all time, let alone one of the greatest NBA players -- probably the best power forward of all time -- to ever lace 'em up.

Hell, even after Timmy's freshman year, no one knew how good he would become nor could they honestly say, "just give him time, he'll be a near unstoppable offensive force by his junior season." I mean, he didn't even really know which direction to pivot in the post when he received the ball. He went from awkwardly turning the wrong way (to his right) to developing a devastating baseline spin move the likes of which still gives Serge Zwikker and Greg Newton night sweats and bad dreams. Any of us who liked, loved or learned an affection for the game during their tenure at WFU were honored and privileged to have watched the awkward, scrawny former swimmer evolve into an incredibly effective basketball player who would eventually dominate at first the college level and eventually the pros.

And hopefully most of us were lucky enough to cross paths with Tim a few times and at least enjoy a short conversation with him because he made you felt like you had known him for years rather than think "gee, what an egotistical spoiled athlete this guy is." At any rate, you get the idea and we all know the story, but dang, it's still one of the most remarkable things to have witnessed first-hand in the realm of organized sports, and perhaps something we may never see happen again. At least not in our lifetimes. That's what will stay with me the longest, the sense that I was lucky enough to see the slow, steady evolution of greatness of a world-class athlete, who also happens to be a great person and like me, a 4-year grad of Wake Forest University!

Thanks for all of the wonderful memories Timothy Theodore Duncan!! It was a blast "living and dying" with first your college BB success and defeats, and then celebrating your ascension to greatness in the NBA and your 5 titles, feeling each time like it was a satisfying validation of the national championship promise we all felt existed 20-21 years ago, but sadly was not fulfilled. And lastly, thanks for being such an interesting personality and respected person, whose quiet, spotlight-averse demeanor belied how much you were respected and admired not only as a great player among your peers, but also as a classy and honorable ambassador of sportsmanship and exemplary conduct in the NBA and beyond.

Enjoy your much deserved retirement to the fullest Timmy!! #madprops #madrespect #muchlove
 
Would Tim Duncan be the greatest Deacon of all-time, surpassing Arnold Palmer, if he came back to wake as an assistant coach? If he did, I can't imagine a single power forward/center saying no to DM and TD.
 
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