Duncan also made the system look really good for a long time. The Spurs put the right pieces around him and Duncan always got them to play above and beyond. Him and Kobe are completely different players. It's hard to compare, but they both got the most out of their teammates and will go down as two of the true legends this game has seen.
Salute Big Fundamental! Have watched him for almost his entire career. When i was still a child i found him boring, i had to become a little older to appreciate him. Time to go but incredible career! Totally different from Kobe character-wise but similar in one regard: both were the last of their individual breed. All the best!
Petition to rename and move to the homepage for a couple of days? This isn't just any legend. Probably the closest to being the Bird to Kobe's Magic. Greatest rival and equal. All the respect to Timmy. Timmy was the embodiment of that "perfect" player people talk about. Great talent, leader, exemplary man off the court, by all accounts a killer on the court. I loved Kobe for all his imperfections. I loved Timmy for his perfect-ness. Goodbye 21. It's been a great ride!
Kobe didn't have any imperfections. He was the PERFECT player. There was not a thing he couldn't do. I love and respect Duncan, but let's not act Kobe is any less of a perfectionist.
What a Career and Legacy! I have nothing but the utmost respect for Duncan and everything he is about. He did it the right way and with such humility. Even when he and the Spurs would break our hearts a few times I always respected how they did it. You'll be missed Tim and I'm glad you and Kobe went out the same year. Congrats and enjoy retirement!
I can't tell sarcasm or not. If so, ignore me. If not, I meant the perfect comment was this: on or off the court, there was nothing about Duncan that you could dislike. Not so for Kobe (Colorado, Shaq, frankly speaking; being an a******). Doesn't make me love Kobe less, we all love flawed heroes nowadays. But I have to give respect to Duncan who was a legend as big as Kobe, yet was almost impossibly amazing as a human as well. TL;DR: Kobe was Christopher Nolan's Batman. Timmy was 1930's comic book Superman.
Was watching First Take today and they made a good point. Kobe and Duncan were the last two players who committed their entire careers to one team. That ideology is dead and that's probably the last we'll see of it...from superstar talent.
Probably, but I don't think it's necessarily ideology. Look at both franchises. One got impossibly lucky (with a heaping handful of skill) drafting consistently and finding just the right role players off the scrap heap. From Parker, Ginobili, Leonard to the countless Boris Diaws, they have been amazingly perfect in most every move they have made. The other could basically out spend everyone else to a "super team" forever. The CBA specifically targeted that and killed it. And while I think the franchise is setting up the right pieces to follow the Spurs method of building a consistent winner, there's still a long road to hoe. Basically, it would take a SAS type amazing confluence of events to keep a superstar with a given franchise for 20 years, outside of them not having the mindset for it.
Cheers to the Big Fundamental! I always rooted against him (except against Le3Rings) but I never disliked him at all, I DESPISED Spurs fans though.
Duncan was once recruited heavily by McGrady to join him Orlando which he declined... That was the ONLY time I ever heard him being involved in the free agency process. Duncan shuns the notoriety and the San Antonio community/market fit him perfectly...
