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Didn't Timmy get voted one of the 5 worst players for autographs? Yet you always hear how he goes up and signs? Huh?
Spurs' recess — life and times of Tim
Buck Harvey
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — They say he likes to join his oldest child on the playground of her pre-school, then he acts like he does on the road in fourth quarters.
Tim Duncan acts like a kid.
He says this is what happens when you get old in this league. You become young. And the Spurs saw all of it Tuesday night. On a road trip that is supposed to be dreary, in front of a small crowd without much emotion, Duncan fully enjoyed himself.
It didn't hurt he came close to a triple-double.
There have been times in his career when he's dragged, especially at this time of the season. Before the All-Star break, with the playoffs far away, it's not hard to grow weary of hotel rooms and refs.
Duncan has legitimate reasons to tire, too. Gregg Popovich now says he benched Duncan in Denver last week because he had a sore knee.
“It's sore every day,” Duncan said.
Every day?
“Absolutely.”
But instead of limping, Duncan chose to come out for warm-ups Tuesday night with a bounce. He put in his work, then started to walk off the court as two loose balls rolled toward him in the corner.
He picked up one and threw in a 3-pointer, and he yelled to teammates. Then he picked up the other and made that one, too.
Duncan went directly to a line of kids wanting autographs. He signed for 10 minutes, then posed for a picture. Not long after he gave the Nets some memorabilia; he opened the game with his signature bank shot.
This Tim was the spiritual opposite of the animated one on the HBO series, “The Life and Times of Tim.” Everything goes wrong for the fictional one, although, it should be noted, the woman in his HBO life is also named Amy.
Everything went right for this Tim, and maybe that's what happens against a rookie center, Brook Lopez. Duncan had similar success earlier in the season against Lopez.
Duncan led the Spurs with 27 points, but the rest of his stat line was more telling. He finished with nine rebounds, four blocks and eight assists, and the assist total has become a trend. In the 18 games he's played since the start of the year, Duncan has had five or more assists 11 times.
He also centered the defense, as always, and once, Duncan swatted back a Vince Carter attempt. During the next dead-ball moment, Duncan sidled up to Carter.
“You gave me that one,” Duncan told him.
Carter grinned.
The other Spurs say they notice a change. “He's nicer to me,” Matt Bonner kidded.
Shooting as Bonner has the last two games, Duncan has reason to be nicer to him.
But it's more than basketball, and Bruce Bowen sees this. One of his kids attends the same pre-school, and Bowen says Duncan is going through what he is going through.
“You have to look at when we get older, and become parents, we realize some things are here for us to enjoy,” Bowen said.
Such as Carter. Bowen switched to him in the second half and, just like old times, Carter scored only four points the rest of the way.
But Bowen didn't mean that. “Sometimes the business side gets so misconstrued for us that you forget the reason you were attracted to the game. I think, being that he has kids now, he can appreciate these times more. Because the next thing you know, it can be gone.”
Duncan understands all of this. Someone asked him how much longer he wants to play, and he said 10 years.
“But my body won't let me,” he said.
So he savors what he has now. The previous two nights, the Spurs stayed in Manhattan, where Duncan won his first le. Then they bussed to New Jersey, the team Duncan had to beat to win his second.
He said the memories don't overwhelm him. “I don't shed any tears,” he said, with a smile. But he admits he goes through these arenas now with a sense of how much has happened before and how little time is left.
“It's the latter part of my career,” he said, “and I see things differently. I take it less seriously.”
With that, he filed out of one locker room and headed toward another.
There's a playground in Toronto, too.
Didn't Timmy get voted one of the 5 worst players for autographs? Yet you always hear how he goes up and signs? Huh?
Great article. Said it before and I'll say it again. There will NEVER be another Tim Duncan. He's one in a million. We fans should cherish every chance we get to watch him play. I know I do.
Beautiful article...I feel so lucky to have witnessed such a great player through out these years.
here's to a couple more years of TD.
I saw him stop after the game to take a picture with a kid, too. I know he can't play forever, and I've made a point of reminding myself to enjoy it while it lasts.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I love the fact that he waits for every one of his teammates after the games are over, and gives them a high-five as they walk to the locker room. Or when he is on the bench resting and one of the "little guys" comes out of the game, and he rubs their head like he's their big brother.
It's good to know that he still enjoys the game for its own sake. He can retire when he can't take it physically anymore, but not a day sooner.
o geez, I'm not gonna cry. I'm not gonna cry. I am not gonna cry
Don't worry, I got us both covered there.
One of my next to impossible wishes before I die is to watch duncan play live....
Keep the faith, it can happen.
my thoughts exactly.
@bonner
That kid was a clever little bas .
Brian Urlacher jersey...
Yeah, if i ever hit the lottery. Thanks, anyway.
Thats a pretty depressing article.
Harvey loves to pull out that knee card.
But yeah, Duncan seems to be having more fun than ever. And this was yet another game where not only is he the best player on the court, he's giving the most energy. Great player. Great season. Hopefully he finishes this one off strong and has at least a few more left.
How longs that knee hurt, about 6 years now?
I wish Duncan could play at this level another 5 years.
I know its not realistic, but it would be awesome if he could.
this article got me...emotional. Good stuff. And every time I hear about the knee I become more amazed that this guy can drop 20 and 10 just about every game. It's unbelievable how easy he makes basketball look.
"The Dark Days" are approaching. The time when there will be no Duncan like when there was no longer the Admiral or the Iceman. Sooner rather than later.
This passing will be the worse and the Golden Age of the Spurs Basketball will be gone forever never to be repeated. There will other future teams and players and great seasons and probable championships but there will never be another Tim Duncan.
And too many fans won't truly realize it till after he retires.
Tim Duncan is just too good to be true.
I wish he'd be in the front office when he retires.
sniff*sniff*
thats why he's my favorite. He's Tim Duncan. simple as that!
After the Iceman was gone, I was depressed. Then came David Robinson. Then came Tim Duncan. There will be others, but I agree that Tim Duncan is the best of them all and will be the toughest one to see go.
what the is this? this is an emo thread, that's what this is. you all turned into crybabies all of the sudden.
the man is still here and having fun playing the game. he won't be retiring tomorrow! he will still be with us for a few more years!
you can all start crying WHEN he's gone! not before! so enjoy! dammit!
But there was one article about Duncan during his FIBA practice held in NY. He watched a baseball game in in between practice with Collison in tow, there were so many New Yorkers who asked for his autograph, and Collison was amazed how accommodating he was then to his fans.
Maybe who made that survey was a Laker fan
I liked the article. To a healthy and happy Tim
When he was quoted "fiba sucks" I had this feeling about Tim.
Seriously, nice article. At 32, I can totally understand what Bruce and Tim are talking about. Recently I snapped my achilles and became a father for the first time in the space of a few months.
Such is life. As you get older your out-look and approach to it changes. At the same time you learn - sometimes the hard way, to not take it for granted and enjoy the good things in life.
I.E. appreaciate that we got Tim playing for a while yet.
Great article again Buck. ing Harvey, dude always nails it on the head. I remember when I was stationed overseas and Big Daves number was being retired. Harvey wrote an awesome article about the whole celebration of big daves career. I was able to read the article online and it made me so proud to be a spurs fan and a big Dave fan. I even went so far as to email Harvey. I told him when I was stationed away from home, before articles were online, my mom (who is also a big spurs fan) used to mail me his articles when it pertained to the Spurs. Harvey got back to me with a pretty cool email. Anyways, this freaking article really hits home to my love affair with our San Antonio Spurs and Tim (the alpha and the omega) Duncan. And I, as so many other spurs fans, don’t even wanna think about Tim being gone. I mean Duncan put this organization on another planet. It is a privilege to enjoy this dynasty. Timmy’s play has brought so much joy and heartache into my family’s life. I remember the pure joy of the championships and the utter devastations of the playoff eliminations. Thank God the highs outweigh the lows. Big Dave is the best spur ever, but when it is all said and done, Timmy might be the best basketball player ever.
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