Last Saturday, Tim Duncan joined Kobe Bryant among the eight basketball personalities who will be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame on August 29, 2020, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Big Fundamental closed the book on one of the best basketball careers in 2016. He played a total of 19 NBA seasons and won five NBA titles in three different decades. The San Antonio Spurs made the playoffs every season during Duncan’s tenure and the team never had a winning record below .610 during that period. He won the NBA MVP two times and was named Finals MVP thrice.
Duncan played a total of 56,738 minutes during his career, including a record 9,370 in the postseason. He scored a total of 26,496 points, grabbed 15,091 rebounds, and blocked 3,020 shots. In this article, we will summarize Duncan’s career with his best performances in the NBA.
Read on:
The first NBA title is always the sweetest and for Tim Duncan, it was special because, after the 1999 NBA Finals, the Big Fundamental was adjudged as the Finals MVP, beating out his more heralded frontcourt partner David Robinson who had been the Spurs’ franchise player since his arrival in 1987.
The Spurs were up 3-1 in the series and they were ready to close out the New York Knicks for their first-ever NBA title. Tim Duncan was the force that made San Antonio the best defensive team in the league that season. But in Game 5 of the 1999 NBA Finals, Duncan showed that he could do more than just play tough defense.
The Big Fundamental scored 31 points and grabbed 9 rebounds as the Spurs won 78-77. Duncan and Robinson put up the defensive stand that prevented Latrell Sprewell from hitting the game-winner for the Knicks. Duncan averaged 24.7 points, 14 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 2.2 blocks per game to win his first Finals MVP award.
Tim Duncan was never known for being a prolific scorer but one day after Christmas in 2001, he proved that he was more than just the Big Fundamental. In the only 50-point game of his storied career, Duncan scored 53 points against the Dallas Mavericks on December 26, 2001.
Duncan scored 28 points in the fourth period and overtimes but his effort wasn’t enough to defeat the Dallas Mavericks. The Big Fundamental shot 19-28 from the floor and 15-15 from the foul line as he played a total of 50 minutes in the overtime loss.
Although the Mavs won the game 126-123 on a last-second three-point basket by Steve Nash, Duncan’s output was the fourth-highest scoring game by a San Antonio Spurs player and the most by any player at that point of the season. After the game, Duncan said that “he wished he’d missed all his shots the way the game turned out.” Typical Timmy.
The Los Angeles Lakers won three NBA titles from 2000-02. In 2003, Tim Duncan made sure that the Lakers didn’t extend their dynasty. With the Spurs up 3-2 in the 2003 Western Conference Finals, Duncan elevated his game and scored 37 points while grabbing 16 rebounds in a 110-82 win.
The victory not only put the Spurs in the Finals, but it also helped them oust the team that eliminated them in the previous two seasons. Before the series, it looked like Shaq and Kobe’s Lakers were going to win a fourth straight title but Duncan and the Spurs made sure that they didn’t.
Duncan’s game outshone Shaq who had 30 points and 10 boards for the Lakers. The Spurs would beat the New Jersey Nets in the 2003 NBA Finals for their second NBA title. Duncan would end up winning his second Finals MVP award and second consecutive NBA MVP award.
After eliminating the defending champions Lakers in the 2003 Western conference semifinals and the Dallas Mavericks in the western conference finals, the San Antonio Spurs faced the New Jersey Nets in the 2003 NBA Finals. With San Antonio up 3-2 in the series, Tim Duncan delivered a near quadruple-double game to clinch his team’s second NBA title in the last four seasons.
Duncan put up a monster game with 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and a then-Finals record of 8 blocked shots. He scored or assisted in 19 out of the Spurs’ 34 field goals made in the game while playing a total of 46 minutes of action.
2003 was dubbed as a dull playoff year in the NBA but it wasn’t. Duncan and the Spurs were just too methodical for the rest of the league that season. The Big Fundamental won Finals and NBA MVP honors that season as well.
The Detroit Pistons stunned the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals. The following season, Detroit looked like they were about to repeat as champs. But after Robert Horry’s heroic Game 6 effort which extended the series to a deciding 7th game, Tim Duncan took over and made sure that the Pistons would be denied.
Duncan scored 25 points and 11 rebounds in what wasn’t one of his most effective games. However, he scored 12 in the crucial third period and he beat the shot clock with a jump shot late in the game. The Spurs won 81-74 for their third NBA championship.
The Big Fundamental was named Finals MVP again, the third time he won the award in as many titles won for the Spurs. More importantly, it signaled the birth of a new dynasty in the league after the Bulls and Lakers.
The Phoenix Suns were one of the highest-scoring teams in the league during Steve Nash’s prime. In 2008, Nash had Amar’e Stoudemire and an aging Shaquille O’Neal helping him against Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs. These teams squared off in the first round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs.
Duncan led the Spurs to a 117-115 win in double overtime. TD scored a total of 40 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, issued five assists, and blocked three shots in a monster game. However, it was Duncan’s three-pointer that sent the game to a second overtime period. That three-point basket was his only made three-ball of that season.
After the game, he was asked about the three-point basket and his reply was a typical reply that we got from him throughout his career: “I got a wide-open shot. Wound it up. Threw it up there and hoped for the best.” Right, Timmy. Right.
The Miami Heat defeated the Spurs in the 2013 NBA Finals in heartbreaking fashion. The Spurs were on their way to the title when Ray Allen made that memorable Game 6 three-pointer that sent the game to OT. The Heat won Game 6 and then clinched the title in Game 7.
Tim Duncan was out for vengeance the following year and he made Miami know that right from Game 1. Already 38-year old, Duncan set the tone for what would be a one-sided championship series in favor of the Spurs. TD scored 21 points on 9-10 shooting with 10 rebounds and three assists.
Of course, we remember this game as the one where LeBron James suffered cramps after the airconditioning system malfunctioned at the AT&T Center. But Duncan was over the hill at this point of his career but he led his team to a 110-95 blowout of the Heat in Game 1.
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