San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
» Duncan comes up clutch again in speech.
In stirring speech, Duncan showers love on all who helped him get to Springfield
For 19 spectacular seasons with the Spurs, Tim Duncan was cool, calm and collected personified. The Spurs star had appeared in NBA Finals and Game 7s and Game 7s of the NBA Finals, and all levels of pressure-packed moments in between. He approached them with the most unflappable of poker faces.
On Saturday, in front of a coat-and-tie-clad audience at an arena in Uncasville, Conn., Duncan finally cracked.
“This is the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life,” Duncan said.
When it came to giving an acceptance speech upon his induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame, Duncan eventually came up clutch again.
In 12-minute thank-you note to all who helped put him on the dais at the Mohegan Sun — and put his bust into the museum in Springfield, Mass. — Duncan cataloged what he called “a journey that doesn’t make sense.”
From his sun-swept upbringing in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, to college at Wake Forest,
to nearly two decades of dominance with the Spurs, that basketball journey ended in a place that, for all Duncan accomplished, made perfect sense.
Duncan entered the Hall of Fame among one of the most star-studded classes in history, joining the late Kobe Bryant; Kevin Garnett; college coaching legend Eddie Sutton; two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich; WNBA and Olympic star Tamika Catchings; Kim Mulkey, who won three NCAA titles at Baylor; five-time Division II National Women’s Coach of the Year Barbara Stevens; and longtime FIBA executive Patrick Baumann.
The 45-year-old Duncan became the ninth player with
Spurs ties to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and the third to have spent more than five seasons with the club. (David Robinson and George Gervin are the others.)
The first Virgin Islander to be enshrined in Springfield, Duncan’s speech gave a nod to his Caribbean roots.
He mentioned his late parents, William and Ione, who he said came with “a combined zero basketball knowledge.”
“But they taught me more about the game than anybody else,” Duncan said. “They told me and made me take pride in everything I did.”
Duncan also thanked his teammates at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal High School on St. Croix for pushing him to basketball when his burgeoning teenage swimming career was sidetracked by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
He thanked Wake Forest coach Dave Odom. He thanked many in the Spurs organization, including the Holt family, CEO R.C. Buford, coach Gregg Popovich and scores of teammates, including Robinson, who was also on stage to present Duncan to the Hall.
He thanked his three children and wife Vanessa.
He also thanked twofellow inductees and former Western Conference rivals: Garnett and, posthumously, Bryant.
Duncan, Bryant and Garnett combined for 11 championships, 48 All-Star appearances, 86,210 points and four MVP awards, and defined the game during their tenure.
“You guys demanded the best of me,” Duncan said.
Duncan’s credentials, burnished over 19 NBA seasons all spent with the Spurs, made him a Hall of Fame lock long before Saturday’s enshrinement made it official.
His 1,001 career victories are third all-time. He ranks 15th in points (24,496), sixth in rebounds (15,091) and fifth in blocks (3,020).
Duncan’s 15 All-Defensive team mentions are the most in NBA history.
He made 15 All-Star teams and was named to the All-NBA first team 10 times.
For those watching Saturday’s ceremony in San Antonio, the most important Duncan-related statistic is five. That is the number of NBA championships he brought to the city.
Put together, it made Duncan arguably the greatest power forward in NBA history.
As such, Duncan earned returned praise from other members of his Hall of Fame class as well.
Tomjanovich was still coaching the rival Houston Rockets when Duncan joined the Spurs as the No. 1 draft pick in 1997.
In his first game against Duncan, Tomjanovich watched the Spurs new star catch a ball in the post and knew basketball history was about to change.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, this guy
can really play,’ ” Tomjanovich said. “He hadn’t even done anything, but I saw how comfortable he felt out there. I said, ‘This is going to be tough.’ And it was.”
Popovich skipped Saturday’s game against Phoenix at the AT&T Center to attend Duncan’s induction ceremony.
He was the only NBA coach Duncan played under, and the two won more games than any other player-coach tandem in league annals.
The relationship began, Duncan said, when Popovich came to visit the 22-year-old rookie-tobe in the Virgin Islands after the 1997 draft.
Duncan got emotional in discussing his long-term connection with the 72-year-old Popovich.
“You came to my island, you sat with my friends and my family. You talked with my dad,” Duncan said. “I thought that was normal, but it was not.”
Duncan thanked Popovich for “teaching me about basketball, but even beyond that teaching me that it’s not all about basketball.”
Duncan also tipped a cap to Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, fellow Spurs greats the other two-thirds of the winningest “Big Three” in NBA history.
Ginobili and Parker are likely to be included in future Hall of Fame classes. That realization alone might have been the best part of Duncan’s nerve-wracking but well-earned enshrinement Saturday.
“I can’t wait to see you guys up here,” Duncan said with a laugh. “And for me not to be up here.”