Sports&Outdoors A6 | Wednesday, July 13, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
Kin Man Hui / AP
Gregg Popovich keeps his emotions in check as he addresses the media Tuesday in San Antonio to bid farewell to Tim Duncan.
Popovich bids Duncan farewell By Tim Reynolds ASSOCIATED PRE SS
By Jon Krawczynski A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant. Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant. Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Players synonymous with their cities and their franchises are now gone in a summer of upheaval the NBA has rarely seen before, and the teams left behind begin their searches for new identities after saying the hardest of goodbyes. “You never would’ve been able to convince me a couple years back that Wade wouldn’t finish his career in Miami or Durant would have moved on in his prime from that great Oklahoma City team, or Rose after his MVP year, four years later he’s not in Chicago anymore,” ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy said. “It just shows you. It’s a hard league. It’s hard to keep your group together. And when it is able to stay together, stay relevant, stay competitive, you’re very, very fortunate.” Count the San Antonio Spurs among the chosen few. Duncan fell in their lap when the Spurs won the draft lottery in 1997, and coach Gregg Popovich has long credited that bit of luck for the franchise’s unprecedented run of success. Five championships, two MVPs for Duncan, the most enduring success story in American sports. “Leadership can come from many different
areas, but when your best player is the best leader, it’s amazing how everybody else falls in line,” said Timberwolves GM Scott Layden, who was an assistant GM with the Spurs for the previous four seasons. “The other thing is how he’s done it with such humility and modesty. Not looking for any attention and accolades. It’s more of what is good for the team. ... Both on and off the court, he set the tone day-in and day-out.” Bryant beat Duncan out of the door by a couple of months, ending 20 colorful seasons with the Lakers with a 60-point outburst in his final game. The consistency wasn’t the same as Duncan’s, but the Lakers captured five titles as well during Bryant’s time and vaulted back into the league’s hierarchy. Wade left the Heat for his hometown Bulls after 13 brilliant seasons and is perhaps the biggest sports hero in Miami history, having delivered three championships to South Beach and serving as an ambassador for the glitzy city by the bay. “Moments like this, it sucks,” Wade said on Saturday after taking a two-year, $47 million deal from the Bulls over Miami’s offer of two years and $40 million. “The business side of the sport, sometimes it just sucks. That’s what we’re dealing with.” Durant stunned the NBA by leaving his beloved Oklahoma City for
the juggernaut in Golden State, ending a nine-year love affair between the low-key superstar and a city he and Russell Westbrook put on the basketball map. “Kevin was a part of the renaissance,” Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett told ESPN last week. “This city has come so far, so fast, probably further, faster than any city in American history. Kevin was right there along with us. There’s a slight sense of panic.” And finally, the Bulls traded Rose, a former MVP and one of the city’s favorite sons, to the New York Knicks. Noah followed his friend to the Big Apple in free agency, meaning two of the players who embodied the franchise’s grit and determination are now elsewhere. The departures came under different circumstances and by different means, but they have served to upend the NBA. Player movement is one of the league’s hallmarks, but Dwyane Wade in a Bulls jersey? All players see their careers end eventually. But Kobe and Timmy in the same summer? Injuries to Rose and Noah no doubt forced Chicago’s hand. But both of the proud fighters wearing blue and orange? It will take some getting used to for everyone involved, and it stands to have a major impact on the playoff chases in both conferences. Duncan may not have
been the force of nature he was for the Spurs in his earlier days, and he may have passed the torch to Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge last season. But his loss in the locker room, and in the paint, will be hard for the Spurs to overcome. With Leonard, Aldridge, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and now Pau Gasol in the fold, the Spurs should still be able to hang near the top of the Western Conference. Without No. 21 in the middle to keep things calm, it won’t be easy. “I think it goes way beyond the championships and the winning,” said Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer, a longtime Spurs assistant. “I think the culture that really, he’s kind of the pillar it’s been built around. It is almost impossible to quantify.” In some ways, things have only gotten easier for the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, who have met in the NBA Finals the last two seasons. Durant’s move to Golden State gutted the Warriors’ chief rival in the West and assembled perhaps the most potent starting lineup in league history in the Bay Area. Wade’s move to Chicago weakened a challenger to LeBron in the East. Maybe the only question left to answer going into next season is not who will be there in the end, but how each of these proud franchises will handle their new beginnings.
Gregg Popovich spoke for about 15 minutes, sometimes unable to hide his emotions, all the while wearing a T-shirt that had Tim Duncan’s face printed on the front. When the last question was answered, the coach turned, put his hands in his pockets and silently walked into a new era for the San Antonio Spurs. It’s a day Popovich knew was coming. That clearly didn’t make it any easier. “He’s irreplaceable,” Popovich said. Choking up at times and making wisecracks at others, Popovich bade a public farewell to Duncan’s playing career on Tuesday. The five-time NBA champion announced his retirement on Monday in a statement released through the team, ending a 19-year career that was spent entirely in San Antonio. “I figured I better come out here and do this and somehow say goodbye to him,” Popovich said. “Which is an impossibility, for a lot of reasons.” Popovich spoke in a corner of the Spurs’ practice facility in San Antonio, the spot where he holds court with reporters after workouts during the season. There was no news conference, no elaborate setup, not even any live coverage permitted. Even for something that will have so much impact on the team, the league and the sport, the Spurs kept things as simple as possible. Duncan is leaving. In some respects, everything is changing. In others, nothing will. “I think it will be a seamless transition for the team,” former NBA coach and current television analyst Jeff Van Gundy said. “I think who it’s going to be hard on is Gregg Popovich.” Popovich gave no indications otherwise Tuesday. All in one answer — the premise being picking one person in history to have dinner with — Popovich made mention of Mother Teresa, Jesus, the Dalai Lama, William F. Buckley, Gore Vidal and actor John Cleese. But given the choice between any of those people, or anyone else, Popovich said he would choose to dine with Duncan. “I can honestly tell you my dinner would be with Timmy,” Popovich said. “And it would be because he’s the most real, consistent, true person that I’ve ever met in my life.” “I can be on him in a
game and ask him why he’s not rebounding in a relatively stern way and really get on him in front of everybody,” Popovich continued. “And on his way back to the court, he’ll say, ‘Thanks for the motivation, Pop. Thanks for the support, Pop.’ Then he’ll turn away with his eyes up in the air and we’ll both start laughing. And people don’t see those things. But his teammates have and that’s why his teammates love him.” Duncan will go down as one of the best to ever play the game, and Popovich said he was the best teammate any Spurs player could have had. There were moments of humor, too, like Popovich saying Duncan made him wear the clothes he gave him — including the shirt he donned Tuesday — or else he wouldn’t play. “I remember a pretty neat summer league game when he first came in and (Greg) Ostertag blocked his shot,” Popovich said when asked what moment of Duncan’s career he enjoyed most. “That was pretty cool.” Mostly, Popovich’s words showed sadness and appreciation. He spoke at length about Duncan’s humility, and how that was instilled in him long ago. Popovich told a story about when Duncan’s father, who died in 2002, told the Spurs coach he needed to ensure his son would not be changed by fame or fortune. “I can still remember before his father passed away, looking me in the eye and saying ‘I’m going to hold you responsible to make sure that when he’s done he’s the same person he is now.’ And in that respect, he is,” Popovich said. “He’s grown as a person, as we all do, through experiences. But his inner core, he was over himself when he came in and after all these accolades and all this success, he’s still over himself. Hasn’t changed a lick.” Duncan and Popovich won more games together than any player-coach combination in NBA history — and Popovich said he owes his own success to the now-retired star, not the other way around. To think of a season without Duncan, Popovich said, is mindboggling. “I would not be standing here if it wasn’t for Tim Duncan,” Popovich said. “I’d be in the Budweiser league, someplace in America, fat and still trying to play basketball or coach basketball. He’s why I’m standing.”