im Duncan and his 5 championship banners, the 4th-most for any franchise in NBA history / Via Edward A. Ornelas, Staff / San Antonio Express-News
He is gone, and he’s not coming back.
Most of my summer has been spent grappling with that simple notion: Tim Duncan has retired, and he’s not coming back.
For many of us (myself included), we don’t know a Spurs team without 21. My basketball fandom began near the tail end of the Jordan Bulls, and my Spurs fandom began shortly thereafter, in large part because of Duncan. The notion of ‘The San Antonio Spurs’ is inextricably linked to the visage of Duncan–it can not exist without him.
Yet it can and it does. So we grieve. But it’s not the typical grief. There is no denial, no anger, no bargaining. There’s just a sense of sadness, a sense of loss, a hole that can not and should not be filled. He gave us so much; he’s earned his departure.
There were numerous gushing eulogies written for the man and his career. I could add to that list and do my best to put into words exactly what he has meant to me. It would veer wildly away from basketball to the personal and the emotional. Read any game recap from the last 7 years, and you’ll find at least one thought belonging to his good-bye.
I’ve written enough about Duncan. He wouldn’t want any more. Any true Spurs fan knows exactly what his retirement means, even if it’s only something they feel viscerally in their chest and in their gut.
This might be Duncan’s truest legacy: he belonged to us. More than any other athlete playing for any other team in any other city, Duncan belonged to us. We embraced him unconditionally, and his quiet demeanor and equally quiet game spoke volumes, giving shape to our fandom. Our love of the Spurs became defined by Duncan and his grace, and we saw the very best of ourselves in him (and by extension, the organization).
He was our favorite player. Yes, we frenzied over Manu more, and bought the jerseys of Bowen, Parker, Leonard, Mills, Green, and countless other role players over the years. But the tacit, underlying acknowledgement was that Duncan was always number one, and everybody else was 1A or lower.
And so it is, one last time, we hope to catch a glimmer of our better angels in our power forward’s retirement. He did it on his terms, at the right time. The cracks were beginning to show, but he was still capable. He left the team stronger, not weaker. He left with his head (and right arm) held high.
He retired a champion, in victory and defeat.
The Spurs, however, remain a professional basketball team that we think about and write about and cheer on. The upcoming season feels unlike any other I’ve experienced, and not just because of who will be absent.
Two thoughts keep coming to mind, not wholly mutually exclusive.
- The Spurs will be a lot better than people are giving them credit for.
- It probably doesn’t matter all that much.
Let’s start with the second point first.
It seems, barring catastrophic injuries (which we never hope for), that the Golden State Warriors are so far ahead of the rest of the field as to be almost unbeatable. Their appearance in the NBA Finals in June seems almost assured, in a way that no other team’s presence there has ever felt so fated.
The Spurs had a hard enough time matching up with the Warriors and the Thunder. Putting the best player from the Thunder on the Warriors is laughable.
Rather than depress me, though, the ascendence of the super team has relaxed me. For 28 other teams (the Cavs being the lone exception), the season has become house money. The weighty expectations are lifted, and we can just enjoy the season for what it is.
Of course, for many Spurs fans, spoiled by so many years of the looming possibility of a title in every season, this can be hard to swallow. Knowing that the ending may very well be already written can give rise to a nihilistic view of the season. “Who cares, then?”
But with the ending nary in doubt, this makes the story more compelling. Pay attention to each game; savor the individual performances; cherish Manu the way we should have been cherishing Duncan last season.
The team will look drastically different, and we’re clearly in a transitional phase. That can be fun. The Warriors existing makes it less stressful in some ways.
Which brings us to the first point: the Spurs are still a very good team. Many people seem to have forgotten that the squad won 67 games last year.
They replaced Duncan with Gasol, which makes for a downgrade defensively but an upgrade offensively. Aldridge is in his second season with the team and should feel more comfortable in the system.
And Kawhi! How quickly we all forget that Kawhi was one of the five (or three?) best players in the league last season and is probably only going to get better. A team built around Kawhi and LaMarcus, with support from Gasol, Mills, Green, Ginobili, Parker, etc should still be a dominating force night to night.
Yes, the team might still struggle in the playoffs. Yes, the team probably has almost no chance against the Warriors.
That misses the point that the team will still be very good, a joy to watch, and be near the top of the competitive West, as it has been for nearly two decades.
Enjoy the season, enjoy the process, enjoy discovering the new players and savoring the familiar ones. It’s a long season, and to define it solely by the outcome steals the joy of all the moments we have awaiting us.
Go Spurs Go.
