Seriously, how much longer can this keep going? Year after year the national media rains down stories about how this will be the end of the Spurs as we know it. Tim Duncan cannot keep up the pace; his knees are too weak and have too many miles on them to be effective; the aging power forward is the oldest of an ancient core of Spurs players who have run out of time.
Duncan does not strike me as a humorous individual, but I picture him sitting back, laughing at each story that discusses how he is too old and has slowed down too much to make a difference. That is a lot of laughs over the years.
Tim Duncan turns 36 today. He has been in the league as long as I have followed basketball and he is arguably the most accomplished player during that span. Two-time MVP, three-time Finals MVP, four NBA championships, twelve first and second team All-NBA teams, and thirteen first and second team All-Defensive awards.
Sure, most of those came at a time when Duncan posted double-doubles the way Charles Barkley used to put down double-cheeseburgers. But at 36, Duncan averaged 16 points, 9 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and averaged an astonishing 22.64 PER in just 28 minutes per game. With Duncan's leadership, the Spurs stand at 48-16, tied for the best record in the league and appear poised for a deep playoff run.
Fourteen years in the league and his San Antonio Spurs still remain at the top of the league. Something tells me that as Duncan blows out the candles on his cake, he isn't wishing for his knees to hold up for one more year. At this point he knows they will. And until he calls it quits, I will simply dismiss every story about how he simply cannot continue.
It appears that Duncan really will get the final laugh as he continues to make fools of us all.
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