Tag: Tim Duncan

Source: Duncan will not opt out

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

Tim Duncan is not expected to opt out of the final year of his contract, and the Spurs don’t plan to offer him an extension before the collective bargaining agreement expires Thursday, according to a source familiar with talks between the team and the franchise icon.

As such, Duncan will play out the final year of his existing deal, during which he is scheduled to earn $21.2 million, and remains on track to become a free agent after the 2011-12 campaign.

Duncan also faces a Thursday deadline to exercise an early-termination option. His apparent decision not to do so is not surprising in light of the league’s unsure labor climate.

With a contentious fight broiling between the NBA’s owners and players’ union this summer, and with so much uncertainty still surrounding the next CBA, Duncan has apparently determined it is in his best interest to stand pat on what, at age 35, is likely to be his last high-dollar payday.

Should Duncan choose to continue playing after next season, the Spurs would prefer to re-sign him under the new set of salary rules, which are generally expected to be more favorable to small-market clubs.

There had been some speculation Duncan might decide to trigger his early-termination option and renegotiate his contract, in a manner that might give the Spurs payroll flexibility to better fortify their roster next season.

Duncan took a similar approach in signing a four-year extension before the 2007-08 season, accepting less than maximum money and leaving the Spurs room to eventually add Richard Jefferson in the summer of 2009.

A 13-time All-Star, two-time league MVP and three-time Finals MVP, Duncan logged career lows last season in scoring (13.4 points per game), rebounding (8.9 per game) and minutes (28.4 per game).

Though more of a statistical bit player than he was in his prime, Duncan in his 14th NBA season remained the central figure for the Spurs, both on the court and in the locker room.

He’s not going to look like rookie Tim Duncan,” coach Gregg Popovich said in an interview conducted during the season. “Nobody is going to look like they did 14 years ago. He’s still so steady. He’s still our rock out there.”

Bad memory No. 3: Manu injures elbow in final game before the playoffs

The Spurs streaked to 61 victories in the first 81 games of the season. They appeared to have a chance to claim a shot at homecourt advantage during the entire NBA playoffs if they could beat Phoenix in the season-ending game April 13.

After resting key players the night before against the Los Angeles Lakers, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich elected to return all of his starters the following night against the Suns.

But disaster struck barely 2 minutes into the game when Manu Ginobili was caught in a grinding collision between Tim Duncan and Grant Hill.

His resulting injury and absence for Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs was something the Spurs couldn’t overcome.

No. 3: Manu’s ill-timed elbow injury spoils final regular-season game and dooms playoff run.

When: April 13, 2011

Where: US Airways Center, Phoenix

What happened: Only 134 seconds into the Spurs’ last game of the season, Ginobili was coming across a Duncan pick, with Hill trailing, when he appeared to get his arm pinned between them. It bent Ginobili’s elbow back at a grotesque angle before he tumbled to the court in obvious pain. The early diagnosis was a sprained right elbow, but Ginobili admitted after the playoffs that he actually sustained a small fracture of the right arm. Spurs team officials later said  the injury actually was located in his ulna, one of the two long bones running from his wrist to elbow. And even worse, the Spurs lost 106-103 to kill their hopes of tying Chicago for the best record in the league.  

What was said, Part I: ”Now, the fun starts,” Popovich, describing the challenge of overcoming Ginobili’s injury heading into the playoffs.

What was said, Part II: ”You can’t predict anything, and there’s no reason to second guess. I don’t think any one of us is going to do that,” Duncan, to the Express-News after the game about Ginobili’s injury.  

What was said, Part III: ”They needed to get a good run, and they did, so they can keep a rhythm,” Popovich, explaining to the Express-News why he chose to play his starters with the No. 1 seed locked up in the Western Conference.

What was said, Part IV: ”If Manu ain’t healthy, historically, we go nowhere.When he was hurt against Dallas (in 2009), they beat us. Last year, we beat them in the first round because Manu was healthy. Manu was half-assed one year against the Lakers (in 2008), or they don’t win three (Western Conference titles) in a row. His health is huge for us,” What Popovich told the Express-News about Ginobili’s injury several days after his team was eliminated from the playoffs.

GAME NOTES: Ginobili, Duncan and Tony Parker all sat out the previous game against the Lakers before playing against the Suns. Marcin Gortat muscled the Spurs for 21 points and 13 rebounds to enable Phoenix to keep from being swept in the regular season by the Spurs in the 106-103 victory. Phoenix eliminated the Spurs in a four-game sweep in the 2010 playoffs. The Spurs finished at 61-21 — a game behind Chicago for the best NBA record.  Duncan had 17 points and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes. Parker scored 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting in 25 minutes. Neither were on the court when the game ended. Phoenix erupted to a 17-point lead in the first quarter after shooting 65 percent from the field and the Spurs never could catch them. Trailing 85-74 heading into the fourth quarter, the Spurs nearly came back as Gary Neal threw up an air ball from the corner in a shot that could have tied the game at the buzzer. Ginobili would miss the first game of the first-round playoff series against Memphis. His team never really recovered after losing that game.

Previous bad memories:

No. 10: .

No. 9: Black Friday fourth-quarter collapse against Dallas helps snap Spurs’ .  

No. 8: : Spurs blown out by Orlando by 22.

No. 7: Lowly Clips to Spurs.

No. 6:  Heat’sfrom 30-point loss 10 days earlier.

No. 5: Blowout loss to Lakers .

No. 4: Duncan’s ankle injury.  

Previous good memories:

No. 10: .

No. 9: boosts comeback victory over Thunder.

No. 8: leads overtime victory over Memphis.

No. 7:boosts Spurs past Warriors.

No. 6: TD becomesin one game.

No. 5:with record 3-point binge.

No. 4: Pop passes Auerbach on.

Popovich praises O’Neal for his style

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Shaquille O’Neal exited laughing at his official retirement news conference on Friday, and it was his humor and zest for life that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he most admired about the center who earned four championship rings during 19 NBA seasons.

“I always felt he had more fun than any NBA player of all time,” said Popovich, a Spurs assistant coach when NBA scouts first took notice of a Cole junior named O’Neal who was dominating Texas high school games in 1988 and 1989. “He seemed to enjoy himself more than any player. He competed to win, but his intelligence and humor were always there. He enjoyed the spotlight; he used it, he played with it and I always got a large kick out of it.”

O’Neal’s official announcement came Friday at his Orlando-area home, where the humor Popovich admired again was on display.

Hours after the Knicks announced that Donnie Walsh was stepping down as their general manager, O’Neal interrupted his announcement to take a fake phone call from the Knicks.

“Yes?” he said into the phone. “For real? You want me to apply for the Knicks general manager job? I’ll fly up right after the press conference.”

It was just such irreverence for a game too many take too seriously that Popovich appreciated.

“His personality was infectious and I thought his sense of humor was wonderful for the league and the fans,” Popovich said.

The Spurs’ coach said O’Neal is “in the conversation” when basketball historians debate the greatest centers ever to play the game, and Popovich credited him with changing the notion of how the game’s biggest players should approach the game.

“How a big man should play or how he has to play historically wasn’t true any more after Shaq,” Popovich said. “He was really complete. People never gave him credit for that, but he was a force offensively and defensively and he was a very willing passer and he would play with that, too. If you doubled him he could kick it to other people and he got better at that as time went by. He never got credit for being that complete type of player at his position.

“He obviously ranks amongst the best. He’s in the same conversation with all the other greats we know about over the years. I don’t try to rank them. The conversation is what it’s about.”

The first time Popovich saw O’Neal in person, during O’Neal’s college career at LSU, he came away astounded.

“I thought he was a phenomenon,” he said. “I couldn’t believe somebody was that big and that mobile, that those two would go together. At the same time he had great coordination. To be as big as he was and have that just amazed me.”

Popovich recalled how difficult it was watching his battles with the Spurs’ great big men, David Robinson and Tim Duncan, without losing focus on the rest of the game.

“I always had to make sure I didn’t get lost in just that dynamic because it was so easy to just be mesmerized by those people playing against each other and you could lose sight of everything else going on out on the court,” he said. “Your eyes just gravitated to those guys as the game progressed. You had to discipline yourself to think bigger than those two, but the game always seemed to revolve around them.”