Duncan might be winning on the court but off of it...........

I think Ducan could careless. And when you are making that much money already, winning the championship is more important than getting a few extra millions of dollars.

-G'day-

 

No, the roses are out Timmy, not the Daisies.

 

more Duncan bashing, poor brother can't even get his self a shoe deal:


sports nut
The 7-Foot Square
Why you don't love Tim Duncan.
By Sam Eifling
Posted Monday, June 16, 2003, at 2:36 PM PT



Last night Tim Duncan, the best player in the NBA, won his second league championship and second Finals MVP award and lacked two blocks from notching a quadruple double in the deciding game. Jason Kidd of the defeated New Jersey Nets later said he told Duncan in their postgame embrace, "You're the best on the planet." Duncan's also a solid citizen, a perennial All-Star, a college graduate, a repeat league MVP, and a funny and earnest interviewee—the most vanilla superstar drawing checks in the NBA today. Dennis Rodman was the player you loved to hate. Michael Jordan was the player you hated to love. Duncan is the player you're mildly disappointed to find you don't care about much either way.

What's not to like about Duncan? Nothing, unless you count the fact that there's nothing not to like about him. He's notoriously well-behaved on the court, unemotive, nigh-robotic at times. Perhaps for that reason, he's practically nowhere to be seen in national advertising, which includes lesser lights like teammate Tony Parker. Lately Nike has stopped sponsoring Duncan, presumably because it couldn't disgorge $90 million onto high-school senior LeBron James without a bit of belt-tightening. Duncan just doesn't have the kind of game that sells shoes except to that hopeless niche of kids who think new sneaks will help them issue crisp bounce passes and box out for offensive rebounds. Even the media are at a loss—a Sports Illustrated cover story a couple of weeks ago labeled Duncan "fundamentally sound" four times. Not to damn Duncan with more high praise, but did I mention that he skipped the third grade? Root for Duncan, and you might as well root for broccoli.

A 1997 Sports Illustrated feature told of an opposing college coach trying to psych up his team to play "the greatest player any of you will ever meet." He told his men: "Someday your six-year-old will ask you for a Tim Duncan jersey for Christmas." Actually, the tyke is more likely to ask for a Michael Finley jersey. As of mid-April, Duncan wasn't in the top 10 in NBA jersey sales, though his station in San Antonio, one of league's more obscure markets, surely doesn't help. Tops was the No. 8 jersey of high-flying, Sprite-pitching Kobe Bryant, who has worked like hell to rough up his clean-cut image. Duncan, meanwhile, is as understated as ever, offering to help opposing players up off the court when they fall and ho-humming his way to 25 points and 15 rebounds a game in the playoffs.

Lower than Duncan's "Q" rating were ABC's Finals ratings, which are predicted to be the worst of the last 30 years. The shooting was, at long intervals, self-parody. Only twice in six games did a team score more than 90 points. New Jersey scored 77 points in Game 4 and won. It was no accident that Duncan turned out to be the MVP of this morass; he makes other teams play ugly, too. He collected 32 blocks in the series, a Finals record, while also leading his team in points, rebounds, assists, and favorable comparisons to Hall of Famers. With the retirement of Spurs center David Robinson, for whom the league named its citizenship award, Duncan's raging blandness will stand out even more. That's not necessarily a good thing. Barring injury or demonic possession, Duncan, 27, should continue his stoic romp through the league for the better part of the next decade, much to the chagrin of Western Conference forwards and network bean-counters.

I felt the vicarious sting of Duncan's professionalism last month, at the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas. The big man blocked a garbage-time layup by Raja Bell with five seconds left against the Dallas Mavericks, and in so doing ensured the Spurs covered the spread. Few players bother to risk that play, when Bell well might score and make the defender look overzealous and thus undeniably uncool. Duncan makes that play because he's an excellent shot-blocker (maybe the best ever in college); he attends to the pesky details, tipping unreachable rebounds to teammates and running screens to seal off defenders; and he's a character guy, more concerned with how he plays than how he looks. In other words, he's the consummate square, a great example of how discipline, dedication, and noble conduct can triumph over all, which is, speaking on behalf of crass and lazy people everywhere, a truly unendearing thought. Duncan is the kind of athlete your parents would love for you to grow up to be just like, and he'll probably never live that down.


Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2084433/

 

All Duncan needs to do is show off his tatoo after a dunk or a block like Martin, make a few racist remarks like Shaq, cry on TV about his estranged family relations like Kobe, and get picked up for carrying a gun like AI and the endorsements will come rolling in and TV ratings soar. That's what America really wants.

 

I'll take a boring 21 point, 20 rebound, 10 assist, 8 block performance in a championship winning game anytime.

 

This guy is telling us who we are "supposed" to like. he expects us to like KG because he screams like an idiot and loses? nah, i think i'll take the winner.

 

The sad thing is, he'll play his whole career, and most people won't even know what they're missing - when they don't watch him.

 

The NBA need to start to sell THE BASKETBALL, not the stars!!!

 

The NBA needs to start playing basketball.

Foul out players, foul out stars. Then watch shooting improve. Games improve.

This is basketball not basketbrawl.

 

If the NBA starts to sell the game of basketball rather than the stars, the kids will start to play basketball for the love of the game rather than for money/fame. The kids will become players who really play the game to play the game, not play the game to put up highlight reels and earn money. Then the NBA can become a league which play basketball.

 

I didn't have you pegged as the polyana type.

Just let the game be played -- and called -- by the rules and the court will open like a tulip on a sunny day.

Since NBA basketball became a mugging the game has declined, even with the great and grand Michael. That can be traced back to Lakers-Celts '84, I think. Riles learned how to beat the C's at 'their' game, The Bad Boys perfected it taking it to a new level, and now all play a form of it, except for Mavs (who play no D in Big D).

 

EXACTLY!!!!

uh....

2003 NBA CHAMPS SAN ANTONIO SPURS

KEEP HATIN', WE'RE IN THE HISTORY BOOKS AGAIN!

 

I have two sons who are in the formative years of basketball loving. Guess whom they most admired in the Finals? Yes, of course, the thuderous dunks of Jefferson and Martin. They might even appreciate some of the no-look passes of Jason Kidd. Or the 3s of Stephen who-is-he Jackson.

Tim Duncan? They kept asking me why was Duncan so famous. I tried very hard to point out great fundamental skills to them. "Look, what a great pass!" "See how he's boxing out the other guy?" "Watch how he rolls after setting the pick." "That's a bad shot. Should've dished to the open guy." "Watch that guy. See how he cuts to the basket after he passes." You know, things like that. But it's hard, when the whole culture is geared toward the flashy stuff.

And yes, they keep asking me to lower the hoop in our backyard so that they can "practice" dunking. I say, "No way. That's how high basketball hoops are. Our hoop will stay that way. Practice layups. Practice jump shots. Practice free throws. Wait till you grow tall enough, IF you grow tall enough, then you can dunk."

 

Good job. I totally agree. Tim duncan is very impressive as I hadn't previously watched him (except for Rockets games) until the finals.

 

Man, I love Duncan. If I saw adidas TD, And1 KG and Dada Cweb in a shoe store, I'd take the TD in a heartbeat.

I just don't understand why people think duncan is boring... I even enjoy watching his defense. When the opponent guard drives to him, you know something bad is going to happen to the poor little guy. When K-mart tried to beat him off the dribble, you couldn't help thinking why type of swat K-mart would get..... man, that's great basketball. that's exciting, isn't it?