The Spurs have hired future Hall-of-Famer Tim Duncan, the team announced today in a press release, revealing that Duncan has joined Gregg Popovich‘s staff as an assistant coach.
“It is only fitting, that after I served loyally for 19 years as Tim Duncan’s assistant, that he returns the favor,” Popovich said in a statement.
A 15-time All-Star as a player, Duncan won five NBA titles and two MVP awards during his 19-year career as a Spur. After his retirement in 2016, the big man took on an unofficial role in San Antonio as the “coach of whatever he wants to be,” in Popovich’s words. Now, he’ll serve as an assistant in a more official capacity.
According to the Spurs, Will Hardy will also move to the front of the team’s bench as an assistant coach.
Duncan and Hardy will be tasked with helping to fill the gaps created on Popovich’s staff this spring when Ettore Messina elected to return to Italy and Ime Udoka headed to Philadelphia.
Gets ejected in his first game for laughing on the bench
Love seeing hall of fame talents staying involved in the game… Good for Timmy D. I think his end goal is to become head coach of the Spurs once Pop retires.
That would be amazing. Talk about full circle.
A character of absolute class and loyalty
Well said. One of the best quotes in sports right there. Such a G
Nice but Tim Duncan won the MVP award twice
I’m shocked
May also be a result of his divorce and financial manager. Will certainly be an asset on the bench, otherwise.
There’s nobody more loyal to the franchise… the perfect Lead Assistant or Associate Head Coach when Becky takes over for Pop.
lol
He will teach the fine art of leaving an elbow out there head-high if an opponent drives around you because you’re slow and should be a 5 except you’re too chicken for that.
I haven’t seen LMA pull that stunt, but with Duncan officially on the staff…
Well you call him chicken, rest of us call him one of the greatest Power Forwards of all time, and Hall of Famer.
And I guess you are what…one of HR’s greatest trolls of all times
Correction, even as anfan of the Jazz I call him THE greatest Power Forward of all time
Karl Malone might have something to say about that. If he had 3 titles to his name he would be called the greatest. Damn Michael Jordan.
I’m a lifelong Jazz fan of over 30 years but even I got to admit Duncan is the best. It’s not just the titles. It’s the leadership, the sense of team and very underated defense.
But yes you’re right about Jordan.
On that note, Karl was never thought of as selfish or a bad defender (4x All-Defensive). Give him a couple of titles and he’s ahead of Duncan. I get it, intangibles but Malone is the 2nd highest scorer in history, second to only Jabaar and yet he’s glossed over.
Durability. Other than his very last season (keeping mind the strike shortened season) and he missed 7 games his first 17 seasons including 17 seasons of playing at least 80 games. 9 seasons of at least 25 pts and 10 rebounds per game. He scored more than 10,000 points more than Duncan. He and Wilt are the only two players in history to have 30k points and 14k rebounds in their career. I love Big Fundamental but 10,000 points more? Better FG%. Better FT %. Sorry. Malone was a beast and should at least be in the conversation of top 10 all-time imo.
Agree with you KFCF! IMO not only Karl Malone but also Barkley & Garnett are ahead of him, AD might very well end up better too… I always liked TDuncan great player, but the only way you could say he was the best is for the 5 rings he won, but that has to do more with the team, I think the other 4 I’ve mentioned are clearly better players, they had a more all-around game.
Look I love Malone, I’m a Jazz fan and personally he’s my 2nd favorite player of all time only to Stockton. I got to put bias aside though. Duncan was way underated his entire career. Malone is like 1b to Duncan’s 1a. I don’t rate players on rings alone. Hell I’d rate James over Jordan as the best ever period. It’s off the court and on the court contributions. Duncan was the ultimate team player. He sacrificed numbers and money. If the Spurs needed something Timmy would be the 1st to say “hey, I’ll do it.” He led both on the court and off.
It’s oh so close between the 2.
As far as Garnett and Barkely. 4th and 5th ain’t a bad place to be.
1. Duncan
2. Malone
3. Nowitzki
4. Garnett
5. Barkley
Davis may get there one day but 1st he’s got to get past the 2nd round. He’s in the right place to maybe get there now though.
I’ve always been a Garnett/Duncan guy. Love Karl Malone, and he is right there. I dont consider Duncan a 4 only though, where as Malone was. Duncan was great at both positions, in my opinion, so I have no issue with him being number 1. KG blewout his body, but he was amazing. All 3 are relatively similar in advanced and rate stats. Malone wasnt a bad defender, but Garnett and Duncan are all time greats on that end. Also hard to say where there scoring numbers would be if they had different focuses, and didnt do certain things for their teams
@chucktoad It all comes down to preference at the end of the day. I like Duncan. I think he’s the epitome of class and love the idea that he was a lifer with the same organization. However, I can say that about a lot of other players like Udanis Haslem and that’s not going to propel him into being more than he was. A good bench player. Great locker room guy. Therefor, in the debate between Malone and Duncan I have to ignore the “intangibles”. Malone was extremely durable. I mean 17 years of 80 games or more is amazing. The 10,000 point difference between he and Duncan can’t be ignored. Malone was not a shot blocker like Duncan was (Duncan has +1,896 more blocks than Malone) but Malone was no defensive slouch. He had active hands and his steals (2,085) ranks him 12th all-time, +1,065 more than Duncan had in his career (1,025). Aside from Olajuwon, Pippen and Dr. J every other person in the top 15 are guards. I mean Kobe is considered to be a lock down defender and Malone has 100 or so more career steals than him. The years of 25 pts and 10 rebounds and the 11 straight years of 25+ ppg vs Duncan’s 1 year of doing the same is huge. If Malone had 3 titles he would absolutely be in the top 10 all-time conversation and likely would be considered the greatest PF. Just consider that aside from Dirk who’s retiring, LBJ will be the ONLY active player to come within 10,000 points of Malone’s career 36,928. Aside from LBJ, Durant might be the only other active player to come close to Malone and he’s still 14,000 points away. It’s just incredible. Yet, Malone gets zero respect.
This debate over who’s the best 4 is moot… Real big men are centers. Duncan and Malone, etc, have to have somebody to cover for them. They would not rank high on a list of the top centers– bigs who can control the paint solo.
Players under 6-9 or 10 like Barkely I can “forgive”… there’s not too many teams that have sported 6-8 centers, but that might be changing.
Ummm…who exactly covered for Duncan and Malone? Olden Polynice? Greg Ostertagg? Tiago Splitter? I’ll give you Mark Eaton and David Robinson in Malone and Duncan’s early years but when they were in thier prime!
You answered your own question.
Malone and Duncan had on-court assistants doing the heavy lifting.
Duncan was arguably the greatest pick and roll defender ever. He was top in the league in defensive box plus minus even his last couple of years in the NBA. Also, he played the 5 a significant amount. Honestly, his final series, they didnt go to him much offensively until late, and he showed they arguably should have done that more in the series b/c he dominated
Great statement from Pops!
Nice move there x%sure, you troll.
Timmy is the best PF in NBA history, bar none. How many other guys could come in and takes the reigns from such a dominant player and classy individual as the Admiral and outperform him. Duncan was the glue for five championship teams.
Great move by the Spurs, and gives Becky a real competitor for the HC gig after Pop retires.
I must disagree, x%sure ain’t a troll, just a guy with a different opinion to yours, but for sure he ain’t a troll.
Darn, twice on a page, and I didn’t even call him dirty. He wasn’t until later on when Pops kept putting random Eurothugs out there with him instead making him the 5 (like he should have been) when he slowed down.