Tim Duncan retires and the NBA loses an all-time great unlike any other
Tim Duncan won his first NBA championship and first NBA Finals MVP award when Bill Clinton was still president. Four more titles would follow, along with two more Finals MVPs and two NBA MVP awards, to boot.
Duncan accomplished all those accolades after playing four years of college basketball at a time when the best NBA prospects began bolting to the league as soon as possible, sometimes skipping college altogether.
Rarer still, Duncan's sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Fame career came with just one team, the San Antonio Spurs, at a time when NBA stars regularly switched jerseys in their primes.
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But Duncan's most unique trait was his marriage of basketball excellence with an unassuming personality and aversion to the spotlight. He was perhaps the greatest power forward of all time but maintained a perpetual deadpan expression on the court and rarely made celebrity appearances off of it.
Now Duncan's history-making NBA run is over. He retired after 19 seasons Monday morning.
Even the manner in which news of his retirement broke was classic Tim Duncan.
The Spurs, not Duncan, announced the superstar's retirement in a tweet Monday morning. (Duncan does not have a Twitter account.) Better yet, Duncan won't even be present at his own retirement press conference Tuesday, according to Spurs beat writer Jeff McDonald.
That's not exactly the Kobe Bryant retirement blueprint. But Duncan, who actively shunned celebrity, personified the phrase "ball is life."
Duncan, who actively shunned celebrity, personified the phrase "ball is life."
He didn't make albums or act on the side. He didn't have fancy sneaker ads, or make headlines for late night carousing. He was all ball, all the time -- and when he wasn't playing, he simply faded into the background.
Duncan, who is 40 years old, earned his Big Fundamental nickname for his precise footwork and accurate bank-shot. He was a 15-time NBA All-Star and led the Spurs to championships in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. As the cast of players around him shifted, Duncan remained San Antonio's rock in the paint while earning 10 All-NBA First Team selections.
As news of his retirement broke, a host of NBA players, executives and franchises -- teammates and rivals alike -- immediately took to Twitter to express admiration for an all-time great.
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To that we can only add our own gratitude: Thanks for the memories, Timmy D; you were truly one of a kind. There will never be another NBA star quite like you.
Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.
