The great Tim Duncan is retiring

@JabariJYoung

Breaking news from the NBA: the San Antonio Spurs just announced Tim Duncan is retiring after 19 seasons in the league. Duncan is not only one of the greatest players to play the game, but one of the greatest ambassadors the league has ever seen. Since the Spurs drafted Duncan with the first pick in the 1997 Draft, they’ve won five NBA Championships and 71% of their regular season games, the best 19-year stretch in NBA history. Duncan helped the Spurs reach the playoffs in each of his 19 seasons, and became the only player in league history to start and win a title in three different decades. He was a two-time NBA MVP, three-time NBA Finals MVP, and a 15-time All-Star. As Shaq once said, he was The Big Fundamental.

In typical fashion, Duncan announced his retirement via a press release on the Spurs website, and the release doesn’t even include a quote from him. The Spurs will hold a press conference tomorrow to discuss Duncan’s retirement, and he won’t even be present. Whereas some players have grand goodbye tours (cough, Kobe), Duncan will hold a short press conference later this week, and I bet he’ll say maybe a few hundred words. For a player that preferred to just put his head down and work, that’s perfectly fitting.

#ThankYouTD, for everything.https://t.co/tsjN4go8Rk

– San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) July 11, 2016