Tim Duncan stepping away from Spurs assistant coaching job

Tim Duncan reportedly won’t be a San Antonio Spurs assistant coach in 2020-21. Here’s the San Antonio Express-News:

Tim Duncan is headed back into retirement.

After spending the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 NBA campaign working as an assistant on the Spurs’ bench, Duncan has decided not to return for another tour of duty alongside Gregg Popovich.

The decision did not come as a surprise to those in the Spurs’ organization, who understood the 44-year-old Duncan would be a short-term addition when the franchise cornerstone shocked the NBA world by pausing his retirement to join the staff in the summer of 2019.

“Something tells me it’s not going to be his passion for life,” Popovich said at the start of last season.

It won’t be a surprise if Duncan does continue with the Spurs in some way, perhaps on a part-time basis. Not necessarily immediately, but down the road.

Spurs re-sign Tim Duncan

Spurs re-sign Tim Duncan

The San Antonio Spurstoday announced that they have re-signed forward Tim Duncan.

Originally drafted by the Spurs as the first overall pick in 1997, Duncan has helped San Antonio reach the playoffs in 18-straight seasons and win five NBA championships. Since selecting Duncan, the Spurs have posted a 1,005-423 regular season record, giving the team a .704 winning percentage, which is the best in all of professional sports over the last 18 years.

The 39-year-old Duncan is coming off of his 15th All-NBA Team selection (tied for most all-time) and his 15th NBA All-Defensive Team honor (most all-time), marking the 15th time he has garnered both honors in the same season, the most in NBA history. The 1998 Rookie of the Year has also been named NBA MVP twice (2002, 2003) and NBA Finals MVP three times (1999, 2003 and 2005).

Last year, Duncan became the only player in NBA history to average 13.0 points and 9.0 rebounds for an entire season at age 38-or-older and was one of just two players in the entire league to average 13.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists (DeMarcus Cousins). The 18-year veteran also became one of two players in NBA history to record at least 25,000 points, 14,000 rebounds and 2,500 blocks in his career (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

In his NBA career, the 15-time All-Star has appeared in a total of 1,331 games and averaged 19.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.21 blocks in 34.4 minutes. He has shot .506 (10,070-19,893) percent from the floor and .696 (5,804-8,337) from the free throw line.

Duncan is the Spurs all-time NBA leader in total points (25,974), rebounds (14,644), minutes (45,830) and games played (1,331), second in blocked shots (2,942) and third in assists (4,062). In NBA history, Duncan is now fifth all-time in double-doubles (830), sixth in blocks, eighth in rebounding and 14th in scoring.

As the only player in NBA history to play 9,000 career minutes in the playoffs, Duncan now ranks first all-time in postseason blocks (555) and double-doubles (164), third in rebounds (2,811) and fifth in points (5,113). For his career, the Wake Forest graduate has appeared in 241 postseason contests (third all-time) and averaged 21.2 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 38.0 minutes while shooting .502 (1,953-3,887) from the field. Along with teammates Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, Duncan is part of the NBA record for most postseason wins by a trio (120). The three teammates have also played the most regular season games together (730) and are second all-time in league history with 539 regular season victories, just one win shy of the NBA record.