Put some respect on Tim Duncan's name

Also: it's World Cup time!

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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The Straw Manikin; Francisco Goya; 1791-92

It’s August on Basketball Internet, so the Stephen Curry response to a question asking whether he’s the greatest point guard of all-time has people talking about G.O.A.T. status and top fives and all that. Bill Simmons posited that the top six players of all-time — no matter how you order them — include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

I was born in 1981, so I did not experience the Bird vs. Magic rivalry in real-time. Not in a real way: I remember the big NBA on NBC showdowns in the late ‘80s and very early ‘90s as a child, but I don’t think I watched any Celtics vs. Lakers Finals games live. Of course I have watched all the stuff that’s available since, and have an enormous appreciation for Magic and Bird.

For Jordan, his peak was during my formative years, and he was an everyday presence in my life as a basketball fan/human. His era is what sparked my lifelong love of the game. I have been around for the entirety of LeBron’s career, obviously, and have written semi-professionally about basketball since early in his pro career.

This is all to say that this G.O.A.T. stuff is a subjective debate that is overflowing with personal context. Ma G.O.A.T. n’est pas ta G.O.A.T.

That said, put some respect on Tim Duncan’s name.

Five championships, strung across three different decades. Three Finals MVPs. Two MVPs with three more top-3 finishes. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson both played 13 seasons in the NBA. Tim Duncan had 15 All-NBA seasons. In fact, Tim Duncan was named to All-NBA and All-Defense in 13 *consecutive* seasons. That’s right: Tim Duncan had as many consecutive All-NBA + All-Defense seasons during his career as Bird and Magic each had total seasons.

Duncan played about 35% more regular season minutes than Bird and Magic. Different people can rate longevity differently. But it matters some amount, otherwise we’d have much different collective all-time lists.

I’m not saying Duncan is definitely above Bird and Magic, and there is no argument otherwise. I’m saying that a list of the top six players in NBA history without Duncan on it should not be considered unimpeachable or non-debatable. Duncan is at minimum in the conversation with those two and Russell (who I obviously have even less experience watching due to the unavailability of 1950s and ‘60s era tape). And I’ll note that we collectively still have no idea what to do with Wilt Chamberlain.

I’m confident in stating that Kareem, MJ and LeBron are the top three in some order. I personally think — acknowledging my biases based on my age and preferences toward rating longevity highly — Duncan is No. 4. I’m open to entertaining arguments otherwise, but not that he’s not even in the conversation.

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It’s World Cup Time

The FIBA World Cup starts early Friday morning. There will be eight games per day for the next week(-ish) with teams playing every other day in the group stages. The games start at 4 AM Eastern and wrap up around 11:30 AM.