Tim Duncan was nearly with the Orlando Magic. Since 2000 when the Magic lost Duncan, they have been chasing him as an ideal. As has the rest of the NBA.
In the summer of 2000, the Orlando Magic had a plan to revolutionize the NBA. Their Heart and Hustle team full of cast offs and expiring contracts had freed up unprecedented cap room to go after three max free agents the following summer. The Magic had every intention to strike.
Grant Hill was wrapped up quickly and so the team turned its attention to the big prize.
Much like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and even Shaquille O’Neal beforehand, Tim Duncan changing teams literally would change championships and the future of the league. Duncan was that good and that transcendental. And this was just one title into his storied career.
Orlando had Duncan and Hill in town. They met the DeVos family in Michigan too. It seemed the duo was sealed and ready for delivery when the moratorium was up.
What happened in those meetings — there are various stories of Duncan’s agent telling the Magic to dump the cold cuts they had set out for him and the Magic flying Duncan to meet Tiger Woods and the team already having images of Duncan, McGrady and Hill set up at RDV Sportsplex, where the Magic practiced at the time — remains something of a mystery. Former Magic general manager John Gabriel told Scott Anez on ESPN Afternoons on 580 AM ESPN Orlando Duncan’s agent had told him he was prepared to sign in Orlando.
The dream was close to reality. The recruiting pitch worked.
That is until David Robinson cut his vacation in Hawai’i short and flew to San Antonio to talk to Duncan one last time. He and Gregg Popovich got the last word in and turned the tide. Duncan returned to San Antonio. And the rest is history.
Yet, in Orlando or anywhere else, there is not a bad word to say about Duncan. He was not booed upon his first visit to Orlando after that decision — he scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in a ho-hum 17-point win for San Antonio.
Duncan was the one player everyone had to respect at all times. There was a presence about him. He was methodical and patient on the block. A model citizen and a class act as a teammate.
And it is why the league is a little worse today with Duncan announcing his retirement Monday.
The Spurs might have been the dominant force in a lamentable era of basketball, but they do not apologize for winning title. And they do not apologize for taking on the personality of their best player — quiet, excellent and determined to win.
Duncan embodied everything the Spurs have become the last two decades. They are the model franchise in the league. So many teams have tried to copy that success.
The Magic tried to take Duncan away from the Spurs quite literally.
There are a lot of what ifs in Magic history. So many were dug up in the This Magic Moment documentary about the Magic of the mid-1990s. The next one came with Duncan and his decision not to arrive in Orlando.
It is a decision Duncan surely does not regret. Things worked out on his end.
The Magic again flirted with history and could not get the stars to align for them. They will be footnotes when the Tim Duncan story is told. Maybe not even a footnote, just a story passed around about his career among Magic fans trying to remember waht could have been.
That seems to be a lot of what Magic history is. A lot of wondering what could have been.
Duncan will be another shadow passing in the night for the Magic as a franchise.
The Magic are still seemingly reeling from that decision. They are still trying to find their identity as a franchise, particularly in this rebuild. They still seek that franchise cornerstone to win with for a long time. Dwight Howard was nearly that player. He was not quite Tim Duncan.
There will not be another Tim Duncan in NBA history. Not in this new culture. Teams trying to mimic the Spurs, like the Magic, are finding it harder and harder to duplicate both the organizational structure and luck in landing the right person to lead the way.
What Duncan did throughout the NBA and for the NBA in his long career though will last through the annals of history. The way he played and conducted himself made him a fan favorite no matter what he did to their team.
He may have beaten them, he may have spurned them, he may have done nothing but show up with his steely gaze. Everyone around the league respects him and knows one of the greatest has just hung things up for good.
No doubt, there is a gap that has to be filled in the league right now as one of the greatest retired.