In Tim Duncan, Spurs Find `The Real Thing' -- Without A Pool, He Switched To Hoops
SAN ANTONIO - When he was 12 years old, Tim Duncan didn't worship Michael Jordan like most young men his age. In fact, he wasn't much aware of Jordan, or anybody else in pro basketball.
"I didn't have much interest in the NBA," the San Antonio Spurs' prize 6-foot-11-inch rookie said.
Now Matt Biondi or Greg Louganis, that's another story.
Or Tricia Duncan. She's Tim's sister. And in 1988 she was a member of the Virgin Islands' swimming team that competed in the Olympics. That was Tim Duncan's ambition. As a 12-year-old that year, he posted one of the fastest times at a major U.S. meet in Florida.
But about a year later, when David Robinson was leaving the Navy to join the San Antonio Spurs, Duncan's boyhood home of St. Croix was ravaged by Hurricane Hugo. Lost in the devastation was the pool where young Tim trained for his Olympic dream.
It would be a year before the pool would be repaired, so the gangly 6-4 youngster was persuaded to try basketball, picking up the nickname "Mr. Clumsy" for his initial attempts.
Now he's taking the NBA by storm.
"I have seen the future, and he wears No. 21," said Houston Rocket star Charles Barkley. Duncan, Barkley said, "is better than I thought he was, and I was expecting good stuff."
Duncan, whose bright eyes belie a facial mask of indifference, is unfazed by the accolades.
"It's a great feeling when you hear something like that - I'm flattered," he said. "But I know I have a lot of work to do, a long way to go. So I take it all in one ear and thank them for it and let it go. I have a lot to prove.
"I came a long way. This wasn't my game. I wasn't born to play. The road took me a different way - I might still be swimming. I'm very fortunate."
A boost for Robinson
Robinson is one Spur who is happy to see Duncan. "I'm really excited about this team," said Robinson, the 7-1 center who is back after missing nearly all of last season with back problems and a broken foot. "Anyone in this locker room will tell you we're not playing well yet, but I think this will be a really good team. You never know with health, but Chuck (Person) looks good, Sean (Elliott) is getting to 100 percent, I feel good. And we've got Tim."
Yes, they've got the prodigy, the player who, along with Shaquille O'Neal, is already being viewed as the NBA's next great big man.
With his expressionless demeanor, his passing touch and his ability to hit the faceup jumper, Duncan is said to resemble Brad Daugherty, Cleveland's five-time All-Star center. Daugherty, now a broadcaster for the Cavaliers, laughs at the comparison.
"Are you kidding?" Daugherty said. "He's way more athletic than I was. The big thing with Tim is his footwork, especially for a young player. He has those instincts to go to the ball already, and you don't know where he got them because he hasn't played a lot of basketball.
"He's a tremendous athlete, long and rangy, a tremendous shot-blocker. To me he's a lot like Kevin McHale. He's got the solid low-post moves, he rebounds well. . . . From an athletic standpoint, he's more like David Robinson than me. He's got the footwork of a McHale, the athleticism of Robinson. That's a heck of a talent."
Robinson is delighting in being part of the NBA's newest Twin Towers.
"Tim is going to be awesome," he said. "Everyone shouldn't expect 30 (points) and 15 (rebounds) a night, (but) he could do it if I wasn't here and we went to him all the time. Right now we're trying to blend in, for him to take the pressure off me and me to take the pressure off him. But to play beside him is going to be incredible."
For all the talent Duncan has, what has most impressed the Spurs thus far is his work and desire to improve.
"He's a real special player because of the skills he possesses, but his approach to the game is unique in today's world because he just wants to get better," Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said. "He's not impressed with all the hoopla. He could care less about being the No. 1 pick. He comes early to practice and stays late. No matter what you ask him to do, he does it. It's unbelievable."
In an unusual move for the No. 1 pick in the draft, Duncan played for the Spurs' summer league team, then traveled to Robinson's home in Aspen, Colo., to work out with his future teammate.
"I'll call him now and say, `We're going in two hours early,' and he's there," Robinson said.
And on the court, it's all professionalism.
"There's none of that screaming when he does something," veteran Pacers scout Al Menendez said. "He does everything and just plays. This kid is the real thing."
Still learning
Tim Duncan is not perfect, mind you. He opened the season with a solid 15-point, 10-rebound outing against Denver. But foul trouble, Shawn Kemp and Cleveland's more sophisticated double-teaming helped limit him to nine points and five rebounds in 23 minutes in the next game. Down the stretch, though, he posted up and went in strong for a dunk, then drew a double-team and hit Robinson for another dunk, then cleared a rebound to preserve the win in the last minute.
"I've played moderately," he said. "I made a lot of mistakes. I tried some passes I shouldn't have and went after some balls I shouldn't have."
Duncan is polite with reporters, if not expansive, in part because he tired of incessant questions about why he returned to Wake Forest for his senior year when he was certain to be the No. 1 pick in the draft as a junior.
Friends say he never would have left college early because finishing was a promise to his mother, who died of breast cancer in 1990. And his is no jock degree - Duncan took anthropology, psychology and Chinese literature as a senior, when he was NCAA player of the year.
"College did a lot for me," Duncan said. "I would have been much farther behind if I'd come out early."
Duncan says he owes his ball-handling skills to his brother, who didn't believe Tim would grow beyond 6-4 and persuaded him to play point guard.
"My brother said there was nothing a coach loved more than a point guard," he said.
By his senior year, he was 6-9 and averaging 25 points a game, against suspect competition. But Wake Forest thought enough of his potential to offer a scholarship, and he developed into the country's first two-time consensus All-American since O'Neal.
Now he is paired with Robinson on one of the NBA's most intriguing teams.
"It is a bit of an adjustment with David," he said. "We're both out there trying to get used to one another, get comfortable with where he is, where I am. I know there's pressure on me, but I try not to think about it. I try to let it help push me to become better."
Said Robinson: "He's a lot further along than I was at his stage. He does things I still can't do."