Timothy "Tim" Theodore Duncan (born April 25, 1976 in Christiansted, St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands) is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 6'11" (2.11 m), 260-pound (118 kg) power forward is a four-time NBA champion, a three-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, and the current captain of the Spurs. He has also won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award twice, and was voted into nine All-Star games, ten All-NBA teams, and ten All-Defensive teams. With the United States national team however, Duncan has enjoyed limited success. Between 1999 and 2004, he played in 40 internationals, but after the 2004 Summer Olympics, he expressed doubts over continuing his international career.Duncan did not play competitive basketball until ninth grade. He played his college basketball at Wake Forest University, where he completed his degree in psychology with honors. His strong performances for the college team attracted the attention of basketball scouts. When he entered the 1997 NBA Draft, he was drafted by the Spurs as the number one pick. He soon earned the nickname "The Big Fundamental", due to his use of basic fundamental basketball moves to great effect. His list of accomplishments and leadership in the Spurs' NBA title runs in 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007 have led basketball experts to consider him to be one of the greatest power forwards in history. Off the court, Duncan is known for his quiet and unassuming ways, as well as his active philanthropy. He created the Tim Duncan Foundation to raise general health awareness and fund education
and youth sports in various parts of the United States.
Beat me:
In his basketball career, Duncan has collected a number of individual and team honors, including being a two-time MVP (2002, 2003), four-time NBA champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007) and three-time NBA Finals MVP (1999, 2003, 2005). As a college player, he was named ACC Male Athlete of the Year, won the John
R. Wooden Award and was named Naismith College Player of the Year (all 1997). In his debut year in the NBA (1998), he was voted Rookie of the Year and elected into the All-NBA Rookie Team, made the first of nine NBA All-Star Teams (eight First Team nominations), ten All-NBA Teams (nine First Team nominations), and ten All-Defensive Teams (seven First Team nominations).With these impressive performances, Duncan is one of only four players to receive All-NBA First Team honors in each of his first eight seasons (1998-2005), along with Hall of Famers Bob Pettit (ten seasons), Larry Bird (nine seasons), and Oscar Robertson (nine seasons), and is notably the only player in NBA history to receive All-NBA and All-Defensive honors in his first nine
seasons (1998-2006).
Duncan was also named by the Association for Professional Basketball Research as one of "100 Greatest Professional Basketball Players of The 20th Century", being the youngest player on that list. In the 2001-02 season, he won the IBM Player Award and The Sporting News (TSN) MVP Award, becoming the third player to ever win the NBA MVP, IBM Player and TSN Player Awards in the same season. In 2003, Duncan was ranked 55th by Slam Magazine in their list of the "Top 75 NBA players of All Time". On February 18, 2006, he was named one of the Next 10 Greatest Players on the tenth anniversary of the release of the NBA's 50th
Anniversary All-Time Team by the TNT broadcasting crew.
