By Rakan Zainal
ABU DHABI — While most of the sports world is focused on the World Cup this summer, something quite monumental has just occurred at the highest levels of basketball. Timothy Theodore Duncan, power forward for the San Antonio Spurs, has just won his fifth NBA championship after his Spurs beat the Miami Heat in the 2014 NBA finals four games to one, thus avenging last season’s seven-game Miami triumph.
Mr. Duncan, 38, entered the series knowing that a loss to the Heat would be unacceptable. Mr. Duncan, who played his college basketball at Wake Forest University in the United States, emphasized that losing Game Seven to the Miami Heat in last year’s NBA finals was an extremely disappointing moment in his career.
Fast forward a year later and the Spurs finished the regular season with the best record in both the Eastern and Western conferences. The Spurs, led by Coach Gregg Popovich, considered by most hoops experts to be the best coach in the league, entered the playoffs with one goal: to win yet another championship. The Spurs ousted division rival Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Then the Spurs went on to crush Portland in five games, before beating Oklahoma City in the conference finals.
The Spurs found themselves in familiar territory once again. They were back in the finals against the team that denied them their fifth championship last year, the Miami Heat, who needed a prayer three-pointer from Ray Allen in Game Six last June to deny San Antonio.
As this year’s finals began, Lebron James and the Heat were gunning for their third consecutive championship. However, the Spurs proved to be more than enough for them.
The San Antonio Spurs were crowned NBA champions after beating the Heat 104-87 in Game Five of the 2014 NBA Finals on June 15 in San Antonio. This marks the Spurs’ fifth title in the organization’s history, and the first since 2007. The Spurs are one of the original American Basketball Association teams that moved to the NBA in the 1976 and have been one of the league’s dominant franchises the last two decades thanks to Mr. Duncan.
At 38, it is impressive to know that Mr. Duncan averaged 16.4 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game in the championship series. However, it would be wrong to ignore the efforts of Kawhi Leonard, the NBA finals MVP. Leonard’s performances in the third, fourth and fifth games were crucial. Coach Popovich obviously has a fine eye for young talent and then is able to push that talent to the limit.
Fortunately for Mr. Leonard, he handled the pressure well and performed incredibly.
Mr. Leonard, being the third youngest NBA Finals MVP behind only teammate Tim Duncan and the Los Angeles’ Lakers Magic Johnson, recorded a double-double by dropping 22 points and 10 rebounds in Game Five.
There has been some speculation that Mr. Duncan would retire at the end of the post-season. Mr. Duncan, the only active player besides Kobe Bryant to have five championship rings, has denied these rumors and suggested that he would actually like to continue playing for now.
With this championship, Mr. Duncan is now a five-time NBA champion, three-time NBA finals MVP, and a two-time NBA seasonal MVP. That’s quite a legacy for a man who grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands and whose first sport was … swimming.
Coach Pop and Mr. Duncan have been noted as having a father-son relationship, so when Mr. Popovich stated that he would retire as soon as Mr. Duncan would, not many were surprised. However, he made it clear that he wouldn’t be retiring anytime soon though.
It would also be worthy to mention that Coach Popovich has coached Mr. Duncan for 17 seasons, Duncan’s entire NBA career. The Spurs are a team with history, commitment and determined individuals. Everyone played a role to get the fifth championship: point guard Tony Parker with his pick-and-roll style and excellent decision making, and Manu Ginobili, Patrick Mills, and Danny Green with their sharpshooter accuracy. These were in addition to Mr. Duncan’s defensive skills and Mr. Leonard’s overall impressive performance.
A champion in three different decades, Mr. Duncan now belongs in the same breath with Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Bryant.
This story was originally published on June 18, 2014. It was re-uploaded on Dec. 23, 2020.
