Tim Duncan was the No. 1 overall pick in 1997, and he vividly remembers being the young guy, ribbing Jerome Kersey, Terry Porter and David Robinson about how old they were.
Now the shoes are on the other foot. In one game last season, coach Gregg Popovich listed him as a “DNP, OLD” in the box score.
“I’m here and still playing, so I’ll take it as it comes,” Duncan, loose and jovial, said at media day for the NBA Finals on Wednesday.
Duncan, 37, meets LeBron James and the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the 2013 Finals on Thursday at 9 p.m. in Miami.
“Tony (Parker), Manu (Ginobili) and myself, we’ve been that core for a long time,” Duncan said, crediting coach Gregg Popovich for his willingness to “change with the times.”
The Spurs trio is second in NBA playoffs history with 98 postseason wins, second only to Los Angeles Lakers troika Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Cooper and six better than legendary Celtics Bird, McHale and Parrish. Duncan was an All-NBA center in 2013, just as he was in 2007, the last time he was in the NBA Finals — opposite James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“He wants to compete at a high level,” Popovich said. “He’s ridiculous. He’s amazing.”
Parker was the scoring sensation in the previous two rounds, but the new faces — Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Tiago Splitter — make up the majority of the Spurs’ roster. Nine of San Antonio’s 15 roster spots are occupied by veterans of three or fewer seasons.
James was stone-faced and serious, focused and confident. He said he’ll always remember the Spurs celebrating the 2007 NBA title on his home court. In that series, Popovich played a defense designed to take away penetration, forcing James to shoot jump shots.
“You can’t dare me to do anything I don’t want to do in 2013,” said James, who repeated he’s ’20-30 times’ the player he was in ’07.
Popovich said it’ll take everyone, and more than Xs and Os, to contend with James.
“He knows basketball better than everybody put together in this room,” said Popovich, considered a sage with few peers on any NBA bench.
One of those is Miami Heat president Pat Riley, who assembled his own version of the “Big Three” with James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, received a congratulatory call from Popovich. The Heat are making a third consecutive appearance in the NBA Finals.
“He’s been a competitor his whole career,” Popovich said. “He put together a team, fairly and within the rules, that is a monster. Why wouldn’t he get credit for that? Why wouldn’t you congratulate him for that? I did. I’ve always respected his competitiveness, how he ran things in L.A. and New York and so forth. … He put together a hell of a team.”
There’s mutual respect from Miami. Coach Erik Spoelstra said the Spurs have been on the radar for this potential matchup all season. In two meetings, neither coach showed his hand. Popovich sent most of his stars home before a March 31 game in Miami, and James, Wade and point guard Mario Chalmers didn’t play in San Antonio.
“We always thought the Spurs were the best in the West. It’s fitting we get to face them,” Spoelstra said.
NOTES: Popovich can tie Riley and John Kundla for third all time with a fifth NBA championship. … Neither coach would delve deeply into strategy or matchups, but both took questions about James defending Parker, the Spurs’ leading scorer. Spoelstra said James would guard all five positions at some point in the Finals. … James is averaging 26.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 6.4 assists in the 2013 postseason. Leonard, a second-year player with a 7-foot-3-inch wingspan developing a game with some similarity to Paul George of the Pacers, will primarily defend the league MVP. “He’s great on offense and defense,” Leonard said. “He can pass, he can shoot the ball, gets offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds and he can guard the best player on the other team.”