Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs. The two go hand in hand. Inseparable? Today, yes. In the collective mind. One does not go without the other. But it’s quickly forgetting the summer of 2000. The world of Gregg Popovich and of the small Texas franchise, freshly titled in 1999, almost collapsed during the first offseason of the new millennium. Because at the other end of the country, in Florida, the leaders of Orlando have set up a plan to make the first NBA power.
The dream ? Associate Grant Hill and Tim Duncan under the same colors. The two “nice guys” of the championship but above all two of the best players in the world. A winger with 26 pawns, 6 rebounds and 5 assists and an interior with 23 points and 12 rebounds. So imagine what this tandem might have given once morest Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in the NBA Finals. It sucks, right?
TD was obviously tempted. Orlando, Disney, the sun, the palm trees. Title prospects at a time when aging Spurs had just been knocked out in the first round of the playoffs with a superstar left on enforced rest by his manager. Popovich was not serene. On edge in the middle of July.
“I think Tim came very close to leaving San Antonio. Gregg Popovich walked on eggshells. He was very upset with our agent (Lon Babby) because he felt he was looking to reunite Duncan and Grant Hill in Orlando.
I heard that he was going to sign there then he stayed at the last minute, ”testified Malik Rose, ex-teammate and friend of Duncan.
The story goes that David Robinson returned expressly from his vacation to convince his spiritual little brother to stay in San Antonio. In fact, another speech may have already convinced him… not to sign in Orlando. The Magic may have actually shot themselves in the foot. And that, moreover, it is Grant Hill who entrusts it. Now a consultant for ESPN, he was a guest on The Jump. And so he threw it all away: the culprit is Doc Rivers.
Grant Hill tells how Doc Rivers ruined the arrival of Tim Duncan
Grant Hill just admitted that Doc Rivers blew the Tim Duncan signing with Orlando when he said spouses weren’t allowed on the team plane.
T-Mac is STILL sick regarding it following all these years pic.twitter.com/eojBGAxffs
— Mickstape (@MickstapeShow) February 15, 2018
“A member of Tim Duncan’s entourage asked if the players’ wives might travel with the team on the plane. Doc replied no. And the whole atmosphere of the meeting changed at that moment. »
Tracy McGrady, another player signed by the Magic in the summer of 2000, can’t believe it. He is disappointed when he learns the end of the story. The cousin of Vince Carter was not yet a superstar before arriving in Florida. He revealed himself in his first season in Orlando. Perhaps a whole other parallel universe might have been created if Doc Rivers hadn’t been so adamant during a simple dinner party in the summer of 2000.
Today, it is just an anecdote. Grant Hill was injured in the months following this interview and he never regained the extraordinary level that was his. Spurs ended up drafting Tony Parker in 2001 before hosting Manu Ginobili in 2002. Together with Tim Duncan, they revived the franchise which ended up winning four more titles. It was just fate.
Jared Dudley’s terrible blasphemy on Anthony Davis and Tim Duncan
