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Tim Duncan is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Over a 19-year career with the San Antonio Spurs, he won five NBA championships, two MVP awards, and was selected to 15 All-Star teams.
But what made Duncan so special wasn’t just his statistical achievements, but also his fundamentally sound play, selfless attitude, and consistent excellence over a long period of time. Duncan turns 47 today, to celebrate his birthday, let’s throw it back to one of the funniest stories. The story of Draymond Green trying to trash-talk Duncan. The Big Fundamental not only was able to dominate on both ends of the floor, he also was immune to mind games and trash talk.
In a diary entry for ESPN’s The Undefeated a few years ago, Draymond Green talked about Tim Duncan’s career, the impact Duncan has had on basketball and on his first and last attempt to trash-talk Tim.
“I do have a Tim Duncan story. My rookie year I kind of talked junk to everybody. In the middle of the game I started talking to Tim, and I had already got into it with somebody on their team. I don’t remember who it was. But I started talking to Tim and he kind of just stared at me. I just kept talking junk to him and he kept staring at me.
At that point I realized during the rest of my career that I might as well not talk to him. Either, one, he is not going to talk back because he has no respect for me. Or, two, he is not going to talk back because that is who he is. Or, three, both. I figured then that was the last time I would talk junk to Tim. And that was the last time.”
