The NBA is full of ‘what-ifs’ that would have changed the shape of the league. We’ve seen situations that could have made a lot of things differently for players, teams, and the association itself. One of the biggest happened at the start of the century when the Orlando Magic missed out on the huge opportunity to sign Tim Duncan.
Back in 2000, Duncan showed his intentions of joining the Magic. He would have formed a Big 3 with Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill, but then head coach Doc Rivers allegedly ruined TD’s plans to go to Florida. According to many people familiar with the situation, Rivers denied Duncan’s request of allowing his wife on the team plane.
That was the deal-breaker for the legendary power forward, who would return to the San Antonio Spurs. Rivers has clarified he didn’t completely shut down the idea but made it clear that family members weren’t allowed all the time.
“That story is not told correctly. We talked about it. I told him absolutely families can fly, just not all the time. Families can fly every once in a while, so the story is not correct.”
Well, that’s not what the rest of the people say, and Grant Hill recently opened up about this situation. During a recent interview on SHOWTIME’s All the Smoke, Hill explained how Duncan’s girlfriend played a big role in the player not picking the Magic as his new team (56:28).
“So what happened was, Tim and I had the same agent, so we went down together, and Tim was more him at the time than I was. I was still- I had New York, I had a couple of other things I was looking at, but Tim wanted to be in Orlando if he were to leave. And so we were down there, they’re hosting us, they had a pretty good season, Doc Rivers’ first year coaching them… And so while we were there, everything was going well, like I felt this could happen. I know it’s hard for people to think now of Tim Duncan anywhere else. I remember like it was yesterday, we went to dinner, and Tim’s girlfriend asked Doc a question: ‘can wives and girlfriends travel on the team plane?’ You gotta understand, back then it didn’t happen, it happens now, but back then it didn’t happen. So Doc says, ‘no, it’s a business trip, it doesn’t happen. I don’t allow that’. I didn’t know that San Antonio had started doing that, and so that’s why. We got back to the hotel that night, and it was funny because Tamia and I were in the hotel room almost like the hotel room was bugged, so we’re whispering to each other and she’s like, ‘he ain’t coming’. I said, ‘what do you mean?’ She was like, ‘when she asked that question, her whole body language changed with the response’.”
In the end, that move never came to fruition and Duncan stayed in San Antonio, where he played for 19 years, winning five championships, two MVP awards, three Finals MVPs and more awards in a legendary career. The Big Fundamental could have been incredible in Orlando to help McGrady and Hill build something spectacular.
T-Mac even admitted that Duncan going to Orlando would have changed his life. Sadly, that never happened, and even though he linked up with Duncan during the last stages of his career, he could never win that elusive ring. As stated before, this is one of the biggest ‘what-ifs’ in NBA history. The Magic could have won a couple of championships during the 2000s and maybe the 2010s, but things took a different route and it was the Spurs who enjoyed Duncan’s talent until he retired.
