Tim Duncan is one of the greatest players of all time. He’s widely considered the greatest power forward in the history of the NBA. Duncan’s status as a superstar didn’t match his personality, though he went through his career as a low-key and unassuming player off the court. Duncan dominated almost every other great player of his era, but he was quiet and sometimes even hard to notice off the court.
Stories of his time in the NBA are legend, no one can forget Kevin Garnett detailing the hilarious trash-talk that TD liked to engage in, but it seems that Duncan was always an unassuming fellow, despite Metta Sandiford-Artest referring to him as a ‘pimp‘. A story from the New York Times reported that the player who recommended Duncan to Wake Forest coach Dave Odom as a potential talent didn’t even initially remember him:
Dave Odom (Duncan’s coach at Wake Forest): “Chris King came back early in September and was walking by my office and I just hollered at him: ‘Chris, come in here. I want to talk to you. Tell me about your trip.'”
Chris King: “I said, ‘There was this kid down there.'”
Dave Odom: “And I said, ‘Well, who was he? What was his name?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, “’Well, what island was he on?’, he said again, ‘I don’t know.’ So, he didn’t give me a lot other than there was a kid who had some skill. There was a coach on my staff at the time, Larry Davis, and he had coached a kid from the islands, maybe even St. Croix. He came back the next day in our staff meeting and threw Tim Duncan’s name on the desk and said, ‘Coach, this is the kid.'”
This fits exactly in with what NBA fans know about Duncan, but it’s still quite crazy to think about. To have seen a Top 10 player of all time, even when he was just a youngster, and not be able to remember his name or where he was from, is hard to believe. Regardless, Duncan ended up at Wake Forest after all, and the rest is history.
