page_title: Tim Duncan
section_title: Playoff disappointments (2007–2013)
hierarchical_section_title: Tim Duncan / Professional career / Playoff disappointments (2007–2013)
caption_attribution_description: Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs defends the paint against the Milwaukee Bucks.
context_page_description: Timothy Theodore Duncan is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association. He is often regarded as the greatest power forward of all time, and as one of the greatest players in NBA history. He spent his entire 19-year playing career with the Spurs.
  Duncan started out as an aspiring swimmer and did not begin playing basketball until ninth grade, when Hurricane Hugo destroyed the only available Olympic-sized pool in his homeland of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. In high school, he played basketball for St. Dunstan's Episcopal. In college, Duncan played for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and in his senior year, he earned the John Wooden Award as well as Naismith College Player of the Year and USBWA College Player of the Year.
  After graduating from college, Duncan went on to win NBA Rookie of the Year after being selected by San Antonio with the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft. He primarily played the power forward position, and also played center throughout his career.
context_section_description: During the 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend, Duncan was a member of the San Antonio team that won the Shooting Stars Competition. For the season, he played 78 games and posted his typical 20/10 numbers, San Antonio concluded the 2007–08 regular season with a 56–26 record, finishing behind the Lakers and New Orleans Hornets in the Western Conference and setting up themselves for a first-round contest against the Suns. The Suns—defeated by the Spurs in three of the past four seasons of playoffs—were out for revenge and featured a new player in four-time NBA champion Shaquille O'Neal. In Game 1, Duncan set the tone with a 40-point game and a rare three-pointer that sent the game into double overtime. The trio of Duncan, Ginóbili and Parker continued playing to form for the remainder of the series, and the Spurs eliminated the Suns in five games. In the first game of the next round against the Chris Paul-led Hornets, San Antonio was badly defeated 101–82 as Duncan played one of the worst playoff games in his career, recording only 5 points and 3 rebounds. The Spurs dropped the next game as well, but recovered in Games 3 and 4, with Duncan putting up a team-high 22 point/15 rebound/4 block performance in the game that tied the series. Duncan then recorded 20 points and 15 rebounds in Game 6, and the Spurs relied on their experience to seal the series in Game 7. However, arch-rivals Los Angeles Lakers defeated San Antonio in five games in the Conference Finals, and the Spurs once again failed to capture back-to-back NBA championships.
  Duncan started the 2008–09 season with strong showings in points and rebounds per game. However, by mid-season, his performance declined and he was subsequently diagnosed with chronic knee tendinosis. Despite Duncan having problems with his knee and the team losing the services of shooting guard Ginóbili for most of the season, San Antonio qualified for the playoffs as the third seed with a 54–28 record. Coupled with an aging supporting cast (Bowen, Michael Finley and Kurt Thomas were all in their late 30s), however, the Spurs were only considered fringe contenders for the championship. As it turned out, Duncan and Parker were not enough to help the Spurs avoid a 4–1 defeat by Dallas, and the Spurs were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2000.
  With the Spurs looking to provide a more solid supporting cast in the 2009–10 season, they acquired Richard Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Antonio McDyess, DeJuan Blair, and Keith Bogans. The team got off to a 5–6 start, but a series of double-double performances by Duncan gave them a 9–6 record by the end of November. Duncan was subsequently named the Western Conference Player of the Week for the last week of November. Even at 34 years of age, he remained a constant 20–10 threat, being only one of three players in the league at the mid-season to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. On January 21, 2010, Duncan was named as the starting forward for the West for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. After securing yet another 50-win season, the Spurs qualified for the playoffs as the seventh seed, and defeated Dallas 4–2 in the first round, only to lose 4–0 to Phoenix in the next round.
  Eleven games into the 2010–11 season, Duncan became the Spurs' all-time leader in points scored and games played. Along the way, the Spurs compiled a 12-game winning streak to go 13–2 after 15 games. On November 30, 2010, Duncan recorded his third career triple-double against the Golden State Warriors. 12 days later, in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers, Duncan became the 94th player in NBA history to play 1,000 games. Through his 1,000th game, the Spurs have been 707–293; only Scottie Pippen (715–285) had a better record with his team through his first 1,000 games. The Spurs were 29–4 after 33 games—one of the ten best starts in NBA history–and led the league at 35–6 halfway through the season. Although Duncan produced career lows in points and rebounds per game, the Spurs ended the regular season as the first seed in the West for the 2011 N
caption: Duncan defending in the key against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2008
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