page_title: Tim Duncan
section_title: Late career (2014–2016)
hierarchical_section_title: Tim Duncan / Professional career / Late career (2014–2016)
caption_attribution_description: English: Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, during the Spurs-Nuggets match on 12-22-2010 in San Antonio, TX.
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: On June 23, 2014, Duncan exercised his $10.3 million player option for the 2014–15 season. On November 14, 2014, Duncan scored his 25,000th point in the first half of the Spurs' 93–80 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, becoming the 19th player in NBA history to reach the milestone. On February 19, 2015, he passed Alex English to move into 16th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list with 30 points against the Los Angeles Clippers. On March 4, he recorded six rebounds against the Sacramento Kings, breaking his tie with Nate Thurmond for ninth in career rebounding. Two days later, he recorded three blocks against the Denver Nuggets to surpass Patrick Ewing for sixth overall in career blocks. On April 12, he played his 1,330th career game against the Phoenix Suns, which passed Moses Malone for 11th all-time. He also scored 22 points and passed Kevin Garnett to move into 14th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. The Spurs finished sixth in the Western Conference after 82 games and faced the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. Their quest for back-to-back championships was ended May 2 as they lost to the Clippers in seven games. Duncan was later named to the All-Defensive second team on May 20 for the seventh time in his career.
  On July 9, 2015, Duncan re-signed with the Spurs to a two-year deal. On November 2, 2015, in a win over the New York Knicks, Duncan recorded 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in his NBA-record 954th victory with one team, surpassing John Stockton's 953 wins with the Utah Jazz. On November 11, he pulled down the 14,716th rebound of his career against the Portland Trail Blazers to pass Robert Parish for seventh place on the NBA's all-time rebounding list. On November 14, in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers, Duncan had five blocked shots to become the Spurs' franchise leader with 2,955 blocks, surpassing former teammate David Robinson's career total of 2,954. Duncan also moved into fifth all time on the NBA's blocks list. After missing the Spurs' last three games of December due to rest and right knee soreness, Duncan returned to action on January 2, 2016, against the Houston Rockets. In his return game, Duncan was held scoreless for the first time in his 19-year career; giving him the most consecutive games with at least one point, at 1,359. Four days later, Duncan scored a then-season-high 18 points in a 123–98 win over the Utah Jazz, helping the Spurs extend its franchise-record home winning streak to 30 straight regular-season games dating to 2014–15. On February 10, he returned to the starting lineup after missing eight games with a sore knee. On February 27, in a win over the Houston Rockets, he became the fifth player in NBA history to reach 3,000 blocks. In addition, with six rebounds in the game, Duncan reached 14,971 for his career, surpassing Karl Malone (14,968) for sixth place in league history. On March 10, Duncan became the sixth player in league history with 15,000 rebounds, completing the feat midway through the first quarter of the Spurs' 109–101 win over the Chicago Bulls. On March 19, he came off the bench for only the third time in his career to counter the smaller lineup of the Golden State Warriors. With a win over the Warriors, the Spurs recorded their 35th straight home win of the season and their 44th straight at home dating to 2014–15, tied for the second-longest streak in NBA history with the 1995–96 Chicago Bulls. On April 5, in a win over the Utah Jazz, he became the third player with 1,000 victories in the regular season, following Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish. Duncan extended his mark as the NBA's career leader in victories with one team. On April 8, he scored a season-high 21 points in a losing effort to the Denver Nuggets. Having already locked up second seed in the West with a franchise-best record (65–13 prior to Nuggets game), all four of Duncan's starting teammates were rested. The Spurs went on to lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the playoffs.
  On June 28, 2016, Duncan opted into his $5.6 million contrac
caption: Duncan's 21 jersey was retired months after he stopped playing.
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