5 reasons why Tim Duncan should retire

Despite an underwhelming ending to the season, here is why Tim Duncan should walk away from the game for good.

The prevailing storyline after the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs to advance to the Conference Finals was whether fans saw Tim Duncan play his last game in the NBA. It was a question that both him and Gregg Popovich got hounded with, and neither took too kindly to it.

However, that shouldn’t be the storyline. For one, nobody is giving the Thunder the proper credit for taking down the Spurs when everyone was slotting them and the Golden State Warriors in the Conference Finals ever since the start of the year, and for doing it by beating them at their own game.

The Spurs were supposed to counterbalance Golden State’s small ball with their size, but their bigs ended up being no match for Oklahoma City’s. That makes the Thunder vs. Warriors matchup much more compelling now than it was at the beginning of the playoffs.

For another, Manu Ginobili has been performing just as poorly as Duncan in the playoffs, yet all the retirement talk is surrounding the Big Fundamental. If it really was his last game, he left with a respectable outing. 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting to go along with five rebounds, which is more than what you’d expect from a 40-year-old, and was his best output of the playoffs. But that doesn’t change the fact that he only scored nine points in the last four games combined, and was severely outmatched by Serge Ibaka.

Despite a very poor playoff performance, Duncan should forego the final year of his contract and walk away from the game lest he risk picking up a severe injury or further embarrassment next season. When Duncan won his fifth ring back in 2014, it seemed like Father Time would never catch up to him, but it finally has, and he needs to realize that by retiring.

No matter what he decides on, his legacy is still cemented as the greatest power forward of all-time.

Next: 5: He doesn't do retirement parties