Gregg Popovich believes Tim Duncan will play another season

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich believes that star big man Tim Duncan will play another season after this year.

Tim Duncan has been one of the best stars in NBA history throughout 18-year career, but he doesn’t have too many years left in him. There has been quite a bit of skepticism about whether or not he will play another season after this year, but San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich made his opinion very clear.

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Popovich believes that Duncan will stick around for another season, especially with the efficient way that he is still playing this year.

“No matter how (the season) ends, I think Timmy (Tim Duncan) is going to look at (retirement) again,” Popovich said. “And if you ask me, my guess is that he’ll go for another one because he has been so consistent this season.”

He continued on about what Duncan’s thought process is likely to be when considering retirement or coming back for another season.

“It’s just consistent stuff: another double-double, over and over and over again. Because of that, I think in his mind that if it continues through the rest of the year, I think he’ll say, ‘I’m going to go another year and see what happens.’ Because what he has told me is that the minute he feels like he’s a hindrance to his team or he’s not on the positive end or helping him, he’s going to walk right off the court. It might be during the third quarter of a game. He’s not going to hang on to finish a contract or make the money or have the notoriety that you know he doesn’t give a (expletive) about. So the way he’s playing now, he’s going to look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, I’m doing all right.’ ”

It would certainly be interesting to see Duncan simply walk off the court during a game and call it a career. That being said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him do that either.

There aren’t many players that know Duncan as well as Popovich does, so these words carry some meaning. Duncan and Popovich have worked side-by-side since Duncan came into the league. That is a long 18 years to get to know each other, and the Spurs have been one of the best teams in the Western Conference each and every season due to the leadership that those two have provided.

At 38 years of age, Duncan is still more than capable of playing at a very high level. He is averaging 14.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game so far this year.

San Antonio fans have embraced him, and it will be a very sad day when Duncan decides to retire. He has meant so much to the game of basketball, and is a very unique basketball player as well. Without him, the Spurs likely wouldn’t have had even close to the type of success that they have had over the past 10 years.

All of that being said, it will be interesting to see what Duncan ends up doing over the next year or two. There is a chance he retires after this year, but if Popovich doesn’t believe he will then that is a good sign.

H/T Basketball Insiders

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