Coming off his fifth NBA championship, Tim Duncan‘s possible retirement was a dark cloud hanging over the heads of most San Antonio Spurs fans. After getting revenge on LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the Finals, it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if Duncan had decided to sail off into the sunset, possibly with Gregg Popovich right beside him. However, it looks like Spurs fans will enjoy at least one more year from the greatest player in their franchise’s history.
Earlier today, Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Duncan will opt in to the final year of his contract by exercising a $10.3 million player option for the 2014-15 season. He could have become a free agent on July 1 and restructured his contract with the Spurs, but apparently Duncan is fine with his contract as is.
The interesting question now is: With only one year left on his contract, does this mean we could be looking at some sort of Tim Duncan farewell tour this year?
It’s hard to say. Duncan’s unassuming, humble nature would indicate that he’s not really the type for the kind of fanfare that would likely accompany any public acknowledgement that this could be his last season in the NBA. Then again, it is curious that Duncan didn’t opt out and go for a two-year contract like many predicted he might.
Tim Duncan opts in, stays with Spurs.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 23, 2014
Average per 36 minutes
2013-14- 18.7 pts/12.0 rbds
Career- 20.6 pts/11.5 rbds
Another possibility is that even Tim Duncan doesn’t know how much longer he wants to play. Opting in will open him up to a flurry of retirement questions now, and those questions will probably last the entire 2014-15 season. But it’s possible Duncan was simply fine with getting his $10.3 million, letting the year play out and then deciding at the end of next season whether he wants to extend his already prestigious NBA career or call it quits at that time.
Duncan has played 18 seasons in the NBA and at age 38, averaged 15.1 points and 9.7 rebounds per game in 74 regular season games. He averaged 16.3 points and 9.2 rebounds per game in the playoffs as well, so Duncan is the rare kind of NBA legend that could be durable enough to call it a career on his own terms. But for at least one more season, San Antonio Spurs fans will get to enjoy one of the 10 greatest NBA players of all time, complete with Tim Duncan face.