Is Tim Duncan On Michael Jordan’s Level?

With his career seemingly coming to a close, is it time to acknowledge the gap between Tim Duncan and Michael Jordan might actually be quite small?

With the unbelievable return of Stephen Curry, the 2016 NBA Playoffs finally feel like they’ve started properly. The weaker teams have already been weeded out and we are witnessing some fascinating series across both conferences.

For the San Antonio Spurs, they find themselves somewhat surprisingly down 3-2 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. This is a surprise not because the Thunder aren’t elite themselves, but rather because the Spurs had a pretty amazing regular season themselves.

If not for the Golden State Warriors and their all-time best 73-9 record, it is the Spurs we would have raved about, as they went a record-tying 40-1 at home (that single loss coming at the hands of the Warriors) on their way to a 67-15 mark.

In doing so, the likes of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker truly did take a back seat, as the new tandem of Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge kept this team at the same consistent height they’ve called normal for most of my life.

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There are many reasons for the continued excellence of San Antonio year after year and much of the credit goes to head coach Gregg Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford. You need a generational star with the right mentality to truly thrive though, and in Duncan the Spurs have had that for nearly two decades.

This is why thinking about Duncan’s legacy, with his career potentially about to reach it’s amazing conclusion, is appropriate. With five championships in the bag, he’s a first-ballot Hall of Fame player for sure.

But if we measure him up against the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan, how does he rank? Comparing the numbers alone seems trivial given how the two played the game so differently, but they are relevant. Taking in the whole body of work of Duncan, and indeed the Spurs organization, is ‘The Big Fundamental’ actually on the same level as Jordan?

This seems a good place to start. When I posed this very question on Twitter the other day, this was the one response I received that stood out to me. Not only is it a valid point, it is correct. Robert Horry finished his career with seven rings, but that does not make him better than Jordan.

Ray Allen and LeBron James each have two rings, but we both know who the better, more complete player is. Jordan was the driving force on six title winning teams. Duncan, while a crucial part of five winners, also had first David Robinson and later Tony Parker to help get him over the line.

But if we look beyond that fact alone, it is the attitude of Duncan which put the Spurs in position to win those titles in the first place. Although at one time early in his career it looked like he might actually join the Orlando Magic, Duncan stuck around and created no drama or trouble for his team.

As the years wore on, he took less money to allow the Spurs, hardly a big market like New York or Los Angeles, to put themselves in position to nab star players. You can bet Duncan is at least a part of the reason Aldridge is currently wearing their uniform and playing arguably the best basketball of his career.

So if Jordan changed the game by being a level beyond superstar, transcending the game and proving that if you’re the best at what you do, but also trust in your teammates just a bit, you’ll win it all. Can’t we say Duncan changed the game by going in the complete opposite direction?

Remember, much of Duncan’s prime came at a time when star players still wanted to make more than everybody else and stayed apart as a result. It was a more selfish time that existed when Jordan was in the league, but also after he was gone.

Duncan went against that mentality, never angling for money (save for that moment he nearly signed with the Magic) and never causing a stir in the media. He quietly dominated, doing the same fundamentally simple but insanely consistent things night after night. There’s a lot to be said for that level of production night after night, as well.

In doing so, his level of play attracted other top players, while the ability of the Spurs to spot young talent meant the team was always relevant, even when you thought they weren’t. Duncan was never threatened by these young guns though. Imagine having a top-10 all-time player play the same despite new personalities and big roster changes. It literally doesn’t happen anywhere else.

So if Jordan is championed because he was fearless, took the last shot, chewed out teammates for not being on his level, created a media persona that makes him more money today than basketball ever could and generally was the man in everything he did, why isn’t Duncan equally as celebrated for being stoic, calm, controlled, easy to build a team around and keeping out of the media’s glare?

It’s not as cool or as sexy sure, but it allowed Duncan to have a level of consistency to his career that we have only seen once before, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Now, there are those that are probably still thinking that Duncan didn’t change the game in the same literal sense that Jordan did. Duncan may have made the Spurs consistent in a way that we’ve never seen before (not even big market teams like the Lakers are able to buy their way out of trouble these days) but Jordan was the watershed moment in the guard-dominated league we find ourselves with today (sorry Dr. J).

However, Stephen Curry is literally changing the game before our eyes each and every time he steps on the court today. He was also the best player on a championship-winning team.

This season he led the Warriors to the best ever regular-season record, surpassing Jordan’s Chicago Bulls team of 1995-96. On top of all of that, he’s now the only unanimous MVP in league history, something Jordan never accomplished.

His career isn’t even nearly over, but already Curry is meeting (and surpassing) some of the criteria that gives Jordan the greatest of all time tag. Does that now make Curry the best player who ever lived?

Of course not, but if surpassing Jordan at his own game doesn’t put Curry on the same level (at least not yet), why can’t doing it a completely different way, just like Duncan? Jordan went to the playoffs 13 times, and winning it all on six occasions is a truly stunning return when you think about it.

This is Duncan’s 18th turn in the postseason though, and while five titles in 18 years isn’t going to give you as impressive a winning percentage, getting there and being a tough out for anybody has to count for something.

The potential ace up Duncan’s sleeve to have a case here though, is something we may not even see for another 10 years or so, by which time he will be 50 years old. When Jordan left the Bulls the first time to play baseball, they were still an elite team thank to the perennially underrated play of Scottie Pippen.

They weren’t close to the team they were when he was a part of it, though. It seems obvious to state but it’s important as well. When Jordan retired the second time, the team had already begun it’s rebuilding phase. All teams go through these cycles (except, it seems, the Spurs) so we can’t blame Jordan for that.

But since his departure in 1998, what have the Bulls achieved? They went through some lean years with the likes of Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler and Jay Williams touted as the saviors who could bring them back to the glory days. Elton Brand also had a crack at being their franchise player.

The point is they didn’t do much, which proves once more what a transcending talent Jordan was. But it also illustrates how he didn’t hang around and mentor some of the younger players before calling it a career (which of course he didn’t, coming out of retirement one final time with the Washington Wizards).

If not for the drafting of Derrick Rose, which has proven to be a gift and a curse at this point, it’s possible this proud franchise would still be floundering, nearly two decades after Jordan left them. There is zero fear of that happening with Duncan once he leaves and that may be his greatest gift to San Antonio.

It’s crazy to think, but this all-time great may actually be about to leave the franchise in a better way than he inherited it. Again, both Popovich and Buford deserve much credit for that. But we’ve seen Duncan dominate for well more than a decade, only to gladly take a back seat these last handful of years.

He still gave the team 25 minutes a night as he started 60 games this season, but his usage rate when on the court of 17.6 is miles behind the next lowest number of his career, 22.2 (posted last season).

Most star players rock up to an organization, get paid lots of money and either move on (Dwight Howard) or retire (Kobe Bryant), leaving everybody else to clean up after them. This is a process that can take years and years, while also requiring various strokes of luck (the Minnesota Timberwolves are the best example of this).

That was never going to be the case with Duncan and when the Spurs are still challenging for titles over the last 10 years because of Duncan’s ability to gradually hand over the reins to other players, maybe then will some people appreciate him for what he truly is–a once-in-a-lifetime talent, just like Jordan.

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Tim Duncan will never be as good as Michael Jordan, but I wish people would come to see that it’s closer than they believe it is between the two. Jordan did it his way and became the greatest, while Duncan also did it the way he wanted to and was nearly as successful. We just won’t realize how important Duncan was until he is long gone.