Duncan's Gimmicks

The Greatest Power Forward of All Time

In the NBA world at large, Tim Duncan is considered the greatest power forward of all time. What are the reasons for deserving such an accolade? The most obvious points are listed below:

He has a lot of championships (5)
He has a lot of the necessary awards. MVPs, first teams offens/defense, All Star appearances, etc.

However, there are many peculiar aspects to his career that bear investigating as it relates to him being the greatest of all time of anything, let alone the power forward position.

Power Forward or Center?

Duncan is measured at being 7'0", which is well within the "center" position's height range. Anyone over 6'10" can be a center in the NBA, traditionally speaking.

Position-less Basketball

One thing everyone should realize about basketball is that there really are no positions. This has nothing to do with the "positionless" phrase that has become popular in the NBA since around 2015. The sport has NEVER had positions. The positions are simply labels that are helpful in orgnizing the sport on a purely abstract level. This is discussed in a separate article. The point is, there are no positions, and a player can play anyway that they want. This is the root of the gimmick that eventually leads to the phrase attributed to Duncan, "The Greatest Power Forward of All Time".

David Robinson and the Twin Towers

When Duncan first joined the Spurs, David Robinson was already there and they were touted as the highly anticipated "Twin Towers". There was no gimmick here, yet. All that is happening here is that the team wants to play both at the same time, and one needs to be Center and the other PF. Robinson, being the slightly taller player, was assigned as the Center. All of this is harmless.
* Dwight Howard, as an example, is shorter than Duncan and always listed as a center.

All-Star dilemma

The problem with Duncan arose later when All-Star considerations were taking place. At the time, only two players from each listed position could be all-stars. In the Western Conference, there was no room for either Center of PF to include Duncan due to the number of popular players already there:

David Roobinson
Shaq
Karl Malone
Rasheed Wallace
Chris Webber

Being in a small market, there was the risk that Duncan wouldn't make the all-star team due to these circumstances. It was then that the marketing push to hype Duncan as a power forward originated. There was even a certain amount of controversy around it when it first began.

As Duncan and the Spurs won championships and MVPs, the opportunity to call Duncan the "greatest" of something arose. Soon, we began hearing about the phrase more and more publicly, it eventually caught on, and now he is considered as the phrase suggests.

What's the Complaint?

Now that this phrase has become inextricably attached to Duncan's name, it indirectly makes history's other power forwards and centers appear less impressive, including certain legacies of his contemporaries. Let's take a look.

Karl Malone

Prior to Duncan, Malone was considered one of the greatest power forwards. Today, hardly anyone considers Malone "greater" than Duncan. But the comparison is not really fair or even applicable. Malone truly played the traditional power forward position. Whereas, Duncan often played the center position, even with another player listed as center. So Duncan often times was power forward in name only.

Kevin Garnett

Tim Duncan was not even the greatest power forward of his time if you consider Kevin Garnett. Garnett is rarely considered in the discussion because he doesn't have the volume of accollades Duncan had, and his career followed a very different trajectory. However, in almost all basketball related areas, he was the better player. He was even taller than Duncan, more athletic, a better shooter, a better defender, and individually a more imposing player. However, due to the way these things are argued, he will not usually win that argument. In this way, his legacy is a little overshadowed due to a phrasing gimmick in Duncan's favor.

All Other Past Power Forwards

So many of the past greats have now become overlooked due to this. This doesn't mean they are better or worse than Duncan (whatever that means), but the consideration is no longer there. Too many to list, but any great player from the past that was not the center, but taller than 6'9" could be included.

Kobe Bryant

In an indirect way, Duncan's gimmick even affects Kobe and the Lakers, as they were the primary counterparts during this era. In Kobe's case, Kobe was far too similar to Jordan to be compared differently or to take advantage of a gimmick similar to Duncan's. There was no question what position he played. Therefore, Kobe could not claim to be the "greatest" of anything without generating a huge controversy. And so, when the arguments about who was better, Lakers vs Spurs, or Kobe vs Duncan, an often used tactic is to refer to Duncan as the "greatest" power forward to move things in that favor.

Foul Baiting

Duncan was a prime offender of foul baiting the officials. This is not uncommon with most stars today, however, at the time he used this tactic far more than the stars before him or current. He was famous for the swing through (e.g. Reggie Miller), flopping, etc.
There is nothing really wrong with this tactic, a player should and will do anything to gain an advantage and it is up to the NBA to set the boundaries and enforce them. However, for argument's sake, this is a negative point to that player vs. one who chooses the path of more integrity. Furthermore, there is a specific event where this was exposed and should color Duncan's reputation a little more negatively than is popularly considered: the Olympic games.

Duncan in the Olympics

In 2004, after a series of embarassing defeats for USA Basketball, Duncan was heralded as the main star and centerpiece of a team that was supposed to bring back the gold. In this effort, they failed. Duncan was constantly in foul trouble and had trouble scoring as easily as he did in the NBA. When it was all over, Duncan stated that he would not play Olympic games anymore. So what happened? How can this be explained?

Star Treatment (or lack thereof)

The Olympics have different rules and officials than the NBA. Technically, it should be a more "pure" version of the sport, not influenced by the business and marketing tugs of the NBA ecosystem. In short, Duncan did not get the favorable treatment by the officials that he got in the NBA, and he racked up fouls more than he was used to. He also had more difficulty individually playing well due to this reason. All of this, unfortunately, indicates strongly that he is either not as good as the NBA environment makes him seem, and that he is the receipient of favorable officiating in the NBA. His decision to not play in the future supports this all the more; why would he want to tarnish his stellar reputation? Contrast this to a similar situation in 2008, when Kobe was heralded as Team USA's savior, and he delivered in spectacular, historic fashion.