Links for August 1, 2016
Tim Duncan of San Antonio Spurs announces retirement
Since drafting Duncan in 1997, the Spurs posted a 1,072-438 regular-season record – the best 19-year stretch in NBA history and tops in the four major U.S. sports over the past 19 years.... Duncan finishes his career with averages of 19.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.2 blocks per game. He ranks 14th all time in points (26,496), sixth in rebounds (15,091) and fifth in blocks (3,020).
Was Duncan the best power forward of All-Time?
No. But this is only because he was clearly not a power forward. Duncan sort of played this role when Robinson was still around and continued it a bit with Rasho Nesterovic but nothing about TD’s game seemed power forwardish. He played in the post on both ends commensurate with the big man spot and few forwards could block shots like Duncan (the only “true” forwards with more blocks in a single season are Elvin Hayes from 1973-74 and Larry Nance in 1991-92).
Ichiro’s speech to All-Stars revealed
He pointed to Ichiro Suzuki, the Seattle Mariners’ wisp of an outfielder, a man who still uses a translator to do interviews with English-speaking reporters – and happens to be baseball’s amalgam of Anthony Robbins and George Carlin. Every year, after the AL manager addresses his team, Ichiro bursts from his locker, a bundle of kinetic energy, and proceeds, in English, to disparage the National League with an H-bomb of F-bombs, stunning first-timers who had no idea Ichiro speaks the queen’s language fluently and making returnees happy that they had played well enough to see the pep talk again.