Don't forget, Gary Payton and Karl Malone joined Shaq and Kobe on the Lakers very late in their careers and thought they'd ride those coat tails to the promised land. If I remember correctly (too lazy to check right now) the best PF of all-time Tim Duncan and arguably the best coach of all-time Gregg Popovich put that idea to bed.
About Pop, no he doesn't have as many rings as Phil Jackson or Red Auerbach. But Phil Jackson never won **** without having two of the top four or five players in the league on his team. And Red? Those Celtics teams were loaded with Hall of Famers, not to mention that the league was still in it's infancy really. Plus he had perhaps the most dominant defensive player of all-time on his team, Mr. Bill Russell of course. Bob Cousy was one of, if not the, best PG's in the league. Sam Jones was a HOF'er and he came off the bench for goodness sakes.
Nahh, in this era of parity and exploding salary caps, gimme Pop, Dunca, Manu, Tony Parker, an emerging damn force(!) in Kawhi Leonard, and now they've added LaMarcus Aldridge. I was really torn this past season because I wanted to see Golden State win it for the historical part but I was truly pulling for the Spurs because I had a bad feeling that this was Timmy's last season, win, lose, or draw and would have been perfect for him to go out a champion like Peyton Manning did.
I'm a Duke fan and I hated Tim Duncan and Wake Forest while he was there. Mostly because it was Coach K's roughest stretch at Duke since his first couple of years and Wake used to beat them like a drum but partly because I was jealous that they had him and we didn't. I respected the hell out of him when he passed up going pro early in order to come back to try to win a championship with the Demon Deacons. Was never much of a fan of David Robinson but I knew how good he was but when the Spurs won the draft lottery and got to draft Timmy, the Spurs became my favorite NBA team and have been ever since. Maybe because he isn't flashy, he just goes out and does his job. Maybe because he actually seemed a bit shy around the cameras, like the attention actually bothered him. Maybe it's because he didn't "seem" like he was that athletic but he always, always seemed to get the key rebound, or the key defensive stop, or shot block. Maybe it's because that mid-range bank shot off the glass was deadly. Maybe it's because he got into Shaq's head so badly that Shaq nicknamed him the Big Fundamental. I don't know, Timmy always just seemed like a normal guy that you'd like to hang out with, a regular guy. Whatever it was, he's been my favorite player for the last two decades and although I hate to see him retire, it was also painful watching him drag those bad knees up and down the court. Painful to watch him come thisclose blocking Chris Paul's shot in the playoffs last year, only to come up short. I just know the old Tim Duncan would have gotten there in time. I knew he would retire sooner or later but man how I wish he could have gotten that one more ring.
There have been lots of players flashier than him since he's been in the league. Lots that were more athletic. Tons that were more me-first players. But you can't fill a handful of fingers of players who were better team players. Hell, better players period. Enjoy it Timmy, you definitely earned it!