In the summer of 2000, Tim Duncan was a free agent and his final decision reportedly came down to two teams.
Duncan could either stay with the San Antonio Spurs, where he won a championship already, or go to the Orlando Magic and start something new there. The Magic had Grant Hill and signed Tracy McGrady later in that same free agency period.
15-year NBA veteran Darrell Armstrong, who was on the Magic at the time and is close friends with Duncan, was asked by the Magic to call Duncan to give the future Hall-of-Famer some type of pitch to join him in Orlando.
Armstrong, however, never made the call because he knew all along Duncan was never going to leave San Antonio.
“Man, Tim wasn’t going nowhere,” Armstrong told Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio. “I mean where Tim played at and finished at, that was where Tim was going to be. Tim wasn’t going to go nowhere. We all love to entertain and see who is going to be out there. I don’t even believe he even thought about leaving San Antonio, especially after winning that first championship.
“So, I just knew he wasn’t going anywhere. Sometimes you call the guys when free agency starts, and you call them and talk to guys, and they [Orlando] wanted me to call him and I was sitting there like, ‘I am not calling him, you shouldn’t even call this guy, he isn’t leaving.’ ”
It’s a good thing Tim Duncan stayed with the Spurs. He won five championships in San Antonio, two MVPs, three Finals MVPs and is arguably the greatest power forward of all-time.
In 1,392 games with the Spurs, Duncan averaged 19.0 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists while shooting 50.6 percent from the field.
