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NBA FINALS: HEAT v SPURSJune 15, 2014Tim DuncanSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Gam Five San Antonio Spurs – 104 Q. How much does this mean to you to win this title on Father's Day? TIM DUNCAN: Very special. It was already a special day, but to do it at home, to do it with my kids and my family and my friends here made it so much more special. Just a great experience, and a great experience for them. Q. Of all the championships that you've won, is this one the sweetest? TIM DUNCAN: It is. It is. For whatever reason, it is sweeter than any other, whether it be because of the timeframe, because I'm coming towards the end of my career, because I can have these two here and really remember it and enjoy the experience, all of those things make it that much more special. Q. How much more focused was this team after what happened last season? TIM DUNCAN: It helped. What happened last year definitely helped our drive and stay focused for an extended period of time. It very easily could have hit us in different ways and we could have reacted in different ways. But we reacted the right way. We got great leadership from the top in Pop who came back absolutely fired up and ready to go, and to push us this far and this hard and to come out with the championship is amazing. Q. You've been focused so much the last couple years on getting this one, and now that you have it, can you talk about what it means to have five and the company that puts you in? TIM DUNCAN: It's amazing to think about having done this five times. The kind of company I'm in, the people who have had such amazing careers and having had the ability to have one, and for the stretch, and the span between them, to still be in a situation where we can win or I can win another championship is just an amazing blessing, and it's not taken lightly. Q. I know they said on the days after the ceremony that you'd won your third‑‑ you were the first player in three different decades to start for a championship team. Does that make you feel accomplished or old? TIM DUNCAN: I'll say a little bit of both (laughing). Very, very old when you put it like that. But as I said, that span and to be effective and to be on teams and to be starting, I feel a real part of what we had done this year, just it's an amazing feeling. Q. What is the lesson for any team, any player that people think is done and is past its prime about resilience that you could impart? TIM DUNCAN: Honestly? Q. Yeah. TIM DUNCAN: Don't listen to the media (laughing). Q. Go back to three years ago. As a 1 seed you lose to Memphis, a really tough loss. Then the team goes out against Kawhi Leonard, a Finals MVP three years later. What has he meant to this franchise? TIM DUNCAN: He's been unbelievable.  He came in here after a lockout season, worked hard with us during that summer, and I can't say that I saw the player that I saw tonight at that point. What R.C. and Pop saw in him for him to become the player he is today, it's amazing because that summer I was like, hey, we gave up someone. It was George Hill who had been playing really solid for us. Obviously, you get attached to people and disappointed in that. He comes in here and don't know a thing about him. He works hard and continues to improve year after year. You see him play the first two games and everybody's talking to him. Everybody's saying to him: Just stick with it, just play hard, do the little things, whatever, whatever, whatever. And he shows up in the last three games and just plays out of his mind. He's not worried about just doing the little things. He wants to do it all, and he plays with a confidence that is just amazing. I'm honored to be on this team right now because he's going to be great for years to come, and I'm going to hold on as long as I can. Q. When you got your first championship 15 years ago, you might be the youngest player on your team, and after 15 years right now when you won the fifth champion, you are one of the leaders on your team. Do you have any impression about that? TIM DUNCAN: Going from the youngest to the oldest? Q. Yeah. TIM DUNCAN: It happens. It happens. I'm blessed to be in the position that I can sit here and be asked that question and to be on a championship team and to even think about what that means. It's‑‑ I can't explain. It's amazing to be a part of this for so long. Q. The team kind of got off to a slow start. Was that some nervousness knowing it was a closeout game? TIM DUNCAN: Yeah, I have no idea. I don't know. I told someone I don't think we heard the horn in the beginning. We just‑‑ we knew they'd come out with energy. We knew they'd come out and try to knock us down early, and I think we helped that. We just came out, we weren't getting shots up, we were turning the ball over. We were doing exactly what we did when we lost Game 2. But we kept our focus. We kept saying to each other that it's a long game and it's going to turn. And we get guys like Patty Mills step in and Kawhi starts stepping up, and Manu coming in with some great energy. That is the beauty of the team that we've had this year. We've had 10, 12 guys with the ability to step in and make a difference, and you see that tonight with the guys stepping in and finding a way to turn the game for us and give us a chance to win. Q. Other than the talent that these teams showed throughout the series against the Miami Heat, when you retire, if you retire, because you look like you could play ten more years in the NBA, how are you going to remember this group, this championship team from this year? How are you going to remember? What is it that makes this team so special for you guys? TIM DUNCAN: It will be easy to remember from what we went through last year to every little step that we took this year. It was a very hard‑working team, a very focused and resilient team. This will be a very easy to team to remember top to bottom. We had a lot of guys that really laid it on the line, gave of themselves. We had guys that could have scored more, could have done more, could have been more this and more of that, but they gave it all up to be a part of one of the best teams in basketball, and that's what we'll remember them for. Q. You've already addressed this a couple other times during the series, and I apologize to be the guy that brings it back up, but with what you just did and the team you got in place, in terms of retirement, wouldn't it be hard to walk away from this? TIM DUNCAN: Yeah. I don't know. I'm guessing you're leading me into a question that I'm not going to answer, so I'll just go ahead and avoid that one. Q. This question is actually for your kids. What do you guys think of your dad tonight? TIM DUNCAN: He said what do you think of your dad tonight? SYDNEY DUNCAN: I think he did awesome and he tried his best. TIM DUNCAN: What else? Say something nice about me. DRAVEN DUNCAN: I like his hat. TIM DUNCAN: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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