From St. Croix to Winston-Salem

Duncan grew up in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was a competitive swimmer through age 14 — his goal was the 1992 Olympic team in the 400-meter freestyle. Hurricane Hugo destroyed his swimming pool in September 1989, and the family couldn’t access another regulation pool reliably. He started playing basketball at age 14 to fill the time and turned out to be 6’5″ and growing.

By his senior year of high school he was 6’10” and the country’s most-recruited prospect from a non-mainland US state. He was recruited by Providence (where his cousin Ricky Lowery played), Hartford, Wake Forest, and Delaware State. He chose Wake Forest because head coach Dave Odom had been the only major-conference recruiter to fly to St. Croix to sit at his family’s kitchen table.

Four years at Wake — the rare modern senior

Duncan averaged 9.8 points and 9.6 rebounds as a freshman, started full-time as a sophomore, and won ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 1995, 1996, and 1997. He also won ACC Player of the Year in 1997. Wake Forest reached the Sweet 16 in 1995, the Sweet 16 in 1996 (losing to Kentucky in the regional final by a single point), and the second round in 1997.

He was widely projected as the #1 pick after his junior year (1996) and could have entered the draft then. He stayed for his senior year — reportedly because his mother Ione had made him promise before her death from breast cancer in 1990 (when Duncan was 14) that he would graduate from college. He earned his psychology degree in May 1997, two months before the NBA Draft.

The 1997 NBA Draft and Tank-for-Duncan

The San Antonio Spurs had the worst record in the NBA in the 1996-97 season at 20-62, partly because David Robinson played only six games due to injuries and partly because the team had rest-managed their veterans. Robinson denied tanking but the front office acknowledged in later interviews that they were aware Duncan was the prize at #1.

The Spurs won the lottery and took Duncan first overall on June 25, 1997. He was paired with Robinson — already the league’s best center — and the Spurs immediately became contenders. Duncan won Rookie of the Year in 1997-98, the Spurs won the 1999 NBA championship in his second season (lockout year), and the dynasty produced five championships across his 19 seasons (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014). Wake Forest retired Duncan’s #21 jersey in 2002.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Tim Duncan and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).