The legend of how the great Tim Duncan almost joined the Orlando Magic early in his career is one of the best what-if stories of the past 20 years of NBA basketball. Doc Rivers, who coached the Magic at the time, set the record straight as to how the San Antonio Spurs' prized building block almost changed jerseys back in 2000.
Duncan was a free agent after the 1999-2000 NBA season. The Magic were one of the teams after his services, having snatched two great talents in former Detroit Pistons forward Grant Hill and Toronto Raptors swingman Tracy McGrady. Duncan was meant to be the missing piece that would have edified a “Big 3” in Orlando.
The tale has it that Duncan was told family could not fly on the team plane, hence why he chose to remain in San Antonio.
Rivers spoke with Ernie Johnson on the #NBATogether show to set the record straight on what could have been for the Magic. As Rivers tells it, Duncan wanted one last meeting with head coach Gregg Popovich before he joined the Magic, something that didn't quite happen 20 years ago.
Via Jeff Garcia of News 4 San Antonio:
“That story isn't told correctly because it's true we talked about it and I actually told him absolutely families can fly not all the time but families can fly every once in a while. That story is not told correctly,” Rivers told Johnson. “As a matter of fact what I remember the most about that was Tim Duncan looked at me and said, ‘I'm pretty sure that I'm actually coming to the Magic. I just need to go back to San Antonio because I love Pop and I want to have my last meeting with Pop.'”
Here's Doc Rivers clearing up the story about Tim Duncan joining the Magic as a FA in 2000 and that whole team plane/family cannot fly story.
Doc says TD told him he was going to be a Magic player. #nba #gospursgo pic.twitter.com/NvHFpNWjRr
— JeffGSpursKENS5 (@JeffGSpursZone) May 19, 2020
Even before the deal was made official, John Calipari, who had finished his stint in the NBA after joining Larry Brown as an assistant for the Philadelphia 76ers, told Rivers that Duncan was staying put:
“I want to say it was John Calipari but I'm not sure because I called a lot of coaches during this time because they recruit,” said Rivers. “I think it was Cal, I called him after Tim left and he said, ‘Did you get him?' and I said, ‘Yeah, it looks like we got him. He wanted to go back and talk to Pop and David (Robinson).' He said, ‘Well, you lost him. We have one rule. You don't let the kid leave campus without signing him.'”
As it turns out, Cal was right on this one. He soon returned to the college ranks, linking up with the Memphis Tigers, while Rivers lost out on Tim Duncan and that superstar trio in Orlando.
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