Tim Duncan is the definition of a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. The San Antonio Spurs icon is widely considered by many to be the greatest power forward of all-time, with a championship-winning pedigree that spanned over three decades.
After hanging up his rather large sneakers in 2016, the big fundamental was finally set to get his moment to commemorate a spectacular 19-year career leading the San Antonio Spurs to unprecedented successes. Tim Duncan was to be enshrined into the Hall of Fame that day. This was his moment.
That’s probably why a number of Twitter users were irate at Rachel Nichols during her interview with Duncan right before his Hall of Fame induction. The ESPN reporter snuck in a question about LeBron James in the middle of the interview, which clearly rubbed people the wrong way.
The question that got people riled up was at the 3:50 mark, featuring a snippet from an interaction Duncan had with James after their 2007 NBA Finals clash.
This interview was nearly 20 years in the making – such a treat to chat & laugh & reminisce with Tim Duncan as he’s inducted into the Hall of Fame. We talked his amazing career, his relationship with Pop (including the text messages Pop sends him – yes, Pop texts!) & so much more pic.twitter.com/63TbiayU09
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) May 15, 2021
The moment shared between James and Duncan back then was indeed a memorable one. It marked LeBron James' first defeat on the big stage, which definitely fueled his desire to win it all years later. But the actual relevance of the LeBron mention during Duncan's personal interview was what irked some on social media.
Based on these tweets, safe to say Tim Duncan stans were clearly not amused:
Rachel Nichols interviews Timmy (Tim Duncan) as he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame and starts asking him about how great Lebron James is. I'll leave it at this.#timduncan
— .Joy Jagpreet Singh (ਜਾੱਈ ਜਗਪ੍ਰੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ) ☬ (@joysinghg) May 14, 2021
Rachel Nichols interview caused me second hand embarrassment. Why is Tim Duncan’s interview got anything to do with LeBron James?
— Stephanie McCarroll (@SoCaliSteph) May 14, 2021
Rachel Nichols: Tim, how great is Lebron
Duncan: ….My career was better.It’s almost as if someone is paying for the enhancement of Lebrons legacy…🤦🏽♂️
— Gtown5300 (@Gtown53001) May 14, 2021
Tim Duncan should’ve started talking about laying the biggest beatdown in NBA finals history against LeBron and the Heat when Rachel Nichols asked that nonsense
— Fitz (@FitzGSN_) May 14, 2021
Rachel Nichols is washed as hell…just asked Tim Duncan at his own HOF inductee interview about….Lebron James. Bro you can’t make this up, this is supposed to be about him. Arguably the best PF of all time!! God bless his patience.
— MadGood Knicks Show™ (@MadGoodKS) May 14, 2021
I didn’t believe it so I had to see and hear it for myself. Rachel Nichols found a way to make Tim Duncan talk about Lebron during his own hall of fame induction interview. Lmfao I need ESPN to crash and burn 😂😂😂😂😂
— León (@Champ_Lion) May 14, 2021
Fans didn't hold back their discontent about the question. But in the grand scheme of things, it was a brief moment in an otherwise lengthy interview highlighting Tim Duncan's career. Putting the focus on that small segment about LeBron James sort of does the same thing that everyone's mad about in the first place.
The question asked to Tim Duncan could definitely be considered odd for some, but let's take the good over the bad and just commemorate the Spurs legend.