Tim Duncan is unquestionably one of the greatest basketball players of his generation, but he’s also a private person who has no interest in showing anything resembling a personality to anyone outside of his close inner circle.
Some of that personality was leaked to the general public, however, in the form of a photo that began making its rounds in the past couple of weeks.
The picture is from a private Halloween party attended by Spurs players, and it shows a menacing Duncan and teammate Tony Parker appearing to threaten a person in a Joey Crawford costume. This is hilarious, of course, considering Crawford’s history with Duncan in particular, specifically if you recall the 2007 incident where Crawford supposedly challenged Duncan to a fight after appearing to eject him from a game for nothing more than laughing while on the bench.
Apparently, media covering the Spurs has been asking for a comment about the photo, and they finally received it Thursday from an exasperated Duncan, who seemingly couldn’t understand why he was being bothered with such nonsense.
From Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News:“It’s this day and age,” Duncan said. “It was a Halloween party in a private atmosphere. We were having fun. There was nothing to it. But this day and age, people want to blow things into something more than it is. Hopefully it’s gone and whatever is whatever.”
The photo, taken at a large Halloween party, began circulating last weekend via various message boards and the popular sports website Deadspin. The national and local media picked up on it not long after, prompting official no comments from the Spurs and the NBA.
The picture indeed appears to show Duncan “having fun” as he says, even though his comments and actions make him seem like the most joyless person on the planet.
Hey, at least he didn’t give the finger to the person who asked the question. Maybe we’re making some progress.