Because he is known to be a rather quiet, soft spoken, unemotional individual there are lots of little known facts about Tim Duncan. He is not one to advertise himself or act out in ways that draw publicity so what he does perhaps too often falls into the category of” little known facts about Tim Duncan”. Still his actions speak louder than words and no one can turn his accomplishments on the basketball floor or in his personal life into “unknown” facts about Time Duncan, they are there in the record book and in his daily living for anyone who wants to take a moment to look.
Unique Beginning As with many sports stars, Tim Duncan’s name has been in the newspaper and his board clearing body on television so often that we begin to think of him in some ways as the boy next door. He is quiet, likable and obviously capable. He gives no immediate hint that he didn’t grow up in some bustling American city playing in the neighborhood playground, starting to shoot hoops as soon as he could hoist the ball.
A little known fact about Tim Duncan is that he was not even born in the continental United States. In fact Tim Duncan was born in the romantic location of St. Croix, in the United States Virgin Islands. From the beginning then, Tim Duncan lived at the slower paced, more relaxed life style that we now see carried over into the adult he is today.
Off to a Slow Start Tim Duncan is known nationally as one of the best power forwards of his time in the National Basketball Association. He has gained this reputation from years of consistently outstanding play. His nickname “Big Fundamental” is a tribute to how well he managed the basics. Shoot, rebound, block shots those are things expected of big men playing inside. But Tim Duncan does all the rest too, the things that don’t necessarily show up in the box score. He does the little things so well that one has to assume he has been doing them all his life.
But what turns out to be the truth and perhaps a little known fact about Tim Duncan is that he never started to play organized basketball until he entered the ninth grade. What was he doing before that? Because people see him as a basketball player par excellence it is little known fact that Duncan began his athletic career as a swimmer. In fact he didn’t just enjoy swimming , he was very good at it putting up times that earned him national ranking at a rather young age.
What closed the book on swimming and opened Duncan’s career path in basketball was an accident of nature. A fierce hurricane swept through St. Croix and destroyed the only Olympic size swimming pool on the island and that pretty much brought Tim Duncan onto the hardwood. The San Antonio Spurs are in their own way rather grateful for that particular storm.
Love of his Life As many sports fans remember, Tim Duncan began to gain national notoriety for his basketball prowess when he played on the college level at Wake Forest University . There as a Demon Deacon, Duncan established a reputation that spread through the Atlantic Coast Conference , to the larger theater of the NCAA and of course eventually took him to the pros.
But what many people don’t know is that his wife-to-be also was a student at Wake Forest University . Well coordinated herself, Amy took up cheer leading. A little known fact about Tim Duncan is that his wife Amy, who has cheered him on during his pro career, learned to cheer at the same school, Wake Forest, where Tim became a star. It must make for some excellent reunions.
Going Pro When Tim Duncan began thinking about becoming a professional athlete it is unlikely that he pictured himself as a first round pick, except, as they say, in his dreams. And yet when the draft came around not only was Tim Duncan in the first round of selections, he was the overall number one pick. This of course is an annual honor and sometimes brings with it the heavy onus of having to live up to that billing of being the best of the best.
A little known fact about Tim Duncan is that in the same year that he was drafted first overall he lived up to all the hype, survived first year jitters and went on to establish himself as the Rookie of the Year in the NBA.
Remembering his college major Throughout his professional career, Tim Duncan has compiled many achievements and a few record book statistics as well. In 2003 for example he was named as the regular season MVP and the Finals MVP as well. He has received acclaim in many seasons as both an All NBA team selecting and simultaneously as an All Defensive Team choice. He’s been in the Playoffs and in All Star Games. In fact he really has done it all.
Perhaps what has helped him to keep himself together on and off the court is not just his physical prowess and developed skills. It’s a little known fact that Tim Duncan majored in psychology at Wake Forest. Actually he did more than just show up for the minimum number of classes and then pick up the sheep skin. Tim Duncan graduated form Wake Forest with honors in psychology. Though he has not become a world renown psychologist, Tim Duncan has in some ways applied a bit of what he learned in those days as a Demon Deacon to his life today. We will never know how many times he not only outplayed the opposition but out thought them as well. There is a lot to be said, after all, for psyching out the opponent.
Tim Duncan will definitely go down in basketball history as one of the standouts of the 1990’s and beyond. But he’ll do it quietly and in his own way. Before he is done he will have put a few more records into the book and probably chalked up a few more little known facts about Tim Duncan that we’ll all want to know.
