Trash Chronicles

SAN ANTONIO — Unlike nearly half of the San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan came back this season. That meant coach Gregg Popovich did, too.

But when Duncan leaves?

"It's just a freak of nature that our contracts coincide perfectly," quipped Popovich, dusting off a wisecrack he's recycled for years.

Sooner rather than later, Pop's punch line will be no joke.

Duncan enters his 13th season with the end of his brilliant career squarely in sight. On paper, there are three years left on his contact. On the court, the signs are in the conspicuous brace guarding his vulnerable left knee and in his starring role getting smaller.

The Big Fundamental is staring down the big inevitable.

"It's very logical, it's very real. I've got a couple years left on my career, and hopefully I can end it strong," Duncan said after arriving at training camp. "I know the window for me is closing."

At 23, Duncan was a prodigious talent making home movies of his first NBA title celebration because he said there was no guarantee he'd get the chance again. Now 33, Duncan is a four-time champion and perhaps the greatest power forward in NBA history, a guy Shaquille O'Neal considers his rival for claim to the greatest big man of their generation.

But Duncan is also a guy who auditioned six knee braces this summer. He's coming off just the second time in his career that the Spurs didn't advance past the first round of the playoffs. In March, he was diagnosed with tendonosis in his right quad and began skipping games to save his legs.

By April, the banged-up Spurs were done, and Duncan was off on his earliest vacation in nine years after Dallas manhandled San Antonio in five games. The Spurs, entrenched in a win-now mode as much as ever, hope the rest did him good.

Their chances of winning a fifth championship in 11 years depend on it.

"At 32, 33, 34, the age we have, you're never going to be what you were at 25. That's natural and we all go through that," said Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who is 32. "But he's going to be an All-Star and give us 20 and 10. If it's not 20 and 10, it's going to be 19 and 9½."

That may be enough, considering the pieces the Spurs added this summer.

Not wanting to squander whatever's left in the Duncan era, the Spurs embarked on the biggest roster overhaul in the NBA this offseason.

They dumped six players and brought eight new faces to training camp, the most substantial between-seasons makeover of a Spurs team since Duncan arrived in 1997.

They eagerly took on the $29.2 million owed over the next two years to swingman Richard Jefferson, signed a much-needed rebounder in Antonio McDyess and picked up Pitt All-America forward DeJuan Blair in the draft.

The urgency for San Antonio is best conveyed in its bottom line: typically mocked as one of the more frugal teams in the league, the Spurs went over the luxury tax threshold for what general manager R.C. Buford said has happened just two or three times before.

In tough economic times, Buford and Popovich praised Spurs owner Peter Holt for spending the money on the moves to make a run. Ginobili's contact is up after this season and guard Tony Parker, entering the prime of his career, has two years left.

The overhaul also got the approval of another important stakeholder.

"I don't think there's been many things that have gone on since Tim joined this program — I mean, since when we joined Tim's program — that Tim hasn't had significant input on," Buford said.

Duncan shed 15 pounds over the summer and gave himself an extra month off to save his strength for the spring. Parker may have seized the role of the chief offensive weapon — Ginobili called Parker the team's new "natural" leading scorer — but San Antonio's success still hinges on Duncan staying healthy.

Duncan is one of only three active players with four championships, along with O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher.

"He's the same. He's fundamental, one of the smartest players I've ever played against," O'Neal said. "For me and him, it's the first to five (championships). That's it."

If Duncan wins that race, he says it won't be because of him.

"I'm not carrying any weight. I'm just riding those guys," Duncan said of his new-look team. "I'm just along for the ride."