Tim Duncan is stepping away from his full-time coaching role with Spurs

San Antonio Spurs legend and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame selection Tim Duncan won't be a full-time assistant coach when the upcoming NBA season gets underway. 

Marc Stein of the New York Times was the first to report that Duncan is stepping away from the role after spending the 2019-20 campaign as an assistant on Gregg Popovich's staff.

Technically, Duncan's full-time gig ended when the Association halted play on March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic. He did not travel to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex bubble site and instead chose to help LaMarcus Aldridge recover from shoulder surgery. 

Duncan did serve as San Antonio acting coach during a 104-103 win over the Charlotte Hornets in March. Whether or not that will go down as his only victory in such a position is yet to be seen.

As ESPN's Tim MacMahon wrote, Duncan routinely visited the Spurs' practice facility in the first few years of his retirement as a mentor. However, Popovich explained during the Spurs' media day that preceded the 2019-20 campaign that he didn't envision Duncan working as a long-term coach at that point.