Tim Duncan Once Benched Himself To Evade Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, LeBron James ‘Start, Bench, Cut’ Dilemma

There are few NBA players whose careers can ever stand up to the lofty standards set by Tim Duncan. The Spurs legend entered the league as an All-NBA First Team player and left it after bagging more All-Defensive Team accolades than anyone in league history. The Wake Forest product was dominant in the NBA from Day 1 and was able to outclass practically every power forward and big man in the league his whole career.

Even while he closed in on his age-40 season, Tim Duncan was giving lessons to heavyweights like DeMarcus Cousins on the court, putting them back in high school and leaving them confused about his intentions with the ball. He had a trademark bank shot from the low post region that nobody was able to guard or alter. No player has ever provided more value to a franchise, save for Michael Jordan, than Duncan.

Duncan did all of this, etching a Hall of Fame career into the history books, with the lowest of low profiles. The man earned 15 All-Defensive Team nods, 15 All-Star selections and 15 All-NBA picks, but never tried to be the larger than life figure that his contemporaries like Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant became. And even in retirement, when he could freely have talked trash, he chose to be in the shadows.

This was best exemplified by his interview answer on a classic episode of the Road Trippin’ podcast with Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye. A former Spurs teammate, Richard Jefferson put Tim Duncan on the spot with a ‘Start, Bench, Cut’ question, asking him who he would cut out of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James if he had to pick one of those people.

Always one to avoid controversy, the Hall of Famer chose a self-deprecating way of answering the question:

No I refuse to answer that one. I will start all three of them and cut and bench myself.