{"id":821304,"date":"2023-12-01T13:36:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T18:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=821304"},"modified":"2024-11-11T16:37:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T21:37:07","slug":"the-slam-archives-slam-47-featuring-tim-duncan-from-december-of-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/archives\/the-slam-archives-slam-47-featuring-tim-duncan-from-december-of-2000\/","title":{"rendered":"The SLAM Archives: SLAM 47 Featuring Tim Duncan From December of 2000"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The story first appeared in SLAM 247.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highly anticipated draft prospects are as old as grandparents. Whether Kareem, Ewing, Shaq or LeBron\u2014the fanfare that has preceded the professional journey of a college (or high school) superstar has rarely proved anticlimactic. In ’97, a modest but significant level of anticipation would almost personify the subsequent career of the San Antonio Spurs’ number one pick: Timothy Theodore Duncan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At SLAM, we knew the hype wasn\u2019t just hot air. We even collaborated with the trading card company The Score Board<\/em> to create SLAM cover-style cards featuring TD\u201410 in total\u2014each one educating the collector on a legit element of his game. All this before he\u2019d even stepped foot on NBA hardwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three years later, Tim Duncan had become a household name. He\u2019d found a perfect fit in the Spurs\u2019 winning culture, humbly taking on the position of prot\u00e9g\u00e9 to the great David Robinson. Not only had TD collected ROY honors, but he\u2019d also made the NBA First Team, become a staple at All-Star Weekend and won a title with a Finals MVP cherry on top. When he took a seat on the cover of SLAM 47’s George Gervin homage masterpiece (shout out to Russ Bengtson), we were presented with an image that articulated what we already knew\u2014Timmy D is cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s number-one draft pick has us on board the hype train for sure. I\u2019m riding first class with popcorn and free Wi-Fi. In other words, I\u2019m invested in traveling this journey with Victor Wembanyama. Not only is he joining a franchise that specializes in producing elite players who win titles, but he also possesses the physical and skill attributes that the NBA has been evolving toward for the past 20 years. Wemby is the fulfillment of basketball prophecy. Not that I\u2019m getting carried away or anything\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the words of Yasiin Bey: \u201cThe kids better buy my rookie card now, ’cause after this year the price ain\u2019t comin\u2019 down.\u201d I\u2019m assuming you copped the rookie card already\u2014so let me make one last bold statement: You need that Wembanyama Issue 240 and<\/em> 247 cover. Gold Metal Edition. Do it for the grandkids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story first appeared in SLAM 247. Highly anticipated draft prospects are as old as grandparents. Whether Kareem, Ewing, Shaq or LeBron\u2014the fanfare that has preceded the professional journey of a college (or high school) superstar has rarely proved anticlimactic. In ’97, a modest but significant level of anticipation would almost personify the subsequent career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":821313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12990,110,1938,65304,262],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-821304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-slam-47","tag-slam-archives","tag-tim-duncan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821304"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821614,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821304\/revisions\/821614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821304"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=821304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}