San Antonio Spurs: Aaron Rodgers following in Tim Duncan’s footsteps

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is taking a page out of San Antonio Spurs legend Tim Duncan’s playbook.

Tim Duncan played his full 19-year career with the San Antonio Spurs, retiring in the 2016 NBA offseason. He’s become one of the few NBA players to stay in one location for their entire careers, with Kobe Bryant also doing this on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Since being selected by the Green Bay Packers in 2005, quarterback Aaron Rodgers has remained part of the organization. He won a Super Bowl with them and is considered an elite player at his position.

According to ABCNews.com, Rodgers spoke on how he wanted to remain a Packer for his entire career, taking a page out of Duncan and Bryant’s playbooks. He mentioned how the fans remember these players differently (h/t News4SanAntonio.com):

“It’s being a sports fan and watching some of my favorite all-time players either not finish in the place they started or the place where you fell in love watching them play — or they did,” Rodgers said. “And seeing how different the memory is of those players as a fan, and seeing some of my favorite players growing finishing up now or have finished up in the last two or three years — the Derek Jeters, the Kobe Bryants, the Tim Duncans — doing it their entire career in one place, that makes things pretty special.”

Duncan’s 19 seasons saw him win five championships with the Spurs. He became one of the top players in franchise history and the face of teams from 1997-2016.

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For Bryant, he also won five titles on the Lakers. However, he didn’t become the team’s focal point until Shaquille O’Neal infamously departed in a 2004 trade to the Miami Heat.

With Derek Jeter, he was the face of the New York Yankees in the late 1990’s and into the 2000’s. Like Duncan and Bryant, he won five World Series championships, through different incarnations of the Bronx Bombers.

Rodgers has a long way to go before reaching five Super Bowl victories, but if he desires over the next few years to remain a Packer, he should be able to do so. The chances of this will only increase if he can win another Lombardi Trophy in 2018, 2019, or sometime in the future.

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At the very least, Rodgers should have his number retired by the Packers given his success and accolades accomplished on the team.