Spurs: Top 10 opponent quotes about Tim Duncan

10. Draymond Green offers two gems about San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan

The careers of Draymond Green and Tim Duncan didn't intersect that much, as Green didn't enter the league until 2013, three seasons before Duncan retired. Still, Green played Duncan enough times to learn what didn't work against him.

In a 2016 piece for ESPN, Marc Spears shared a story Draymond told about going up against one of the all-time greats.

"My rookie year I kind of talked junk to everybody. In the middle of the game I started talking to Tim, and I had already got into it with somebody on their team. I don't remember who it was. But I started talking to Tim and he kind of just stared at me. I just kept talking junk to him and he kept staring at me."

There are several similar stories about Tim out there, but the way Draymond recounts it is objectively hilarious. Green has a way of getting under most people's skin (mine included), so picturing Tim not react at all to his antics is priceless.

"At that point, I realized during the rest of my career that I might as well not talk to him," Green continued. "Either, one, he is not going to talk back because he has no respect for me. Or, two, he is not going to talk back because that is who he is. Or, three, both. I figured then that was the last time I would talk junk to Tim. "

Personally, I hope the correct answer was both. But as offputting as his on-court actions sometimes were, Green often gave the Spurs praise, later bringing up Tim Duncan's winning consistency in the middle of a rough rebuilding Warriors' season.

Duncan retired with an 11-5 record against Draymond Green.

9. "Hell no, it wasn't cool." - Chris Bosh on guarding Tim Duncan

It's always nice to hear a top player talk about how unstoppable you are, and that's exactly what Chris Bosh did in a 2020 podcast appearance on The Lowe Post. Bosh and Duncan faced off in two consecutive NBA Finals in 2013 and 2014, with each of their teams taking home the title once in those series.

On top of his 7-5 playoff edge over Bosh, Duncan won 18 of 30 regular season games over the 11-time All-Star, with the two frequently matched up one-on-one in crucial situations. As Bosh lamented to Zach Lowe, he wasn't exactly having fun guarding Tim.

"Hell no, it wasn’t cool. It was the hardest sh– I’ve ever done in my life man," said Bosh. "He had the size on me but just every play down the court, man, he was hitting me, and nah, it wasn’t fun. Cause the way Popovich and their system is designed, they knew that they had the size advantage on me. So the whole series, I was being put in positions I didn’t want to be put in."

Since it was Bosh that kept the Heat's possession alive to break the Spurs' hearts in 2013, we can at least take solace in the fact that Duncan tortured him on the court so often.