Was This The End of Tim Duncan and the Spurs As We've Known Them?

The Spurs just got eliminated from the playoffs by Oklahoma City. San Antonio, after winning 67 games in the regular season – the most of the Tim Duncan era – suddenly looked old. This is crazy, especially considering the Spurs won Game 1 of this series 124-92.

Tim Duncan, who was not at his career peak but was nonetheless productive in the regular season, sat for prolonged stretches in this series. In Games 2 through 5 in this series, he totaled nine points. He’s got a player option for next season, and it remains to be seen whether or not he’d retire. If he does go, he’s arguably the greatest power forward in NBA history.

Though Duncan had his best game of the series tonight, scoring 19 points, this sequence as the Spurs were attempting to mount a highly improbable comeback was a sign that Father Time is making his presence known:

" Time to retire Timmy #TimDuncan pic.twitter.com/hRTC13xPoH — gifdsports (@gifdsports) May 13, 2016 "

Manu Ginobili is signed for next year, but not at such a high amount of money that it would be crazy for him to hang it up; he averaged under seven points per game in the series. What will he choose to do?

If Duncan and/or Ginobili do retire, they had a hell of a run. The accomplishments don’t even need to be listed out. Whenever they – and Tony Parker – are done, the Spurs will look weird without them. That will take some getting used to.

That being said, they will probably still be pretty good. Kawhi Leonard is one of the best players in the NBA and LaMarcus Aldridge is signed for another three years. RC Buford and Gregg Popovich know what they’re doing. (Duh.) Until they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt for us to believe they’ll still be in the picture.