George Karl Says There Are "Whispers" That Tim Duncan Will Retire After This Season

In his ESPN spot yesterday, George Karl noted that this could be Tim Duncan’s final NBA season. “Over the weekend, that was the whispers that I got,” Karl said. “I got a couple phone calls — one from San Antonio that said Tim Duncan’s thinking like this is gonna be his last year. He’s the most fundamental big guy in the history of the NBA, and his leaving would make me very, very sad.”

As Project Spurs points out, though Duncan wasn’t an All-Star this year, he’s still capable of performing at a very high level; he had 23 second-half points last week in a win over Boston.

Karl finished the segment about Duncan by agreeing with the assertion that, when the Spurs big man does decide to retire, it probably won’t be timed to enable a prolonged farewell tour. This was the broadcasting equivalent of sub-tweeting Derek Jeter, who is undoubtedly distraught at the accusation.