What will it take to get the average sports fan to give Tim Duncan his due?  What does it take to be considered one of the all-time greats? 

Would he need multiple championships?  What about averaging 20-10-2.5 plus for his career?  All-NBA first team for an unprecedented 8 times in the 8 first years of his career?  Could Duncan get some respect if he made an all-defensive team for nearly a decade consecutive?  Start in the All-Star game for many years in a row?  Or if he was among league leaders in scoring, shooting percentage, rebounding, getting to the free throw line, and blocking shots for that same time period?  What if he showed the heart to score 41 points and 15 rebounds in a game 7 as his team is eliminated in one of the closest and most grueling playoff series of all time?

Would Duncan be spoken of in the same breath as Kareem and Magic if he had tremendous playoff performances such as shutting down Jason Kidd in the 1998 playoffs with Pop playing his Triple Towers (Perdue, Robinson, and Duncan), shutting Shaq down and lighting him up in 2003 in a decisive game 6 in the second round versus the Lakers, and singlehandedly destroying the Nets in the deciding game of the championship series by going for the near quadruple-double of  21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, and 8 blocked shots?  Do 3 finals MVPs and 2 regular season MVPs strike you?

Given the numbers, the awards, the signature performances, and the entire body of work, Tim Duncan is an NBA legend in the making.  He should have the same one-name recognition as Michael, Larry, Magic, Wilt, and Oscar.  If O'Neal is this generation's Chamberlain, Duncan is the new Bill Russell - a suffocating defender who controls the game by frightening the entire opposing offense, all the while dominating but showing the utmost humility and lacking self-aggrandizement.  He's Bill Russell but a better scorer.

We get a steady stream from the media talking about Lebron James "building his legend" but he just won his first playoff series.  While James is awesome, let's wait to anoint the new king until he claims the crown, or at least until the guy can guard his own shadow.  Others wish to vaunt Nash or Bryant or other players to the most respected names in basketball lore.  Why not reserve that acclaim for the only two current NBA players whose body of work simply exude legendary greatness: Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan?

Can you really not consider Duncan great because he whines too much to the officials or that he is a slightly-below-average free throw shooter?  More MVPs and legends have much bigger holes in their character or game: Jordan was a philanderer and constantly ripped his teammates - he even drove out his coach; Nash couldn't guard Dick Bavetta; Bird couldn't guard Red Auerbach; Magic was an average shooter; according to Karl Malone, Karl Malone never committed a foul; Cousy and Iverson have shooting percentages approaching the Mendoza line; Kobe turns the ball over far too often and is a sub-par three-point shooter; and the list goes on.  Duncan's flaws, while he should make every effort to improve on them, are far outweighed by his overall greatness.

One might argue that the MVPs, the All-NBAs, and rings are all the recognition Duncan could want; he'd probably agree with you.  But does Duncan not get the recognition as one of the all-time greats from the casual fan because he plays in San Antonio?  Or because he doesn't flex his muscles after blocks, doesn't get his name in the police blotter, doesn't wave his arms to the crowd, doesn't create controversy?  How can an NBA fan not revere a man with so many basketball accomplishments, but also is a role model in the community, generously donates his time and money to myriad causes, embodies professionalism and work ethic, supports his teammates on and off the court, respects authority, treats others with courtesy, treats his opponents and the media with respect and dignity, recognizes his personal accomplishments as a function of team success, and is by most measures everything we expect and hope a professional athlete would be?

Duncan's accomplishments dwarf those of Walton, Wilkins, Thomas, Ewing, Olajuwon, Barkley, Miller, Payton, Kidd, Iverson, Bryant, King, Gervin, Robinson, Robertson, and most everybody on the NBA's 50 Greatest Players list - and he still has plenty of mind-blowing basketball left in him.  It's time the casual NBA fan realizes that Duncan is not only great, but one of the best ever to play the game of basketball.