Pau Gasol Must Walk Fine Line Replacing San Antonio Spurs Legend Tim Duncan

SAN ANTONIO — There is no replacing Tim Duncan, the great power forward who retired in July after leading the San Antonio Spurs to five NBA championships and the best record in the NBA over the past two decades.

Pau Gasol, who will fill Duncan’s spot in the Spurs’ starting lineup when their regular season begins with an Oct. 25 game against the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena, understands this better than anyone.

“Tim has been so exceptional and unique,” Gasol said. “He’s been considered by most of us to be the best power forward who has ever played the game. So I’m not coming here to fill his shoes and the spot that he left. I’m here to fit in as best as I can with the guys who are here to win a title, basically. And work as hard as I can to do that.”

When the Spurs signed Gasol to a free-agent contract in July, they may have accomplished something unprecedented in NBA history: replacing a Hall of Fame player with another who also may be enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts, someday. A six-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA selection with career averages of 18.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game and two NBA titles, Gasol’s NBA resume combines with an outstanding international career, both in the Spanish ACB League and FIBA competitions.

Finding great big men is hard enough; Replacing one of the greatest bigs with another elite center is nearly impossible.

The Boston Celtics came close, but when Bill Russell retired after the 1968-69 season, they had to endure a 34-48 season with Hank Finkel, a skinny 7-footer who averaged just 9.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in Russell’s starting spot. That gave them Dave Cowens with the fourth overall pick in the 1970 draft. Cowens played 10 seasons, led Boston to two NBA titles (1974 and 1976) and entered the Hall of Fame in 1991.

The Los Angeles Lakers know plenty about replacing Hall of Fame centers. Elmore Smith, who supplanted Wilt Chamberlain in 1973, was a solid 5 who led the league in blocked shots during his first season as the starter but never made an All-Star team, let alone the Hall of Fame. They later drafted 7’1″ Yugoslavian star Vlade Divac to take Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s spot as starting center after the NBA’s all-time scoring leader retired in 1989.

Divac had a fine NBA career but made only one All-Star team.

And when, despite …

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