Tim Duncan announced his retirement Monday after a 19-year NBA career that saw him win five NBA championships and two MVP awards, plus cement his status as one of the league's greatest-ever players.
Unlike legends like Michael Jordan or contemporaries like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, Duncan was not a fixture during commercial breaks as a product endorser -- unless you lived in the San Antonio area, where his commercials for supermarket chain HEB were as legendary as anything he did on the court.
The series of ads has been airing for more than a decade, with role players rotating in and out around the core of Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. And while casual NBA fans may think of Duncan as the stoic player without a personality (unless a foul was called on him), the ads show Duncan's lighter side, including a dry sense of humor that will crack you up. Here are, in no particular order, 10 of our favorites from the ongoing series.
Yes, Tim Duncan has a happy place. Hopefully he'll be able to spend more time there now that he's retired. And if that happy place could include filming these commercials every year for the rest of his life, that'd be great for all NBA fans too. And if not, it seems like Kawhi Leonard is perfectly suited to step into Duncan's drily funny leading role.
