Basketball

Isiah Thomas

Full Name: Isiah Lord Thomas III
Born: 4/30/61 in Chicago
High School: St. Joseph's
College: Indiana
Drafted by: Detroit Pistons, 1981
(second overall)
Height: 6-1; Weight: 182 lbs.
Honors: Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2000); NBA champion (1989, '90); NBA Finals MVP (1990); All-NBA First Team (1984, '85, '86); All-NBA Second Team (1983, '87); NBA All-Rookie Team (1982); 12-time NBA All-Star (1982-93); NBA All-Star Game MVP (1984, '86); J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award (1987); One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996).

Isiah "Zeke" Thomas was one of the greatest "small men" ever to play professional basketball. His only peer at point guard in the NBA during the 1980s was the Lakers' Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who at 6-9 brought unique physical skills to the position.

Thomas, who stood barely over 6-feet, was in his day the grittiest performer to play the position, a feisty competitor who offered no quarter and expected none in return. Like Johnson, Thomas possessed the skill and determination to take over a game at will.

Thomas helped build a last-place Detroit Pistons team into back-to-back NBA champions in the late 1980s. Thomas' sunny smile belied an inner toughness that made him a key member of a scrappy, physical group of players dubbed the "Bad Boys" of Detroit.

"I call him the baby-faced assassin," an opposing coach once told the Charlotte Observer, "because he smiles at you, then cuts you down."

Like many of his teammates, Thomas was tempestuous, edgy, vocal and not opposed to balling up his fist when he felt the need. And he knew how to handle pain; he often played with injuries resulting from his rough-and-tumble style.

That fighting spirit, coupled with a shrewd business sense, served Thomas well as president of the NBA Players Association in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and continues to serve him well in his post-playing days, whether as an executive with the Toronto Raptors or the Head Coach of the Indiana Pacers .

Though Thomas was an unselfish player, his personal achievements were impressive. In 13 years with Detroit, he became the franchise's all-time leader in points, assists, steals and games played. He made the All-Star Team in all but his final year and was named NBA Finals MVP in 1990.

Along with Johnson, Oscar Robertson and Utah's John Stockton, Thomas became the fourth player in NBA history to amass more than 9,000 assists. His 13.9 assists per game in 1984-85 set an NBA record for the highest single-season average ever, until Stockton bested it with 14.5 in 1989-90.

Thomas refused to let his height limit what he could do on the court. He was a dangerous shooter from any spot on the floor, a smart passer and a smooth, clever playmaker. He was also known for his full-speed, acrobatic drives into the teeth of the toughest and tallest frontcourtmen. Thomas took whatever defenses gave him, whether it was a three-pointer, the baseline, the lane or an alley-oop opportunity. He combined intelligence, court savvy and physical gifts to attain true NBA superstardom. Off the court, Thomas was a tireless charity worker known for his sincerity and compassion.

Isiah Lord Thomas III came into the world in 1961 under the harshest of circumstances. He was the youngest of nine children growing up in one of the poorest and dangerous neighborhoods of West Chicago. His family sometimes went without food or heat, and the lack of bed space forced some of the kids to sleep on the floor. Isiah's father left the family when he was 3 years old, leaving Isiah's mother to raise the children.

Mary Thomas, whose courage inspired a 1990 television movie, did her best to shield her children from the drugs, violence and crime that plagued the area. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, one night, when thugs came looking for Isiah, his mother got out her sawed-off shotgun and warned them, "There's only one gang here, and I lead it. Get off my porch or I'll blow you off it!" Another night, when Isiah got home late, she grounded him for the entire summer.

Rick Majerus, then a Marquette assistant coach who tried to recruit Thomas, remembered, "You talk about abject poverty, human failing, suffering -- they had all that in Isiah's neighborhood. You'd go in there and here was this young guy who's got this big smile. He was unbelievably optimistic for someone who had gone through all the misfortune that has occurred in his family. He was very focused."

Thomas played high school ball at St. Joseph's in Westchester, where he led the team to the state-title game as a junior in 1978. In 1979, he was a member of the gold medal-winning United States team at the Pan-American Games.

That fall Thomas enrolled at Indiana University. The street-hardened freshman impressed Coach Bobby Knight from the outset, averaging 14.6 points and 5.5 assists in his first season. That summer Thomas was selected to play on the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, but a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games robbed him of the Olympic experience.

As a 19-year-old sophomore, Thomas (16.0 ppg, 5.8 apg) steered the Hoosiers to the 1981 NCAA Championship. Following that season he passed up his final two years of collegiate eligibility and entered the 1981 NBA Draft.

The 1980-81 Pistons were the second-worst team in the league, with a 21-61 record. Detroit was one of the few franchises that didn't have a player capable of scoring 20 points per game. The hapless club made Thomas the second overall pick in the 1981 draft behind DePaul's Mark Aguirre, a childhood friend of Thomas who later became his teammate. (Thomas, who had promised his mother he would finish college, received his degree in criminal justice six years later -- on Mother's Day.)

In 1981-82, with center Bill Laimbeer and rookie forward Kelly Tripucka also aboard, the Pistons posted an 18-game turnaround and climbed to third in the Central Division. Thomas had a solid first year (17.0 ppg, 7.8 apg, 150 steals), stepping into the point guard position and leading the team in assists and steals.

He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team and made the first of his12 straight trips to the NBA All-Star Game. The 20-year-old rookie started, scored 12 points and dished out four assists in the East's 120-118 win at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

The competitive spirit fostered by Thomas's childhood manifested itself in his on-court performance. Although just a second-year pro, Thomas assumed the role of floor general, leading the team in assists, steals and minutes played. His 22.9 scoring average in 1982-83 was the second-highest on the team and the highest of his career.

As a team, however, the Pistons posted no improvement in the standings, finishing at 37-45. But the league started to take notice of the little man with the big smile who seemed to be able to do with the basketball whatever his heart desired. Thomas was tough from start to finish, and he was particularly focused in a game's final minutes.

During the mid-1980s, Thomas, Magic and Sidney Moncrief were the best all-around guards in the league. Still needing to carry much of the Pistons' offensive load, Thomas scored more than 20 points per game in each season from 1982-83 to 1986-87. The quick-handed guard was among the NBA's most prolific ball thieves.

But above all, he was the consummate quarterback, consistently placing near the top of the league in assists. In 1984-85, he set an all-time record by averaging 13.9 assists. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team for three consecutive seasons from 1983-84 to 1985-86. While keeping his own point totals healthy, Thomas fed Laimbeer, Tripucka, John Long and Vinnie Johnson a steady diet of scoring opportunities. Thomas could pass to anybody. In being named MVP of the 1984 and 1986 All-Star Games, Thomas recorded 15 and 10 assists, respectively.

When Chuck Daly came aboard as head coach for 1983-84, the Pistons became a playoff team once again. They were quiet in the first three years of Daly's reign, losing annually in the preliminary rounds to the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics or the Atlanta Hawks. But then, in 1987, Detroit came within one game of reaching the NBA Finals.

The Eastern Conference Finals against the Celtics was one of the roughest of the era. Recriminations flew off the court, while elbows and expletives were traded on the hardwood. The experience was a painful one for Thomas. With five seconds left in Game 5, Larry Bird stole a Thomas inbounds pass and fed Dennis Johnson for a layup, giving Boston a 108-107 win. The war came to a head in Game 7. After 48 minutes of pounding, Boston survived, 117-114.

Thomas emerged from the series more driven and competitive than ever. The Pistons now had one of the league's most talented and bruising lineups, with Thomas, Laimbeer, Vinnie Johnson, Adrian Dantley, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars.

With Thomas in top form, Detroit seemed ready to surge past Atlanta and the Milwaukee Bucks for the division title in 1987-88. The Pistons met the challenge, finishing the year in first place at 54-28. Thomas' statistics dipped a bit (19.5 ppg, 8.4 apg), but only because he was part of a complete team with few, if any, weaknesses. He could concentrate more on helping to bring out each player's individual talents.

In 1987-88, the Pistons reached the NBA Finals for the first time since moving to Detroit from Fort Wayne in 1958. In a painful repeat of the previous season's loss to Boston, Detroit lost a seven-game heartbreaker to the defending NBA-champion Los Angeles Lakers. (Before the Game 1 tipoff, Thomas and close friend Magic Johnson exchanged what may have been the first on-court kiss in league history.)

Holding a three-games-to-two series lead, the Pistons lost Game 6, 103-102, despite 43 points from Thomas (25 points in one quarter, setting an NBA Finals record), who played on a badly sprained ankle. Los Angeles, behind James Worthy's 36 points and 16 rebounds, sweated out Game 7 and won, 108-105.

Thomas and the Pistons peaked in 1988-89, when their 63-19 record was tops in the league. Detroit picked up Thomas's buddy, Mark Aguirre, from the Dallas Mavericks in a controversial midseason trade for Dantley, giving the Pistons still more scoring power. Seven Pistons averaged more than 13.5 points, a tribute to Thomas' unselfishness and slick playmaking.

The Bad Boys pulled out all the stops in the playoffs, sweeping Boston in three games and Milwaukee in four to reach the Conference Finals against rival Chicago. Despite a great effort from the Bulls' Michael Jordan, Detroit won in six games and advanced to meet the Lakers in the NBA Finals. Los Angeles, though dominant throughout the decade, was ill-prepared for the series. In his last season, 42-year-old center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was ineffective and guards Magic Johnson and Byron Scott were slowed by hamstring injuries. The overpowering Pistons swept the Lakers for their first-ever NBA title.

The Pistons played and intimidated, their way to a second consecutive NBA Championship in 1989-90, becoming the second team since the 1968-69 Boston Celtics to win back-to-back crowns, and the sixth team ever to do so. During the season they used a 25-1 midseason tear to finish with a 59-23 record.

Thomas was named MVP of the Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, averaging 27.6 points and 7.0 assists. After the series, Thomas told HOOP magazine: "We never quit. We always feel we are going to win, no matter what the score is. It's all a battle of will. You have to keep asking yourself, 'How bad do you really want it?'"

The Chicago Bulls, with scoring champion in Jordan, took the division title away from the Pistons in 1990-91. In the playoffs Thomas was slowed by a sprained foot, a pulled leg muscle, and an injured wrist. Detroit's dynasty came to an end and Chicago's dynasty began when the Bulls swept the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Lingering physical problems slowed Thomas in the twilight of his career, and the aging Pistons faded further into the shadow of Jordan and the Bulls. By the 1993-94 season it was clear that Thomas, then 32 years old, was nearing the end of his playing days. That season he suffered a hyperextended knee, a broken rib, a strained arch, a calf injury and a cut left hand. Then, in his last home game against Orlando, he tore an Achilles tendon, effectively ending his career.

Thomas retired with 18,822 points (19.2 ppg), 9,061 assists (9.3 apg), and 1,861 steals over 979 games -- all Pistons records. He shot .452 from the field and .759 from the free-throw line. In 1996-97, Thomas was honored as a member of the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Thomas' many business ventures and his stint as president of the NBA Players Association groomed him well for life after basketball. After his retirement he became part owner of the expansion Toronto Raptors, who began play in the NBA in the 1995-96 season. As the team's Executive Vice President, Basketball, Thomas was charged with molding the character of the expansion club, and one of his first moves was to draft a talented, under-sized point guard -- Damon Stoudamire, who became Rookie of the Year in 1995-96.

He also continued his charity work with educational, anti-crime and anti-poverty programs; during his playing career, Thomas had paid college tuition for more than 75 young people. He spoke of this work to the Los Angeles Times with typical Thomas bluntness: "As a person and as a human being, if the only thing I'm remembered for is playing a stupid game of basketball, then I haven't done a very good job in my life. Basketball isn't everything to me."

James Worthy

Full Name: James Ager Worthy
Born: 2/27/61 in Gastonia, N.C.
High School: Ashbrook (Gastonia, N.C.)
College: North Carolina
Drafted by: Los Angeles Lakers, 1982 (first overall)
Height: 6-9; Weight: 225 lbs.
Nickname: Big Game James
Honors: Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2003); NBA champion (1985, '87, '88); NBA Finals MVP (1988); All-NBA Third Team (1990, '91); All-Rookie Team (1983); Seven-time NBA All-Star (1986-92); One of 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996).

When James Worthy retired before the 1994-95 season, it was fitting that Magic Johnson was there to describe Worthy's career. Johnson, after all, had made the passes on the fast break that set up hundreds of Worthy's trademark one-handed swooping dunks.

"James Worthy was one of the top 10 -- top five -- players in playoff history," Johnson stated at the news conference in which Worthy announced his retirement.

No one argued with that assessment. By the time he retired, Worthy owned a Most Outstanding Player Award from the 1982 NCAA Final Four and a Most Valuable Player Award from the 1988 NBA Finals. He was a member of three NBA championship teams with the Los Angeles Lakers (in 1985, 1987, and 1988). His career postseason averages of 21.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game were higher than his regular-season averages of 17.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per contest.

He recorded his first triple-double in arguably the biggest game of his career: Game 7 of the 1988 Finals against Detroit, in which Worthy collected 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. He also holds the all-time record for the highest field goal percentage in a five-game playoff series, .721 in the 1985 Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets.

Never was a nickname better suited to a player than Worthy's moniker of "Big Game James."

By the time he was a ninth-grader at Grier Junior High in Gastonia, N.C., Worthy's basketball exploits were already making front-page news. Coached at Ashbrook High by a Dean Smith disciple named Larry Rhodes, Worthy attended summer basketball camp at Chapel Hill and early on seemed destined to wear Tar Heel blue. Averaging 21.5 points and 12.5 rebounds as a senior at Ashbrook, Worthy was a unanimous selection as a prep All-American. His stardom at the University of North Carolina seemed assured.

Then, midway through his freshman campaign, Worthy slipped on a wet spot on the Carmichael Auditorium floor and broke his ankle. He missed the last 14 games of the season and, for a time, it appeared his career might be in doubt.

Typically, the unflappable Worthy made the best of an unfortunate situation.

"I wasn't sure I would be able to come back with the same type of intensity I'd always had," Worthy told Sport magazine in 1991. "I wasn't traveling with the team, I wasn't going to all the practices, and I wasn't a part of the day-to-day routine. It really made me wake up and expose myself to all kinds of people -- not confine myself to just basketball."

Fully recovered, Worthy became an All-Atlantic Coast Conference forward as a sophomore. He averaged 14.2 points and 8.4 rebounds that season while shooting .500 from the floor.

It was his junior year at UNC, however, that became legendary. In 1981-82 Worthy was part of one of the greatest collections of talent in collegiate basketball history, a squad that included Sam Perkins and a freshman named Michael Jordan. The Tar Heels stormed through the regular season. A consensus First-Team All-American, Worthy averaged 15.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists while shooting .573 from the floor. He shared national Player of the Year honors with Virginia's Ralph Sampson.

The UNC squad reached the 1982 NCAA championship game as the slight favorite over Georgetown and Patrick Ewing. That contest would set the pattern for the rest of Worthy's storied career. As always, he was at his best in the biggest game, scoring 28 points on 13-for-17 shooting and making a key steal of a Fred Brown pass to seal North Carolina's victory.

Worthy was named Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four, yet his heroics were at least partially overshadowed by Jordan's storied game-winning jumper. Despite his greatness, it was Worthy's fate to be overshadowed by his more celebrated teammates: Jordan in college, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson in the pros.

The Lakers had won the NBA championship in 1982, and they had one of the league's top small forwards in Jamaal Wilkes. But astute trading had given Los Angeles the top pick in the draft. During the 1979-80 season the Lakers sent Don Ford and a 1980 first-round pick (which became Chad Kinch) to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Butch Lee and the Cavs' first-round pick in 1982. When that pick turned out to be the No. 1 overall selection, the Lakers claimed Worthy, who had decided to pass up his senior year at North Carolina. Worthy became only the second overall No. 1 draft choice the Lakers have had since moving to California in 1960. The first, of course, had been Magic in 1979.

Wilkes was still at the top of his game when Worthy arrived. Wilkes averaged 21.1 points in 1981-82 (16th in the league) and played more minutes for the Lakers than everyone but Johnson and Norm Nixon. On most NBA teams Worthy would have been the immediate star; on the Lakers, he had to serve an apprenticeship.

Magic would recall that the way Worthy handled himself that first year showed immediately that he had the brains to go along with his physical gifts.

"Even though he was the No. 1 pick in the draft, he had made up his own mind that he was gonna learn from Wilkes, and he accepted his role," Johnson told the Los Angeles Daily News after Worthy retired. "That told me he was a team player, and a winner too. Most rookies would be complaining and griping, but he never did that."

Worthy nevertheless put together a respectable rookie campaign. He played in 77 games before fracturing his left tibia and missing the 1983 playoffs. His field goal percentage of .579 topped all other NBA first-year players and remains a Lakers club record for rookies. He averaged 13.4 points and 5.2 rebounds and was unanimously selected to the All-Rookie Team. The Lakers were swept in the NBA Finals by the Philadelphia 76ers, but "Showtime" had more appearances to come at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles.

Prior to the 1983-84 season, the Lakers traded Nixon to the San Diego Clippers for Swen Nater and the draft rights to rookie Byron Scott. Worthy started 53 games, and the Lakers had the nucleus that would carry them to NBA titles in three of the next five years.

In the 1984 NBA Finals, Los Angeles lost to Boston in a thrilling seven-game series that included two overtime games. As he would throughout his career, Worthy increased his production during the playoffs: He averaged 17.7 ppg and 2.7 apg in 21 postseason games, compared to 14.5 ppg and 1.7 apg in the regular season.

In 1984-85, L.A. was the dominant team in the league. The Lakers had the second-best regular-season record, one game behind Boston at 62-20, and led all teams except Denver in scoring. The Lakers swept through the playoffs, losing only three games through the Western Conference Finals, and beat Boston in six games for the NBA championship.

And James Worthy had arrived, becoming the third-leading scorer (17.6 ppg) and second-leading rebounder (6.4 rpg) on the club. As always, he shot well, finishing the regular season with a .572 field goal percentage.

With Worthy, Scott and Michael Cooper filling the lanes and Magic running the show, the Lakers developed one of the most feared fast breaks in the history of the game. Again, Worthy rose to the occasion in the postseason, scoring 21.5 ppg. He later called it the championship that meant the most to him.

"It's not just because it was my first NBA championship, but that we did it in the [Boston] Garden," he told Sport magazine in 1991. "That was the one I cherish the most. There was a lot of attention to the fact that they'd pretty much dominated us, even though that was back in the '60s. Plus, we had lost to them the year before, so we had a lot of incentive."

The NBA championship swung back to the Celtics in 1985-86, although Worthy had the best season of his career to date and made the first of seven consecutive appearances in the NBA All-Star Game. He upped his scoring average to 20.0 ppg, the first of four times Worthy would average 20 or more points in the regular season. He equaled his career-best .579 field goal percentage in the regular season. In the playoffs he averaged 19.5 points -- the only time in his career when his scoring average did not increase in the postseason.

The next two seasons proved to be the peak of not only Worthy's career but of the Lakers' dominance in the 1980s. Los Angeles had the best record in the league both years, winning 65 games in 1986-87 and 62 in 1987-88. They beat Boston in six games in the 1987 NBA Finals and the Detroit Pistons in seven for the 1988 NBA title, becoming the first team in two decades to repeat as champion.

Worthy was superb, adding his own take to the position defined by Elgin Baylor and Julius Erving. Besides averaging 19.5 ppg in those two seasons (22.4 ppg in the playoffs), he became an excellent passer from his forward spot. His assists increased to 3.5 per game in 1987-88. And in the playoffs he was, as always, Big Game James.

The Lakers struggled through the 1988 postseason, surviving seven-game series against both the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks before facing the Pistons in the NBA Finals. In 24 playoff games Worthy averaged 21.1 points, 4.4 assists and 5.8 rebounds while shooting .523 from the floor. He capped the year by scoring 36 points, grabbing 16 rebounds and handing out 10 assists as the Lakers beat Detroit, 108-105, at the Forum to win the title.

Worthy was named MVP of the Finals. It is perhaps emblematic of his career that he was not even named to the All-NBA Third Team that season.

That was the last of the Lakers' NBA championships during the Magic-Kareem-Worthy era. Los Angeles was swept by the Detroit Pistons in the 1989 Finals, lost to the Phoenix Suns in the 1990 Western Conference Semifinals, and fell to the Chicago Bulls in five games in the 1991 NBA Finals. As the team's fortunes declined, however, Worthy's role continued to grow.

He led the Lakers in minutes played in 1988-89 (36.5 per game) and averaged 20.5 ppg. In 1989-90. he had perhaps his finest year statistically, scoring 21.1 ppg and pulling down a career-high 6.0 rpg. He averaged more than 24.0 ppg in the playoffs in both 1989 and 1990 and earned the first of his two All-NBA selections (on the Third Team) in 1990.

In 1990-91, Worthy averaged 21.4 ppg, his highest single-season mark. But he shot .492 from the floor -- the first time in his career that he had registered a field goal percentage below .500 for a season. Worthy had posted a field goal percentage higher than .530 in each of his first eight seasons in the league -- something no other player had ever accomplished to date.

The Lakers again advanced to the NBA Finals in 1991, but after winning the first game, they lost four straight and Jordan's Chicago Bulls captured the first championship in franchise history.

Worthy played three more seasons before retiring prior to the start of the 1994-95 campaign. He took with him 16,320 career points and a truckload of golden moments. Fans and former teammates viewed his departure as marking the end of an era, and the always-cool Worthy was not oblivious to the feelings.

"I can remember coming into the league and being under the likes of Kareem, Jamaal Wilkes, Magic, Norm Nixon and Bob McAdoo," he told the Los Angeles Times. "Now I find myself in that situation. Guys are telling me how they were in junior high, watching us beat the Celtics in '85. I can't be that old."

Worthy will be remembered for his breathtaking athletic skills -- the blinding speed, the smooth, effortless glides to the hoop, the one-handed tomahawk jams. And he will be recalled as the ultimate clutch player -- his career postseason field goal percentage of .544 ranks among the top 10 on the NBA's all-time playoff list.

"I don't think there has been or will be a better small forward than James, and I don't think people appreciated that," said his coach, Pat Riley, to the Los Angeles Daily News upon Worthy's retirement. "He was always such a quiet guy. But when he was in his prime, I can guarantee you, there wasn't anybody who could touch him."

Tim Duncan

Position: F-C
Born: 04/25/76
Height: 6-11 / 2,11
Weight: 260 lbs. / 117,9 kg.
College: Wake Forest '97

• He and wife, Amy, were married in the summer of 2001
• Tim and Amy created the Tim Duncan Foundation in 2001 and serve as President and Vice President, respectively, for their Foundation. The Tim Duncan Foundation funds non-profit organizations in the areas of education, youth sports and recreation, and health awareness in the communities of San Antonio, Winston-Salem, NC and St. Croix. The Foundation sponsors two special events each year: Tim Duncan’s BOWLING FOR DOLLAR$ Charity Bowl-A-Thon, which has raised over $600,000 for Breast and Prostate Cancer prevention, detection, and treatment; and the Tim Duncan Charity Golf Classic, which has raised nearly $135,000 for education and youth sports programs. The Funds raised at the Foundation’s annual events are re-invested into the community and through such activities, the Foundation has supported nearly 200 organizations since inception in 2001.
• Received his degree in psychology from Wake Forest
• Didn’t play organized basketball until ninth grade, concentrated on swimming as a youngster - at one point was a top U.S. competitor in his age group in the 400 freestyle - before his local pool was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989
• Known for wearing his practice shorts backwards, a trend he started while at Wake
• Has two sisters, Cheryl and Tricia. Tricia was a member of the Virgin Islands swim team in the 1988 Olympics
• Has a large knife collection which includes a three-foot samurai sword
• Admits to being afraid of heights and sharks
• Favorite movie is The Crow
• A video game junkie
• The winner of the 2001 Home Team Community Service Award given by the Fannie Mae Foundation and the NBA
• Named one of the "Good Guys" in sports by The Sporting News in both 2001 and 2002
• Has a block of 40 tickets to each Spurs home game which he donates through the Tim Duncan Character Champions program
• Also supports the Children's Bereavement Center, the Children's Center of San Antonio and the Cancer Therapy and Research Center