NBA: San Antonio Spurs great Tim Duncan returns to team as assistant under longtime head coach Gregg Popovich

Los Angeles: San Antonio great Tim Duncan is returning to the Spurs as an assistant under longtime head coach Gregg Popovich, the NBA team said Monday. [caption id=“attachment_736415” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Tim Duncan and Tony Parker were superb for Spurs. AP[/caption] “It is only fitting, that after I served loyally for 19 years as Tim Duncan’s assistant, that he returns the favor,” Popovich said in a statement released by the team. Duncan, who won five NBA titles with the Spurs, has been a familiar figure at the Spurs practice facility since he retired in 2016, helping out informally. He is the Spurs’ all-time leader in points, rebounds and blocked shots, but in their low-key announcement on Monday, the Spurs gave him shared billing with another new assistant coach, Will Hardy. Hardy, who joined the Spurs as a basketball operations intern in 2010 after graduating from Williams College, “is a talented, young basketball mind who has earned a great deal of respect from everyone in the organization thanks to his knowledge, spirit and personality,” Popovich said.