On Tim Duncan as Artist
J.D. Salinger is dead. And his passing has me thinking of Tim Duncan.
Decades ago the champion novelist did a weird thing. He retreated from public life, but not from his work. Although his last published work appeared some 40 years ago, we’ve not seen the last of J.D. Salinger. We’ll be hearing from him now, even after he’s gone.
According to literary folklore, Salinger continued to write. In fact, there are accounts that he was sitting on a treasure trove of novels and stories, the sum product of his self-imposed exile. They’re meticulously organized and edited; they’re ready for publication. Time will tell.
I like to think of basketball players as artists-or, at least I like to think that basketball’s chief contribution to the public good is its aesthetic one. In this way, J.D. Salinger has it all over Tim Duncan. Who knows, maybe Salinger’s best work will not become public for decades. Salinger’s art lives and breathes even as he doesn’t. Not so much with Tim Duncan. His best work lives and breathes with him, but will pass from view long before he does. He’ll outlive it by decades.
Basketball artists write their poetry in the sand. And when the tide comes in, it’s gone. To whatever extent we can say that Tim Duncan plays beautifully, this is me saying drink it in.
