Tim Duncan could have easily gone out on top

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Tim Duncan could have easily gone out on top, with his fifth NBA championship trophy under his arm and his health intact just a few months after his 38th birthday. Theres just no way. Duncan is having too much fun with his San Antonio Spurs coaches and teammates, and hes playing too well to call it quits now. Duncan has decided to exercise the option on his contract for 2014-15 and will return next season, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Monday. The person requested anonymity because an official announcement has not been made. As the Spurs beat the two-time defending champion Miami Heat in the NBA Finals earlier this month, Duncan was asked several times about his future, as he has been for the last five or six years. He was noncommittal, saying he would take some time after the season ended to mull his decision. But after Game 5, most of the Spurs said they expected the group to return and now Duncan has reached his decision, which was first reported by Yahoo! Sports. He will make about $10.3 million next season in the final year of a two-year agreement that was drawn up specifically to allow the Spurs the financial flexibility to surround Duncan with top-shelf talent. "He feels a responsibility to his teammates," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after the team won the championship. "He enjoys them. He wants to hang around as long as he can while hes useful and while hes having an impact on the game. He takes care of his body. He works out all summer long with a variety of different things, boxing, swimming. Hes very careful about what he puts in his body, so he does everything he can to maintain a level of play. "At some point," Popovich added, "that will stop." But not this year. When Duncan looked around at the Spurs, he saw every reason to come back and try to do just about the only thing the Spurs havent done during his 17 years there -- win back-to-back titles. In Popovich he has perhaps the best coach in the game, one who has established a culture of teamwork, success and stability that is unparalleled in the league. In Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, he has two trusted teammates who have been by his side for years, have sacrificed money, fame and statistics right along with him to build the Spurs organization into the envy of the NBA. And in Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, Duncan has a young, fresh-faced star on the rise to carry more of the load as the Big Three get older. "With the front office putting the teams together that weve had and us playing smaller roles and our roles changing over the years, and us happy to accept the roles that were in, I feel we can do it until we feel we dont want to do it anymore," Duncan said two weeks ago. Perhaps as important as anything, Duncan is still one of the best big men in the league. He was named first team All-NBA in 2012-13 as he helped the Spurs to the finals, where they lost to the Heat in a heart-breaking seven-game series. This season, Duncan averaged 15.1 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in just 29.2 minutes per game, playing in a system expertly devised by Popovich to limit the wear and tear on his body. He shot almost 57 per cent in the finals and dismantled Heat star Chris Bosh, who grew up with a Duncan poster on his bedroom wall. "Weve been on our last run for the last five or six years from how everyone wants to put it," Duncan said. "We show up every year, and we try to put together the best teams and the best runs possible because what people say doesnt matter to us. "As I said, as long as we feel were being effective, were going to stay out here and were going to play. We feel like we can be effective, and we have been." Federico Bernardeschi Jersey . 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He is the first Toronto player to have four multi-homer games in a month, and the first major-leaguer to do so since Troy Tulowitzki in September of 2010. Drew Hutchison (3-3) allowed one run in 5 1-3 innings for Toronto, which has won seven of its last nine games. The Blue Jays have won three consecutive series. Casey Janssen pitched the ninth for his fifth save. Xander Bogaerts had three hits, including two doubles, for Boston. Clay Buchholz (2-4) allowed four earned runs in 4 2-3 innings. The Red Sox are in the midst of their longest losing streak since dropping the final eight games of the 2012 season, ending the Bobby Valentine era after one year. The Blue Jays made it 4-0 after three innings thanks to Encarnacion, who hit a solo homer in the second and a two-run shot in the third -- both of them into the seats above the Green Monster. Shane Victorino homered for Boston -- his first since a Grand Slam in Game 6 of the AL championship series against the Detroit Tigers -- to make it 4-1. Dioner Navarros RBI single in the fifth made it 55-1 and chased Buchholz.dddddddddddd He allowed nine hits and two walks, striking out two. The Blue Jays added another run in the seventh on Anthony Goses RBI single. The Red Sox scored three in the eighth to make it a two-run game thanks partly to back-to-back RBI doubles by Mike Carp and Bogaerts. Brock Holt singled to score Bogaerts before Brett Cecil struck out Grady Sizemore and then Steve Delabar, on his first pitch, retired Dustin Pedroia on a groundout. NOTES: A.J. Pierzynski, who was hitless in 11 straight at-bats, raised his hands to the heavens after singling in sixth inning. He had just two hits in his previous 27 at-bats. Pierzynski wound up with three hits in the game, including one off the first-basemans mitt, in the ninth inning. ... Encarnacion has 15 multi-homer games in his career, four this season. He had been 1 for 21 in his career against Buchholz. ... Buchholz had allowed three earned runs or fewer in three of his previous four starts. ... SS Stephen Drew, who re-signed with the Red Sox on Wednesday after spending the first six weeks of the season as an unsigned free agent, was available to play in an emergency. He was added to the roster in the place of LHP Felix Doubront, who injured his shoulder and went on the disabled list. Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys China NFL Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys 2018 Cheap Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys 2020 Wholesale Jerseys 2019 ' ' '