Pop: Duncan 'the most real, consistent, true person I've ever met'

Keeping in theme with the way Tim Duncan, Gregg Popovich, and the San Antonio Spurs do business, the longtime coach held an impromptu press conference on the team's practice court Tuesday to address Duncan's retirement after 19 NBA seasons.

Duncan, it was known earlier, would be nowhere in sight, but that didn't stop Popovich from emotionally describing his franchise player for nearly two decades.

"I figured I better come out and do this and somehow say goodbye to him," Popovich told reporters, wearing a Duncan T-shirt. "Which is an impossibility for a lot of reasons."

Their careers forever linked, Popovich took over the Spurs bench during the 1996-97 season - a lost campaign due to a season-ending injury to David Robinson - which resulted in the team drafting Duncan first overall. The rest is history, their connected place in NBA lore secure.

The friendship between coach and player was always evident, but Popovich went a step further Tuesday, saying Duncan is the one person he would have dinner with if given the choice of anyone. In a very Popovich-esque answer, he called Duncan the "most real, consistent, true person I've ever met in my life," and compared his cleverness to the likes of late political pundits Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley:

"When he speaks it's for a purpose," Popovich added of Duncan. "He led by example."