Chris Bosh Facing His Idol Tim Duncan in the NBA Finals

For Chris Bosh, the NBA Finals will represent an opportunity to beat one of his basketball heroes, Tim Duncan. Bosh, who drew inspiration from Duncan reading about him in SLAM, will get an up-close and personal look starting on Thursday. Per the Miami Herald and Fox Sports: “‘I had favorite players, and he was one of them,’ Bosh said of Duncan, the Spurs’ center. ‘He was in SLAM [Magazine] a lot. SLAM was like the Bible, so I took out the pages and put them on my wall. That was a little while ago. That was another lifetime.’ […] When big man Tim Duncan won his first NBA ring in 1999, Chris Bosh wasn’t looking to emulate him. He was paying attention to backcourt players. ‘When he started having success, I was trying to be a guard,’ Bosh, a Miami Heat center, said about when Duncan claimed his first of four titles with San Antonio. ‘I was heading into my sophomore year of high school. But then I had a growth spurt. In two years, I grew another five inches. I said, ‘I might as well be like those (big) guys.’ One of those big men was Duncan. By 2001, Bosh said Duncan and then Minnesota power forward Kevin Garnett were ‘pretty much a tie for my favorite player.’ […] When Bosh was preparing for the 2003 NBA draft, he had a chance to check out Duncan in person. He went to a pair of games in Dallas as the Spurs beat the Mavericks in the Western Conference finals. ‘I soaked up the action,’ Bosh said of watching Duncan, who would go on that season to win his second NBA crown. Ten years later, it’s the Heat battling San Antonio. It could be the last stand for the Spurs dynasty as Duncan, 37, is trying to win his fifth ring and Manu Ginobili, 35, and Tony Parker, 31, are each vying for a fourth. ‘They’re one of the best dynasties of all time, and we’ll see how we stack up against each other,’ Bosh said of the Spurs, who also won titles in 2005 and 2007. ‘I grew up in Texas, so I’ve seen what they’ve done. Of course, everybody knows what they’ve done. But we feel like it’s our time now.'”