Nine players in the history of the NBA have played more games than San Antonio Spurs legend Tim Duncan. Before the Spurs buzzer-smack loss against the Wizards, there had been ten. The Wizards loss was Duncan’s 1,336th NBA game. With it he passed perennial All-Star Gary Payton,who retired in 2007 having played 1,335.
The 3-2 Spurs have 77 regular season games left on the schedule– and Duncan won’t play all of them. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is notorious (and also widely praised) for resting his key players for stretches during the regular season. But if Duncan trades ten regular season games for ten playoff games, he’ll reach 1,413. That would move him up to 7th place on the all-time list, past Cliff Robinson, Reggie Miller and Jason Kidd. Former Celtic great Robert Parish leads with 1,611 games played. Kobe Bryant is currently in 19th place with 1,284.
