Once the San Antonio Spurs were officially knocked out of contention in the NBA playoffs losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, the question everyone was asking is whether or not veteran forward Tim Duncan would retire.

With Duncan officially becoming an unrestricted free agent on July 1, the consensus was that he’d simply retire and forgo testing free agency. Fortunately for the Spurs, Duncan didn’t test free agency and made it known that if he were to stay in the league, it’d be with San Antonio.

Even though most people believed it was a matter of time before Duncan would announce his retirement, the veteran forward had no intentions of calling it a career as he agreed to sign a three-year deal with the Spurs worth $36 million.

It appears that the contract Kevin Garnett agreed to sign with the Boston Celtics recently turned out to be the example for all other veteran superstars considering retirement. Steve Nash agreed to a similar deal with the Los Angeles Lakers ($27 million), Jason Terry signed a three-year deal with the Celtics ($15.6 million) and Jason Kidd inked a three-year deal with the New York Knicks ($9 million).

As a growing trend, Duncan decided to stick around for three more years before calling it a career and the team may benefit from this extension. San Antonio played extremely well last season even with an aging roster that was labeled to be over-the-hill. Next season and for perhaps the next few years, the Spurs will attempt to do more of the same.

Along with Duncan, the Spurs have also agreed to new contracts with Boris Diaw ($9 million) and Daniel Green ($12 million). Needless to say, the Spurs will have relatively the same team intact next season.

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