Bruce Bowen Reveals the Very Small Thing That Could've Got Tim Duncan to Sign With Orlando

While there's really no point in getting worked up over something that happened more than 17 years ago, here's a story that could make Magic fans who've grinded through the past several seasons particularly salty at one Doc Rivers. The story is about how Tim Duncan almost signed with the Magic as a free agent in the summer of 2000 (which is not a new revelation), and was relayed by Duncan's former teammate Bruce Bowen as he color commentated during Wednesday night's Suns-Clippers game.

It was during that broadcast that Bowen said Orlando missed out on signing Duncan that year due to the simple fact that Doc Rivers (who had just won Coach of the Year after his first season in the NBA) told him he couldn't bring his family on any team flights ever.

"One thing Gregg Popovich didn't do was screw it up with Tim Duncan. I remember when Tim was a free agent, he was thinking about going to Orlando when Doc was there," Bowen said. "When Tim went out to meet with Orlando, he asked, 'can family come on the flights to some games?' From what I understand, Doc said no, and that's when he lost Tim Duncan."

Later in the same free agency period Orlando landed Tracy McGrady, whom they paired with Grant Hill (though it should be noted that Hill played a total of 47 games over the next three seasons due to injuries). As for Duncan, he re-signed with San Antonio and (from that point on) won four championships, two Finals MVP awards, two normal MVP awards, and made 13 All-Star teams, all in the same place. In other words he was good.

I feel like this is the type of thing the term "no point in crying over spilt milk" was invented for.