Spurs fans who saw the team win the 2014 NBA finals might remember a certain photo captured of Tim Duncan: Confetti falling from the rafters, the Big Fundamental holds out his arms, almost as if to say “that’s the show” to the roaring crowd.
The image is perhaps even more iconic, considering this would be the last of the five championships Duncan won with the Spurs before retirement, leaving behind a legacy not just within the franchise, but also with the city itself.
Now, a new documentary premiering at the Austin Film Festival gives a peek behind the curtain of that show, and the life of the Spurs great.
Filmmaker Scott Duncan, the older brother of Tim Duncan and the director of new documentary “The Boy From St. Croix,” joined the Standard to talk about the film. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Well, your brother, it’s no secret, is someone who kind of avoids the spotlight – as well as any superstar effectively can, that is. I imagine being family helps with getting access, but was it difficult at all to get him to agree to this project?
Scott Duncan: I think it was the right time, and we both felt it together. He had retired, and time had gone by. It had been on-and-off just casually documenting, obviously, his career, knowing it had been filmed a lot, obviously, with NBA Entertainment as well.
But, you know, the time was just right. He retired. He could actually take a step back and look back and start to go through the memories, go through thoughts, watch his kids grow, you know, enjoy his career.
So it was really the right time together. And, you know, he agreed, gently. And I said,”it’s gonna be an amazing process.”
Oh, was it? Was it great?
It was absolutely magical just to even, for ourselves, to talk about things maybe we never spoke about and let him just talk about ideas – thoughts, memories, go down his own memory lane from finally taking a look at his whole life and career and growing up and family and Virgin Island life from just a moment of, like, take a pause.
And he could reflect and the structure of the film was to just be like, let Timmy talk.
I was curious because you guys are obviously really close, family’s really important to you guys. And I wondered if there were things that you learned about him while working on this that came as a surprise.
Do you mind mentioning one or two?
Yeah, I think there’s no big surprises or drama ever. But surprises, I think, were some of the persons.
I really wanted to reach back into St. Croix life and all the islands of the Virgin Islands and just find the persons that really knew him that maybe that never had a voice or really interacted with Timmy and some of those stories and conversations …
Very simple, but like, wow, this was a moment that Timmy was really shown to evolve. And to not just the family love we offered around him but just the people of Virgin Islands – the love they offered, the neighborhood kind of values of islander life: take care of one another, help one another, share and grow and expand.
Well, the people who find this documentary and they’re like, “I want to see some basketball,” they’re going to see basketball. They’re gonna see some of the big highlights, of course, some of that old stuff.
But there’s also a lot of intimate portraits and things that people have never seen as far as really getting to know Tim Duncan. And a lot times in some of these older photos and stuff, you were the one behind the camera back then.
I mean, did you ever have an inkling that someday this would be like the telling of a bona fide sports legend?
Yeah, it was like I never planned it, but I was just, I’m always documenting the family life, my journeys around the world. Adventure is just moments. And the pile just grew and grew and grew.
And then focusing in on Timmy’s early years on St. Croix, finding photos… Footage was really, you know, it’s a difficult thing. There’s so few things that happened back then or were captured, and the hurricanes destroy so much of your home sometimes and your belongings.
But it was a great process to like just slowly go through – and, again, it was like there’s no, “oh we have to be done in six months.” No, this was just like, Timmy’s only making one film. So, there is no “let’s hurry, let find this, do this, build this.” Let the process go naturally. And that’s kind of what we did.
And just through all the years of me being around and just the family being around … And in a way, our family is so close, but maybe it brought the family even closer together so we could all reflect on these memories of everything in our lives that we’ve had together.
That’s really cool. I’d love to turn the camera, so to speak, on you a little bit because not just a brother, but you really were in a unique position to be a filmmaker here. Can you talk about how you started picking up cameras and films? And really, this is something you’ve done for your whole life.
Yeah, yes, my whole life. That was a great question. Thank you for asking that, because my whole life has been just like visual documenting, documenting journeys, travels. I’ve always just wanted to travel everywhere in the world and thankfully so blessed it’s happened. I’ve gone to so many countries, so many countries and have great projects.
I worked on great Olympics since 2000 all over the world and the athletes and the Olympics. I’m so thankful for all the 50 seasons of “Survivor,” the CBS show, I’ve been the director of photography on.
Amazing, yeah.
That’s, you know, just the process of them coming around to this is just a great family visual poem I wanted to tell about our family about where we’re from and just let Timmy be the emcee of it in his voice. His voice is powerful. His words are few, but they’re poetic, and I wanted to match that with the imagery and the visual metaphors.
You watch the film and hopefully you get some goosebumps. Hopefully you feel it. You feel like you’re in St. Croix or in the Virgin Islands. You feel the passion what Timmy had on the court at times through his voice, through the intensity of the game.
And winning five championships is absolutely just … Still, I can’t believe it. Phenomenal, phenomenal success.
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I mean, you said it though, you really do take us to St. Croix and these like four streets where you guys lived your early lives. And the title says it, “The Boy From St. Croix.”
But how important was it to you to really highlight this side of Tim?
The Cruzian side of the story, I just, you know, not that it’s always been said, but it’s like, oh, it’s the guy from an island. Oh, he’s a great, five-time NBA champion – a guy from an island. Where’s the island? What’s the island about exactly?
I wanted to dive in more and let the people of the island have a voice that he grew up with, I knew, and just what the island vibe in life is. And when people say, “oh, why is Timmy this way or that way? Why are you guys like this?” Or “why are you so relaxed?” And, well, look where we’re from. Here’s the style, our father’s strength and confidence and just the passion of an island man.
I wanted to kind of give a bit more back story to he’s an amazing athlete. He’s amazing father. He’s an amazing brother. Where’d he come from? Why is he like this? Why does he hide from the media a bit?
You know, the island life just is gentle, and I think showing that in the film as much as I could kind of juxtaposed against an intense NBA career kind of helps, I feel, express the answers to many people’s questions, I hope.
Well, it’s a really interesting part of the film that you also center on when this icon, you know, coach Gregg Popovich, heads to St. Croix. What do you think that meant at the very beginning of them working together?
Do you think that really helped him get to know Tim, and do you think that really solidified something that helped them in future success?
Definitely Coach Pop visiting Timmy, you know, when he was just getting drafted, the first step he took, he wanted to see where Timmy’s from. He wanted to understand the island, the family, our life, and I think, you know, Coach Pop mentions this in the film, and that was he was setting the foundation, just putting in the roots deep to understand Timmy’s talent on the court.
Timmy is this and that. He’s a great, quiet leader. But Coach Pop went deeper earlier into understanding where the roots of our father were and where the landscape was and what’s the space like there. And I think that really set the tone.
Coach Pop understood, hypothetically, if Timmy was homesick or something, like, oh, I know where you’re from. I know what family life is there. And that really helped, I think, evolve their relationship obviously into … We all know where that went. Phenomenal.
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Having this film premiere in Texas has got to be really meaningful to you, to the fans of your brother. What are you hoping these fans are able to take away or learn from this portrait?
What the fans and just the viewers in Texas will get at the screening … I’m so happy it’s at the Austin Film Festival. It’s kind of a local show for us, a local game for us. A home game.
The fans and the viewers taking it away, I just want them to hear Timmy’s voice, I think, and let Timmy just take them on a poetic ride of his life and his journey. There’s no big surprises, but it’s more like you hear Timmy telling his story and I think that’s where the surprises will be.
You hear him talking about topics: his life, his kids, his game. No drama. It’s love family, love life, and work hard, and you know the rest of the story from him.