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The San Antonio Spurs have been notified that Tim Duncan has decided to opt into his $5.6 million contract for 2016-17, but that hes still undecided about whether to return for a 20th NBA season, a source close to the situation told ESPNs Michael C. Wright.The story was first reported by The Vertical and confirmed by ESPN.When asked about his future following San Antonios season-ending Game 6 loss to the?Oklahoma City Thunder?in the Western?Conference semifinals, Duncan said he would get to that after I get out of here and figure out life. He had until June 29 to pick up his player option or opt to become a free agent on July 1.Duncan, 40, saw a drop-off?in productivity last season, averaging a career-low 8.6 points and 7.3 rebounds in 61 regular-season games and then putting up 5.9 points and 4.8 rebounds over 10 playoff games.Spurs general manager R.C. Buford was asked earlier this month if he was concerned about how decisions for Duncan and veteran guard Manu Ginobili would affect the teams plans going into free agency.Weve been building scenario planning, not just for this season, but for every season, Buford said. You have a variety of scenarios you hope you can execute on that are sequenced and need things to happen along the way. Well be ready to answer the questions that are posed to us to hopefully find pieces within our abilities within collective bargaining that will help us build a competitive team.The Spurs could shave $4 million off next seasons payroll if they waive veteran forward Boris Diaw by Thursdays deadline, but sources told ESPN.coms Marc Stein that San Antonio intends to keep Diaw, which will make his $7 million salary fully guaranteed next season.The Spurs will have to shed some guaranteed contracts via trade if they are fortunate enough to win the Kevin Durant sweepstakes, but sources told Stein that San Antonios long-rumored interest in Memphis Grizzlies free-agent guard Mike Conley has been overstated.Chicago Bulls free-agent big man Pau Gasol is indeed a secondary target for the Spurs, sources said, but they are not expected to pursue Conley.Duncans current two-year deal with San Antonio was for $5.25 million in his first season, with the $5.6 million option for 2016-17 and a no-trade clause.Duncan led the Spurs to a championship in his second season, in 1999, and was named NBA Finals MVP. He would go on to win four more titles, in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014, and be named Finals MVP twice more, in 2003 and 2005.San Antonio posted a win percentage of at least .600 in 19 straight seasons with Duncan, the longest such run in NBA history.Information from ESPNs Marc Stein and The Associated Press was used in this report.Kansas City Royals Gear . -- Running backs Darren McFadden and Rashad Jennings were back at practice for the Oakland Raiders on Wednesday despite being hampered by hamstring injuries. Kansas City Royals Shirts . There was no hesitation from the 40th-ranked Pospisil, from Vernon, B.C., who admitted that he cut back on his training sessions over the last few days to conserve energy as the long ATP season finishes next week at the Paris Masters. https://www.cheaproyals.com/ . -- Stanfords Kevin Danser knelt on one knee and hardly moved on the sideline as Michigan State celebrated its Rose Bowl victory and his Cardinal teammates made their way to the locker room. Cheap Royals Jerseys . LOUIS -- Alexander Steen scored a power-play goal with 59. Wholesale Royals Jerseys . Tests earlier this week revealed a Grade 2 left hamstring strain for Sabathia, who was hurt in last Fridays start against San Francisco. Its an injury that will require about eight weeks to heal. He finished a disappointing campaign just 14-13 with a career-worst 4.Moments after the 2002 Olympic gold-medal game in Salt Lake City, Kalli Quinn, her sister, Val, and mother, Sandra, raced by startled security personnel to the Team Canada bench area just in time for the singing of O Canada.As the joyful Canadians posed for a team picture celebrating their countrys first gold medal in mens hockey in 50 years, head coach Pat Quinn grabbed Kalli and brought his daughter out for the photo, a nod to her work as the family liaison during the Games.In some of the photos, if the angle is just right, you can see Val and Sandy on the bench. To view the photo from that perspective is to understand Pat Quinn entirely. Family. Hockey. Country.Kalli and the rest of the Quinn family no doubt will be reminded of that moment in Toronto this weekend when her father is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He joins?Eric Lindros, Rogie Vachon and?Sergei Makarov?in the class of 2016.It will be more than a little bittersweet for those whose lives were touched by the big Irishman from Hamilton, Ontario. Quinn, chairman of the Hall of Fames selection committee in his later years, died two years ago at the age of 71.Kalli figures she knows how her dad would react to the honor. Me? With those guys? No way.Ive thought about it a lot, Kalli said. To be recognized for doing something that he loved. ... It wasnt a job to him. It was something that he loved to do.There were, in fact, many, many things that Pat Quinn put ahead of Pat Quinn.Guys who played for Pat Quinn all said the same thing, Wayne Gretzky said. It was all good.There was no more pressure-packed coaching job, perhaps in the history of the game, than coaching Canada at the 02 Olympics. Finding roles for each member of a roster brimming with future Hall of Famers was no small feat, yet Quinn handled the task with aplomb.Calm in the face of turmoil? Indeed.Canada lost its first game against Sweden 5-2, and an entire nation went into full panic mode. We were all pretty down about it, recalled Gretzky, who was executive director of Canadas Olympic effort at the time.Not Quinn.In the days leading up to the Olympics, a popular commercial portrayed a bunch of Canadians going across the border into the United States with nothing to declare but a can of Whup Ass. In Salt Lake City, Quinn took an aerosol can and taped over the label with a hand-drawn label reading Whup Ass.And after that first game, I was standing there, we were all obviously devastated. And he said, Wayne, dont worry about it. I got a big old can of Whup Ass here, Gretzky recalled, laughing at the memory.Canada would go on to defeat the United States in the gold-medal game, setting off one of the most spontaneous national celebrations in the countrys history.Bob Nicholson, the longtime head of Hockey Canada, first met Quinn when Nicholson was working in minor hockey in British Columbia and Quinn was with the Vancouver Canucks. Nicholson and Quinn became fast friends, often spending summers together sitting at the end of a B.C. dock drinking red wine and smoking the ever-present cigars that were as much a part of Quinns persona as his great physical presence.Nicholson recalled how, in the hours before the gold-medal game in 2002, Quinn suddenly dropped his trousers to show off the lucky underwear and socks his grandchildren had decorated for him -- and which hed been wearing throughout the tournament.?Neither Nicholson nor Gretzky could contain their laughter at the memory of the bedazzled garments.He was very proud of those, Gretzky added.Ken Hitchcock was part of that same Olympic staff. Hed first met Quinn when Quinn was the general manager in Vancouver and Hitchcock was coaching in the Western Hockey League. After being invited to take part in Vancouvers training camp, Hitchcock got up at 3 a.m. and drove to the rink, expecting to be sharing the ice with other coaches -- only to find he was the only one out there with 40 players.In the stands, Quinn and director of player personnel Brian Burke watched, bemused, as Hitchcock used up his entire repertoire of drills in about 25 minutes because the pace was so fast.They laughed about it for 10 years, those clowns, Hitchcock said.The two lifelong coaches became pea-pod close, playing off each other as they shared some of the countrys most memorable hockey moments, Quinn oftenn referring to Hitchcock as a mad hockey scientist.ddddddddddddHe was such a good man, Hitchcock said. Every day you came to work, you didnt want to let the man down.The two stayed in close contact until Quinns phone was turned off for the last time two years ago.It was really emotional for a lot of us, Hitchcock said of Quinns death. It was really hard.Quinn played 606 NHL regular-season games for the?Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks?and Atlanta Flames, and was remembered for his hard-nosed style that included a bone-rattling check on Bobby Orr that made him a hated man in Boston for his entire career.But it was in coaching and managing -- the science of team building, if you will -- where Quinn would make a lasting and undeniable impression.Quinn coached five teams: the?Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, Canucks, Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers, compiling a W-L-T-OTL record of 684-528-154-34. Jacques Martin coached his first game in the NHL against Quinn in 1986. Over the years their paths would cross many times, most notably in heated playoff confrontations between Quinns Toronto Maple Leafs and Martins Ottawa Senators. ?But the two also worked together during international tournaments, and Martin fondly recalls end-of-day gatherings on the benches outside the Olympic village in Salt Lake City, where Quinn would contentedly draw on a cigar and talk hockey with the rest of the coaches.When I think of Pat, I just remember him as a person with a presence in the room, in a dressing room addressing players, Martin said. A real classy individual. And a highly competitive individual. Thats what drove him. He was really driven to win.Kalli Quinn recalled the door to the Quinn home always being open to players, coaches, whoever wanted to drop by. Such was the sense of family that extended beyond the Quinn name.Among those visitors during Quinns successful coaching tenure in Philadelphia was rugged?Philadelphia Flyers?forward Paul Holmgren.He loved to teach so much that we literally had to go to him and say, Pat, you need to stop these teaching moments, Holmgren said.Two minutes, three minutes, now theyre 10 minutes, Holmgren explained, chuckling. You get a good sweat on, especially in those old practice rinks in those days. Now all of sudden youve got to stand there for 10 minutes and listen to Pat orate.?When Holmgren moved into coaching, he would often turn to Quinn for advice. He was a huge help to me, Holmgren said. Im fortunate and I believe a better person because I did.If there is a measure of the depth of Quinns capacity to share his knowledge, it was in his successes with teams of top Canadian teens. He guided an under-18 national team and then the under-20 squad to championships late in his career.Nicholson admitted no one was quite sure how Quinn would manage with the kids after spending so long with established NHLers. To be honest, he scared the [crap] out of them first, said Nicholson. And then he got them to buy into his systems. He was a teacher of skill but he was also a teacher of people.Trevor Linden first met Quinn at the family home in British Columbia shortly before Vancouver made Linden the second-overall pick in 1988. He recalled being awed as his hand disappeared into Quinns meaty palms during that first handshake.Quinn, the teams GM, took on the coaching duties in Vancouver during the latter stages of the 1990-91 season. The Canucks advanced to the second round the following spring as Quinn earned his second Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. Then, two years later, in 1994, Quinn and the Canucks lost to the New York Rangers in a classic seven-game Stanley Cup finals.He made sense of things, said Linden, who is now president of hockey operations for the Canucks. Thats what he was great at. He taught me how to play the proper way.Linden is roughly the same age Quinn was when the two first met, and there is something cyclical about Lindens role in trying to revive the fortunes and identity of the Canucks franchise. Theres a reason people like Pat so much in Vancouver, Linden said. Hes left an indelible mark on this franchise.One might say that Quinn left an indelible mark on the entire game. ' ' '