Tim Duncan immortalised: Spurs to retire his jersey

Tim Duncan, widely regarded as the greatest Power Forward in NBA history, hung up his boots earlier this summer, but historians of the game aren't done paying tribute to the departing legend.

The San Antonio Spurs have decided to honour "Timmy" by retiring the No. 21 jersey which the former two-time MVP wore during his illustrious 19-year career in the league.

The Spurs announced via its official website on Wednesday that Duncan's jersey would be retired on Dec. 18 in a special postgame ceremony following a home game against Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans.

Duncan will join fellow Spurs greats David Robinson (50), George Gervin (44), Avery Johnson (6) and Bruce Bowen (12) in the rafters at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Duncan helped create the Spurs dynasty which hoisted five championship banners and won over 50 games in 18 consecutive regular seasons (a record for any franchise in history), besides instigating a team-first culture within the organisation that set a precedent for others to follow.

The future hall-of-famer formed the most successful player-coach tandem with Gregg Popovich; the duo won a total of 1,072 regular season games -- the most successful 19-year stretch for any American sports franchise over the last three decades.

Duncan is also only the third player in NBA history to win more than 1,000 games in the regular season. Only Los Angeles Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Boston Celtics' Robert Parish finished with more wins.

It was Duncan's selfless attitude and team-first mentality which have helped the Spurs remain a championship contender even after his exit -- as the likes of Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge take the torch forward.

Tim Duncan signed off with a career tally of 26,496 points (14th all time), 15,091 rebounds (6th all time) and 3,020 blocks (5th all time). Duncan is expected to enter the hall-of-fame in 2021 alongside fellow greats Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, who also called time on their careers earlier this year.