Has Tim Duncan ever been considered "the best player in the league" during any point in his career ?

Kobe and now Lebron have been considered the best players in the NBA during Duncan's career, but it is important to consider Duncan is a PF/C, not a prime scoring and finesse position. To compare Tim with Kobe and Lebron is comparing apples to oranges. At the big man position, he, along with Shaq were the best players. Also, remember Duncan has 4 rings and 2 MVPs so he likely was the best player in the league in the minds of many at some point.

It doesn't matter Tim was never considered the best when ranking the best of all time because despite never being the "best" per say, he was always among them. To do so would be like saying Isiah Thomas wasn't one of the best all time because MJ was always the best, which isn't fair.

Yes. Quite a lot actually. But people overlooked him since he didn't score like 28 or 30 points a game. He doesn't wow you but he he does grab a lot of rebounds, plays great defense, scores, and a great leader. So it's kinda hard thinking how he was not considered the best player in the league for at least 4 years. But his consistency of his career is what makes him so great. If people don't believe he was never the best NBA player at a point of his career, then they will at least admire the consistency Duncan has been keeping throughout his career. Each year he had all-star ;like numbers. Except for the year where he averaged like 13ppg and 9 rpg

The 1999 season was i think the best season tim duncan ever played...He was considered the best, among the best...And he was a monster at that year...He was healthy, young, and nobody can stop him...Tim is not an exciting player, like kobe, lebron so most of the casual fans dont really notice his greatness...He is the best PF ever, better than mchale...That alone is the evidence that duncan is considered in his prime the best player in the world....

4x NBA Champion

2x League MVP

3x Finals MVP

Buts lets be real here, we really cant compare Tim Duncan with the likes of Kobe and Lebron because they simply play different positions. Duncan beats Kobe and Lebron in terms of blocks, rebounding, and interior defense. Does that make both of them bad players? Instead of focusing on who is the best player in the league, we should focus more on who is the best player in EACH of the positions in the league :)

Duncan won back to back MVP awards, which generally is a pretty good indicator of who the best player in the league is. If the majority of the fans did not think he was the best player, it's because most fans think "best" means "is exciting to watch and scores a lot".

Duncan has always been considered one of the best players in the league, in his prime around 2003 you could argue that he was the best player. However, most people believed that honor belonged to Kobe, Shaq, AI, or T-Mac.

He was MVP two years in a row in the early 2000s but the players who got the distinction as best players in the league at that time were Shaq and Allen Iverson.

Yes 2003

sg and sf are always gonna get the nod before a pf does.He might not have been the best player in the league at any point of his career due to Kobe and Lebron but he is the greatest PF to play the game of all time and that's really saying something.

2× NBA Most Valuable Player (2002–2003)