SAN ANTONIO -- So Tim Duncan, according to his teammates, is coming back for Game 5.

The question, of course, is what sort of condition will Duncan be in when he arrives at the Alamodome?

Certainly, given the circumstances surrounding the death of his father to cancer, and the environment of this surreal series, it is going to be emotional. Hell, I'll stand for the guy and give him an ovation for coming back to work one day after they scattered his father's ashes around the Caribbean.

	Tim Duncan averaged 26.7 points and 11.7 rebounds in the series' first three games.

His $11 million salary is not the issue of whether he should be here or not. His stature as the team's best player is not the issue. The issue is that a man who just lost his father, his last living parent, and one of his confidantes, is heroic for returning to work immediately no matter what job he is holding down.

After all, Sonics point guard Gary Payton and power forward Vin Baker remember William Duncan well.

When the Olympic team was training in Puerto Rico a few summers back, Tim Duncan's dad accompanied him to the island to meet all of his new teammates. Explaining the scenario, Baker's eyes welled up with tears.

"It really makes it hard," said Baker, who said he sponsored Duncan when Duncan made a recruiting visit to the University of Hartford. "I just really feel for his family right now. It's such a devastating thing to happen to such a good person and at such a pivotal time in the season."

Even the stoic Payton seemed down. When Payton found out, he went into his living room and gave his unsuspecting father a hug.

"We hung around in Puerto Rico," Payton said. "His dad was sick during that time and everyone knew it. We thought he was getting better. I had just asked him about his father when we were in San Antonio, and he had said he was OK. So it was really a shock to me.

"I just hope that everything is going to be all right with his family and that he'll be back to play and that this will not be on his mind too much."

If those players feel like that, imagine how Duncan must feel. And that does not even take into account the arduous eight-hour flight from the Virgin Islands to the heart of Texas, nor the physically draining process of both grieving and supporting loved ones.

Then Duncan has to come out, before 24,000 fans, and carry his team.

Because if Wednesday's Game 4 did not prove that his teammates are incapable of carrying themselves, nothing will. I mean, was there ever a better endorsement for Duncan as MVP than a game in which his teammates looked absolutely baffled while missing all but four of their first 30 shots en route to an ass-kicking by the Sonics?

Duncan for MVP? You betcha. He gets all five of my votes.

The question remains, however, how is Duncan going to come out in this Game 5, one in which the David Robinson-less Spurs find themselves under pressure after blowing a 14-point lead in Game 2 that should have helped clinch the series.

Willis Reed? Kirk Gibson? Or some obscure player who I can't even think of because, well, let's face it, we never remember guys that are not heroes -- unless they are Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley or Karl Malone.

Perhaps Duncan will not even have to be heroic in this game, given the excellent, mature play of rookie Tony Parker.

Perhaps his mere presence will be enough to free up Parker enough to once again outclass Payton. Each time Parker has done it in this series, the Spurs have won.

Perhaps Duncan will serve as inspiration for Malik Rose to try to repeat his 28-point, 13-rebound performance in Game 4.

Perhaps Steve Smith will stop playing like Snuffy Smith and actually hit a shot or two.

On the other hand ...

	“	I just hope that everything is going to be all right with his family and that he'll be back to play and that this will not be on his mind too much. ”
		— Gary Payton on Tim Duncan

Look, San Antonio's entire offense runs through Duncan. If he is not shooting a sweet bank shot off Baker's dome, then off the backboard and then through the net, he is passing out to a teammate on the wing or finding a cutter for an easy layin. If he is not blocking a shot once every seven minutes, he is grabbing one of umpteen rebounds that are caroming around this den of inequity that could be seeing its last NBA game before the SBC Center opens next season.

He is too important to this team not to be a major factor -- the major factor -- in the outcome. Particularly with Bruce Bowen waging a personal physical battle with Brent Barry, with Danny Ferry's shooting wrist tightly bandaged, with Charles Smith's shoulder jutting out somewhere around Victoria Island and with Cherokee Parks playing like he thinks he's doing battle in the Badlands of South Dakota.

Hell, the Spurs are so out of sorts that coach Gregg Popovich did not even hold practice on Thursday in preparation for this monumental game. Instead, the Spurs remained in Seattle until about noon, flew to San Antonio, laid around and hoped that Duncan would fly into town.

I'm not saying the Spurs can't win this game and advance to the second round against the Los Angeles Lakers, where Shaq and Kobe are just drooling over the opportunity to knock the Spurs out of the postseason in four games again, effectively diffusing one last time any notion the Spurs can prove Phil Jackson wrong about his claim that San Antonio's championship (during the lockout season) is fake.

But San Antonio certainly has a lot of things going against it right now.

Of course, that's the time when legacies are formed.

Frank Hughes, who covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.