Joe Mitchell / Reuters

San Antonio center Tim Duncan is the best big man in the NBA, writes columnist Michael Ventre.

Such nuances of the game are essential, but often overlooked and taken for granted — which are perfect resume-builders for an unassuming gent like Duncan.

In fact, aside from last season’s bout with plantar fasciitis, the most inflammatory moment in the man’s career may have come in April, when referee Joey Crawford challenged Duncan to fight during a game in Dallas. Duncan was hit with a technical. Crawford saw him laughing on the bench and whistled him a second time.

Explained Duncan at the time: “He looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?’ If he wants to fight, we can fight. I don’t have any problem with him, but we can do it if he wants to. I have no reason why in the middle of a game he would yell at me, ‘Do you want to fight?’”

Crawford was suspended for the rest of the regular season and playoffs, and indeed, the career of someone who has worked more games than any active referee may be over. Duncan was fined $25,000 for verbal abuse of an official; Crawford claimed Duncan called him an expletive.

Tim Duncan? Referee killer? I can think of about 50 other guys in the NBA who might be more likely to provoke a fight with a veteran ref than Duncan. It’s as if your accountant suddenly announced he wanted to become a lion tamer.

Duncan seemed uncomfortable with the attention, as most boring men would. Yet that doesn’t mean he’s inscrutable. You’ll know when he’s peeved. Like most world-class competitors, Duncan isn’t always pleased with the way games go, and he illustrates his dissatisfaction usually by clasping both hands on top of his head and offering an expression of sheer disbelief. In fact, he does that quite often.

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But he doesn’t do commercials in which he’s dressed up as different family members. He doesn’t roll with hip-hop stars. He doesn’t fire guns outside strip clubs.

All he does is play textbook basketball within a team concept in a small Texas city. It doesn’t get any more boring than that.

With Duncan, boring is the new exciting.

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