[dude1394]

Damn...that's quite a few samoleons timmah gave up.

The next day, a division rival already above the Spurs in the standings got better. Yet when asked about the Mavericks’ trade, Duncan nodded nicely and said, yes, Dallas should be improved.

Duncan is used to Mark Cuban spending more money, and maybe Duncan is used to getting less, too. It’s been going on for a while.

By the time Duncan entered the league, after all, the owners had already reacted to escalating rookie salaries. They put in a monetary scale for first-year players, and even a can’t-miss star such as Duncan was assigned a uniform salary slot.

Glenn Robinson, taken three years earlier as another No. 1 overall draft pick, earned more.

The lockout that ended in 1999 provided another way for Duncan to get less. Because of the new labor agreement, Duncan didn’t earn what he could have.

A contrast: Duncan hit the $20 million level just last year, and Shaquille O’Neal, playing under the old system, was already there in 2000.

Duncan has never groaned publicly about any of it. He was the same this weekend in Dallas when asked about the next, great labor dispute.

“You understand the situation you’re in, and you understand it’s coming, whether we like it or not,” he said. “It’s something we’re going to have to face.”

Duncan has never come across as someone in search of buying his own island. Still, to paraphrase the late Sen. Everett Dirksen: a million here, a million there, and pretty soon Duncan is losing some real money.

His latest came in the fall of 2007, when Duncan volunteered as he did when he worked Friday in Dallas. Then, he agreed to a two-year, $40 million extension with the Spurs.

Duncan could have taken maximum money on a two-year extension worth about $51 million. At the time, Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford approached Duncan knowing he deserved that and more.

But Popovich and Buford also offered an alternative then. They showed Duncan the possible impact on the rest of the roster if he accepted less.

Duncan earns a lot of money as it is. His $20 million salary can buy a few things in San Antonio. Still, the amount he gave up is nearly $11 million.

How many would do the same?

Duncan believed, by agreeing to less, the Spurs could better pursue free agents in the summer of 2010. Coming off his fourth title, he’d hoped the Spurs could find championship players to put around him, as they had done before.

But that changed with the Jefferson trade. The Spurs are already obligated to pay a half-dozen players $54 million next season.

Duncan’s decision will not carve out extra room this summer, because there is no room. Duncan gave up a max contract for minimum return, and that’s why this expensive Spurs mistake is not only rare but different.

It’s shared.