The public never fully got Duncan, but his teammates did. His leadership turned out to be something of a graduate seminar on the value of carrying water. Duncan was the rare captain who had the talent to take over games and put up some of the NBA’s gaudiest statistics. But his approach to leadership compelled him to suppress his skills, and even his salary, in order to focus on fixing whatever happened to be broken. He wasn’t concerned with his public image, only that his team won.
