GPFOAT. People hate on Tim because he isn't flashy, doesn't live above the rim, and plays basketball the way Naismith created it. Everyone whines about calls because in basketball you never think it's you. From the SI Vault:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/gallery/featured/GAL1174796/1/16/index.htm. Granted Tim, Manu and SJax make this list but so do Dirk, Kobe, Paul Pierce, Perkins, Ray Allen (3 Celtics here), Lebron, Melo, Dwight, etc. Free throws can win or lose games so everyone argues.
From Shaq:
The Spurs won because of Tim Duncan, a guy I could never break. I could talk trash to Patrick Ewing, get in David Robinson’s face, get a rise out of Alonzo Mourning, but when I went at Tim he’d look at me like he was bored and then say, “Hey, Shaq, watch this shot right here off the glass.”
You gotta love that. I used to say Duncan and I were like two mafia bosses. I was the loud East Coast boss, taking names, knocking heads. Tim was the laid-back, one-hundred-acre farm don. Nobody knows what he does, he’s the chill mafia guy, but we both know how to carry out a hit. I was jealous of guys like Duncan and Kevin Garnett, who got to do stuff like face up and shimmy.
(edited for formatting)
[This message has been edited by Ganondorf (edited 4/20/2012 9:36a).]