DUNCAN'S NO-NOS; SPURS' YOUNG STAR LEARNED THE FUNDAMENTALS FIRST.

Byline: Jon Wilner Daily News Staff Writer

The day after Utah eliminated San Antonio from the 1998 playoffs, Spurs rookie forward Tim Duncan received a call from Jerry Wainwright, an assistant coach at Wake Forest in Duncan's freshman season.

``Hey, Timmy,'' Wainwright began. ``I can't tell you how proud I am of you. You did a fabulous job this year. You did yourself and your family proud.''

``Oh, coach Wainwright, I don't think so,'' Duncan replied. ``I suck so bad compared to these guys. I've got so much to learn, so far to go.''

A few days later, Duncan was named first-team All-NBA - the first rookie so honored since Larry Bird in 1980. He was also named Rookie of the Year and second-team all-defense.

He was awful, all right. Awfully spectacular.

The conversation was typical Duncan in that it was atypical of his hoop generation. Imagine Allen Iverson bemoaning his shortcomings? Or Kevin Garnett? It's even tough to imagine Kobe Bryant, respectful pup that he is, showing such self-deprecation. There simply is no one like Duncan, no one with his attitude, no one with his skill, and no one with his background.

Especially the background.

Born and reared on St. Croix, a United States territory in the Virgin Islands, Duncan was a freestyle swimmer with Olympic dreams until Hurricane Hugo and his mother's death deflected his attention to basketball at age 14. Although he didn't know it at the time, learning the game late would be the secret to his success.

Everyone talks about what Duncan has, and it's an impressive list, for sure. He has huge, strong hands, beautiful footwork, a soft touch, Swiss timing and exquisite skills. But what separates Duncan from his peers - what makes him the best player to enter the NBA since Michael Jordan in 1984 and the best young big man since Bill Walton 25 years ago - is what he doesn't have.

He doesn't have bad habits.

Watch him this weekend at the Forum, where the Spurs and Lakers collide for Games 3 and 4 of their Western Conference semifinals. He does not pose and he does not posture. He does not taunt or talk. He does not take bad shots.

He never relaxes on defense, never forces passes, never holds the ball below his chest in congestion - a mistake even veteran big men commit - and he rarely misses free throws (78 percent in the playoffs).

``He's like Hakeem (Olajuwon),'' Spurs forward Sean Elliott said. ``Hakeem learned the game late, and Tim learned it late. The advantage to that is you start under a coach, not on the playground. Tim never had the chance to develop the bad habits that are so hard to break.''

St. Croix is a parcel of beach and beauty just east of Puerto Rico, and it served as Duncan's basketball vacuum. He never played in the ragged high school all-star games and summer tournaments that cultivate bad habits, where top recruits take the first available shot, force wild passes and loaf on defense.

``I guess I've developed a lot of good habits because of the coaching staffs I've played for,'' said Duncan, whose speech is as efficient as his game. ``I was raw when I got to Wake Forest, but they worked with me to develop my game.''

Duncan learned by practicing, not playing, a trait acquired during his childhood in the pool. For each competition, he swam thousands of laps and spent hundreds of hours refining his stroke, honing his breathing. At 13, he was one of the top 400-meter freestylers in the U.S. His older sister, Tricia, a backstroker, participated in the 1988 Olympics for the Virgin Islands.

Then, in Sept. 1989, Hurricane Hugo slammed St. Croix and ruined the Olympic-sized pool where Duncan trained - the only pool of its kind on the island. His team was forced to the ocean. Duncan wanted no part of it.

Seven months later - a day before Duncan's 14th birthday - his mother, Ione, died of breast cancer. She had been his No. 1 fan, a volunteer timer whose cheers could be heard underwater. When she died, so did his passion. He has not swam competitively since.

Basketball became his life, courtesy of his brother-in-law, Ricky Lowery, a former guard at Capital University, a Division III school in Columbus, Ohio. Lowery taught Duncan the basics on the family's outdoor hoop. Mostly, he taught Duncan the perimeter game.

``Tim learned the fundamentals first, without seeing it played at a higher level,'' Wainwright said. ``Lots of times, kids try to imitate what they've seen rather than concentrating on the rudiments. When we got him at Wake Forest, he hadn't been prostituted by the summer leagues and 18 coaches and 700 people telling him what to do. He wasn't a product of the system.''

In fact, the system didn't know anything about Duncan until 1992, when Chris King, a former Wake Forest player, toured St. Croix with a team of NBA rookies. When King returned to the mainland, he told Deacons coach Dave Odom about a gangly 16-year-old who had held his own against Alonzo Mourning. Wainwright quickly tracked down Duncan's name, school and coach, and Odom bolted for St. Croix faster than he could say Caribbean.

The best basketball player of his generation was recruited by Wake Forest, Providence, Hartford and Delaware State.

``I'll tell you what kind of background Tim had,'' Wainwright said. ``On his recruiting trip to Wake Forest, we were eating a meal. When we got up, I told Tim that it was on the school. He said, `You mean you guys pay for the food?' ''

In his first college game, Duncan was scoreless in 10 minutes - against Alaska Anchorage. But he progressed at warp speed, his roundball rasa absorbing every morsel of coaching the Deacons mustered. It was like he had first mastered Latin, and that made his English all the better.

At Wake Forest, he developed a plethora of low post moves, refined his ballhandling and passing, used the backboard for jump shots - yes, the backboard - and snared rebounds with his enormous hands.

Soon, NBA scouts were salivating.

``I am very impressed with Duncan,'' Olajuwon said. ``He's a very clever player. He understands the game. He does not take bad shots, and he has good moves. He never does anything out of character. He's very patient. He's very fundamentally sound. He learned the game properly.''

Duncan averaged 21.1 points last season as a rookie, 21.7 points this season. If there's a difference, he says, it's his postseason demeanor: he's playing with more confidence in the playoffs. Wednesday in Game 2, he made the game-winning shot, a short hook over Lakers forward J.R. Reid.

``Everything feels good,'' Duncan said. ``I've got to get it done for the team. They keep coming to me.''

He'd better get used to it.

DYNAMIC DUNCAN

Here's how Tim Duncan ranks among the forwards playing on the remaining eight NBA playoff teams in five major statistical categories (includes overall NBA regular-season ranking):

Points

Player, Team Avg. Rank

Karl Malone, Utah 23.8 3

Tim Duncan, San Antonio 21.7 6

Kobe Bryant, Lakers 19.9 15

Rebounds

Player, Team Avg. Rank

Tim Duncan, San Antonio 11.4 5

Brian Grant, Portland 9.8 12

Karl Malone, Utah 9.4 14

Dale Davis, Indiana 8.3 17

Theo Ratliff, Philadelphia 8.1 20

Double Doubles

Player, Team No. Rank

Tim Duncan, San Antonio 37 1

Karl Malone, Utah 21 13

Brian Grant, Portland 17 20

Theo Ratliff, Philadelphia 11 33

Kobe Bryant, Lakers 9 43

Blocks

Player, Team Avg. Rank

Theo Ratliff, Philadelphia 2.98 3

Tim Duncan, San Antonio 2.52 7

Marcus Camby, New York  1.61 15

Dale Davis, Indiana 1.14 28

Kobe Bryant, Lakers 1.00 35

FG Pct.

Player, Team Pct. Rank

Tim Duncan, San Antonio .495 8

Karl Malone, Utah .493 11

Brian Grant, Portland .479 22

Theo Ratliff, Philadelphia .470 34

Kobe Bryant, Lakers .465 36

SERIES RECAP

Conference semifinals

Spurs lead series 2-0

Gm 1: Spurs 87, Lakers 81

Gm 2: Spurs 79, Lakers 76

Gm 3: Today at Lakers, 2:30 (Ch. 4)

Gm 4: Sun. at Lakers, 2:30 (Ch. 4)

Gm 5: Tue. at Spurs, TBA x

Gm 6: May 27 at Lakers, TBA x

Gm 7: May 29 at Spurs, TBA x

x - if necessary

CAPTION(S):

Photo, 2 Boxes

Photo: (Color) no caption (Tim Duncan)

Box: (1) DYNAMIC DUNCAN (See text)

(2) SERIES RECAP (See text)