Dirk Nowtizki is back in the AT&T Center on Wednesday night, set to lead his Dallas Mavericks against the Spurs for the 99th time in his career.

Tim Duncan won’t full-on admit it, but he will be glad to see the 37-year-old German.

“We’re not going to go over there and hug each other or anything, but it’s good to see guys like that still out there,” said Duncan, the Spurs’ 39-year-old All-Star forward. “We’re a dying breed.”

It’s the same sentiment Duncan experienced last week, when 38-year-old Vince Carter came to town with Memphis, and will again when he faces the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (37), the Clippers’ Paul Pierce (also 37) and even Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett (38) later this season.

“I’m glad those guys are still here,” Duncan said. “I’m glad I’m still here.”

There remain nine active NBA players who were drafted in the 1990s. The Spurs have two of them — Duncan (1997) and Manu Ginobili (1999).

Minnesota guard Andre Miller, born 37 days before Duncan in 1976, is the NBA’s oldest active player.

In a league perpetually restocked with young, high-flying millennials, there’s not a day that goes by that a Generation X-er like Duncan does not feel his age.

When Duncan made a joke involving 1990s R&B group Tony! Toni! Tone! after Monday’s win over Phoenix, he literally sounded like the proverbial old guy at the club.

“There aren’t many of us left from the ’70s,” said Ginobili, 37. “It’s good to see we’re still hanging in there against these kids that can fly.”

Duncan’s latest sunrise-sunset moment came Monday against Phoenix, when he recorded a block against rookie guard Devin Booker, 20 years his junior.

Ginobili can do Duncan one better there.

“I played against Booker’s father (Melvin) overseas,” Ginobili said.

The NBA is a 20-somethings league. The last 30-year-old to win an MVP award was Steve Nash in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

It takes a special kind of player to last into his late 30s.

“I would imagine they all probably have a high competitive nature and do a good job of taking care of all that goes on with their bodies,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

Indeed, Duncan reshaped his physique over the past five years or so, dropping weight to take pressure off his chronically iffy knees.

Carter said his determination to hang on to an NBA career amounted to a change in lifestyle. Rest has become more important to him as he has gotten older.

“When you are younger, your body can take a beating,” Carter said. “You can go hang out or whatever and still perform at that high level. Not so much when you get older. For me, if I choose to go out, I know I won’t be very productive.”

Most of the NBA’s older players share a conflicting common thread.

They possess a burning competitive drive — mandatory to stick around past an age when most of their contemporaries have retired to a life of golf courses and early-bird specials — coupled with the humility to accept a lesser role and thrive.

Carter has transitioned from his “Air Canada” days in Toronto to a bench role in Memphis. Pierce has become a small-ball power forward in Los Angeles. Garnett is mentoring young pups in his second stint in Minnesota.

The Spurs’ offense has long since stopped running exclusively through Duncan, whose focus has become rebounding and shot-blocking.

“Our roles have changed, our skills have changed, our bodies have changed,” said Duncan, averaging 10.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in his 19th season. “We’ve all had to figure out what we can do and still be effective.”

Typically, that means finding a way to compensate for eroding physical skills.

Phoenix coach Jeff Hornacek, whose playing career overlapped with Duncan’s first three seasons, said an older player must use his smarts to extend his shelf life.

“The guys who last that long know how to play the game,” said Hornacek, who played until he was 36. “You may get six or seven years on athletic ability. You make it the rest of the time with your knowledge of the game.”

Wednesday at the AT&T Center, two aging former champions will go at it again, proof the NBA doesn’t always have to be a young man’s game.

Nowitzki enters as the Mavericks’ leading scorer, averaging 18 points heading into their game Tuesday at Memphis. He, like Duncan, is coming off an All-Star season.

Duncan, of course, hopes Nowitzki cools off against the Spurs. He is pulling for Nowitzki otherwise.

After all, the NBA’s old guys have to stick together to fend off Father Time.

“We all know we’re on the back end of our careers,” Duncan said. “It’s good to see those guys not only still there, but playing a role and playing it well.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN