Leave it to Brian Cardinal to find the bright side to Stephen Jackson’s dig at him.

Jackson and a whole bunch of other folks at the AT&T Center on Friday night were peeved after Cardinal’s flagrant foul on Tim Duncan, who got hit in the face and landed on the floor when Cardinal prevented a layup attempt.

“To me, it was a dirty play,” Jackson told the San Antonio Express-News. “When you can’t play no more, I guess all you can do is go out and try to hurt people.”

Cardinal’s deadpan reaction the next night: “The thing I take from that is that he thinks I once could play. Boom! I’ll take it!”

“The Custodian” is an 11-year vet with robust career averages of 4.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and a few floor burns per game.