Athletes - David Robinson

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	Athletes - David Robinson

David Maurice Robinson (born August 6, 1965 in Key West, Florida) is a former NBA basketball player, who is considered one of the greatest to ever play. A born-again Christian, Robinson is also an amateur musician who enjoys playing various instruments at home. His nicknames include "The Admiral", based on his service as an officer in the United States Navy, and "The Howler", due to Robinson's frequent shouting at opposing players to distract them during critical shots. Robinson is now on staff at the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, where Max Lucado is the pulpit minister.

When Robinson was a youngster, he moved many times with his family, as his father was a Navy officer. After his father retired from the Navy, the family settled in Manassas, Virginia, where he attended Osbourn Park High School and played just one year of high school basketball. Robinson scored a 1320 on the SAT, and enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy, where he majored in mathematics.

Robinson was an outstanding all-around athlete and chess player; during the physical tests that the Academy gave all of its incoming plebes, he scored higher on the gymnastics portions of the test than anyone in his class, except for the plebes who were slated to be on the Academy's gymnastics team. This was even more impressive because he was 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) when he arrived at Annapolis. To put this in perspective, virtually all male gymnasts are well under 6 feet (1.83 m) tall, and the service academies prohibit anyone taller than 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) from enrolling. However, the academies do not drop students who grow past the limit after enrolling there, which would prove to be important to Robinson.

College basketball career

He played NCAA basketball at the Naval Academy. By the time of his first basketball game for Navy, he was 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m), and would eventually grow to 7'1" (2.16 m). In his last two years, he was a consensus All-American, and won college basketball's two most prestigious player awards, the Naismith and Wooden Awards, as a first classman (senior). Upon graduation, he was eligible for the 1987 NBA draft. He was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the first overall pick, but had to wait two more years before he could join the NBA because he still had two years of duty left with the Navy. In a mildly controversial move, the Navy excused him from three of the normal five years of his military commitment because his height made it impossible for him to be deployed in many roles (e.g. aviation, the submarine corps, or many ships). Robinson continued to serve in a reserve role with the Navy and was regularly featured in recruiting materials for the service.

NBA career

Robinson was finally able to join the Spurs for the 1989–1990 season, and he helped the team make the playoffs, where they lost in seven games against eventual western conference champions Portland Trail Blazers. He was named the NBA rookie of the year after that season, and SEGA immediately produced a game starring Robinson called David Robinson's Supreme Court.

The Spurs kept making the playoffs, but not winning the championship. Robinson made the 1992 US Olympic Dream Team that won the gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics, and he scored 71 points against the Clippers in the last game of the season to win the league scoring title over Shaquille O'Neal in 1994. Robinson went on to win the NBA's MVP trophy in 1995, and in 1996 he was named one of the . Still, from 1991 to 1998, only the Chicago Bulls and the Houston Rockets were able to claim the NBA championship that Robinson desired so much. The losses against the Rockets were painful for Robinson, because his rival Hakeem Olajuwon outgunned Robinson. However, Robinson's difficulties against the Rockets in that series can at least partially be attributed to being doubled and triple teamed throughout the series, while the Spurs opted to play Hakeem straight up. Robinson's title dreams seemed to come to an end when he was seriously injured in 1997, and the Spurs fell to a dismal 20-62. Robinson's injury proved to be a blessing in disguise. The Spurs had the first pick in the next draft and acquired Tim Duncan, another crucial factor in their success over the next several years.

Champion

Before the start of the 1998–1999 season, the NBA owners and David Stern locked out the players to force negotiation on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NBA Player's Association. The lockout lasted for 202 days until ultimately a new CBA was agreed upon by both sides. The season began February 5, 1999, therefore making it literally the 1999 NBA season. After playing a truncated 50 game season, the Spurs finished with a record of 37-13 which was the best in the NBA and gave the Spurs homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. The Spurs were very successful in the first three rounds of the playoffs, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers, and Portland Trail Blazers with a combined record of 11-1. The combination of Robinson and second-year, seven-foot forward Tim Duncan was enough to win it all. They beat the New York Knicks in five games to become the NBA championship team. Although Duncan was named the Finals MVP, many credited Robinson's leadership as the essential component in the championship run.

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Athletes - David Robinson

College basketball career

NBA career

Champion

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