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Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:56 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Robinson


David Robinson was born in Key West, Florida on August 6, 1965. He was the second child of Ambrose and Freda Robinson. Since Robinson's father was in the Navy, the family moved many times. After his father retired from the Navy, the family settled in Virginia Beach, Virginia where Robinson excelled in school and in most sports except basketball. He was 5 feet, 9 inches tall in junior high school so he tried basketball, but he soon quit. Robinson attended Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, Virginia just outside of Washington D.C., where Robinson's father was working as an engineer after retiring from the Navy. By his senior year in high school he was 6 feet, 7 inches tall, but he had not played organized basketball. When the coach added the tall senior to the basketball team, Robinson earned all-area and all-district honors but generated little interest among college basketball coaches. Basketball was not his first priority anyway—getting an education was. Robinson scored a 1320 on the SAT, and he chose to go to the United States Naval Academy, where he majored in mathematics.


College basketball career
He was the best basketball player at the Naval Academy, choosing jersey number 50 after his idol Ralph Sampson. By the time he took the court in his first basketball game for Navy, he had grown to 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m), and over the course of his college basketball career, he grew to 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m). In his final 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 Naval Academy first classman (senior). Upon graduation, he became eligible for the 1987 NBA Draft and was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the first overall pick; however, the Spurs had to wait two years before he could join them because he had to fulfill two years of Navy duty.

In a mildly controversial, yet understandable move, the Navy excused him from three years of the normal five years of his military commitment following graduation from the Naval Academy because his height prohibited his deployment in many roles (e.g. aviation, the submarine corps, and many ships). Nonetheless, Robinson continued to serve in a reserve role with the Navy and was regularly featured in recruiting materials for the service. Despite the nickname "Admiral", Robinson's actual rank upon fulfilling his service commitment was Lieutenant, Junior Grade.

At the Naval Academy, Robinson was an outstanding all-around athlete and chess player; during the physical tests that the Academy gives all incoming plebes he scored higher in gymnastics than anyone in his class. This was even more impressive due to his height: 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) at the time. To put this in perspective, virtually all male gymnasts are well under 6 ft (1.83 m) tall, and the service academies prohibit enrollment to anyone taller than 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m). However, the academies do not drop students who grow past this height limit after enrolling, which later benefited Robinson.



Although there was speculation that Robinson might choose not to sign with the Spurs and to become a free agent once his Navy commitment ended, Robinson decided in the end to come to San Antonio. Robinson joined the Spurs for the 1989-90 season, and he helped the team produce the second greatest single season turnaround in NBA history(the Spurs also hold the record for greatest turnaround, in 1997-98, after drafting Tim Duncan). The Spurs went from 21-61[5] in the 1988-89 NBA season to 56-26 in 1989-90, for a remarkable 35 game improvement. They advanced to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs where they lost in seven games to the eventual western conference champions, the Portland Trail Blazers. Following the 1989-90 season, he was unanimously named the NBA rookie of the year, and subsequently SEGA produced a game featuring him entitled David Robinson's Supreme Court


It says all :wink:

Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:26 am

I don't understand why you're comparing Oden's situation to Robinson's. Robinson and Oden both had to spend time away from the NBA in the year that they were drafted in, but Robinson didn't have to have a knee surgery that was known for killing NBA careers. With that being said, I still think Oden will make a great pro.

Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:31 am

also, robinson was sick. the man was a damn machine, oden is in no way near the shape that robinson was

Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:27 pm

Its_asdf wrote:I don't understand why you're comparing Oden's situation to Robinson's. Robinson and Oden both had to spend time away from the NBA in the year that they were drafted in, but Robinson didn't have to have a knee surgery that was known for killing NBA careers. With that being said, I still think Oden will make a great pro.


There is a similarity in that the Blazers will have to wait to benefit from the presence of their prized first overall pick and if Oden comes through the surgery and rehabilitation with flying colours and establishes himself as one of the league's top big men, for Portland and their fans it will be worth the wait much as it was with The Admiral in San Antonio.

Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:32 am

Obviously Greg's situation is quite different from Robinson's, but as far as basketball players go, that's a great comparison.

Greg reminds me so much of David Robinson its scary.

Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:54 am

To each his own I guess, but Greg Oden does not remind me of a shooting guard with a seven-foot-one body.

Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:05 pm

Indy wrote:Greg reminds me so much of David Robinson its scary.

What's even scary is that David Robinson never seems to get old.
I swear the Navy did some experiments on him.
He's like the Navy's Captain America.

Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:10 pm

You mean this guy isn't natural?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKVqpXl3M18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUn7BvZ-4ZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BuzDnClCtk

Sat Sep 29, 2007 6:28 pm

A Jack Haley sighting. :lol:

David Robinson has a Math major. That's it, the Navy really did experiments on him.

Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:45 am

Holy mothersmokes. In that first video, David Robinson ran like a
benji wrote:shooting guard with a seven-foot-one body.
I didn't believe it till I saw it. Wow.

Though in that last clip, he did remind me a lot of Greg Oden.

Mon Oct 01, 2007 6:49 am

Damn, he looks so funny in the last clip when he's talking. And that quote by Red was hilarious.

Mon Oct 01, 2007 6:59 am

I think Robinson had some minor speech problems when he was young.

Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:34 pm

If you see/hear him right now, you couldn't tell. That's why it's so funny.

Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:34 pm

How about Bill Walton when he had a stuttering problem.
Try imagining it.

"Ttttthrow iiiit dddddown bbbbigmmman!"

I think Kenyon Martin also had speech problems. Same with Richard Jefferson.
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