Layups: Love for The Admiral
Posted by Neil Paine on August 27, 2009
In honor of David Robinson's induction into the Hall of Fame next month, the NBA has been posting some of the Admiral's highlights to YouTube. Here are some choice plays from a young D-Rob:
August 27th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
It's always fun to watch Benoit Benjamin get owned twice in 2 possessions...
August 27th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
To this day, I wonder how many people realize just how GREAT David Robinson was in his prime.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
He's on the 50 greatest list so plenty of people know. Dude scored 71 in a game once, right? He didn't win anything until Duncan got there, though.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:45 am
I think all the metrics out there are starting to make people realize how great Robinson was again. He's right up at the top of the list in both WS and PER for the 90s.
He gets a rap for being soft, and everyone remembers the pounding he took from Hakeem in '95. Nobody seems to remember that the key to the Spurs walking all over the Lakers to get to the finals in '99 was David manning up Shaq one on one (btwn Robinson and Purdue, San Antonio was able to keep Timmy off of Shaq most of the series). Of course nobody shut down Shaq back then, but having a defender that allowed for single coverage made an enormous difference.
I think if there's any real criticism to be made of Robinson, it's less about his ability than his mindset. Maybe if he'd been the type to really get on his teammates and hold them accountable for each play like Magic, Jordan, Bird, Garnett, etc., the Spurs would have had a little more playoff success. When Kerr talks about his time in Chicago, the pressure Jordan laid on the team certainly sounds formative and important.
Maybe not though. Maybe those Spurs teams gave all they had. And anyway, who wants to malign a guy for being nice?
August 28th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Beating benoit benjamin and putting up 71 on the clippers might epitomize the admiral's career (despite Neil's attempts to the contrary such as that nice head to head stat against Dream from a few posts ago). Legend, always almost and sometimes actual Jordan-level production in the regular season. But it always looked like once you could gameplan for him or put him up against real competition, he always seemed to come back down to earth, like most guys. That said, absolute first ballot HOFer.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Interesting point Raj. It might be interesting to do a comparison of reg season PER and WS/gm vs. playoff PER and WS/gm just to see who improves and who drops off in the playoffs. I would expect most guys with really tremendous reg season metrics to have some drop off just because of better prepared defenses. on the other hand, stars sometimes get a higher proportion of touches in the playoffs...
August 28th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
David Robinson is in my mind a victim of two different things that tend to hold down peoples opinions of him against all the statistical evidence that shows him for the absolute stud that he was.
By the time he came over to the NBA after his commitment to the Navy was finished the Spurs had a very good roster in place in time for his rookie season. Problem was that a big part of that was Terry Cummings an undersized PF that was nearing the age of 30 and would pretty much begin his decline in Robinson's second season.
This left the Spurs with one of the leagues top players and a good supporting cast but to really win or contend for titles you've honestly got to have a legit #2 guy to carry a team in the playoffs.
This was largely the bane of Patrick Ewing in New York as well as even though they built some very good teams around him with depth the illusion of John Starks as a legit second option was always going to derail them against the best of the best as Sean Elliot would also do for the Spurs.
Then late in his career when they landed Tim Duncan due to an injury ruined season for David Robinson it is my opinion that Tim Duncan has received too much of the credit for that success they enjoyed together.
Not many young superstars have stepped into better spots then Tim Duncan was able to. He was given one of the best players in the league who willingly accepted being the #2 guy when he was still more then capable of sharing 1a and 1b status with him at the time.
Nothing against Tim Duncan either just as I don't hold the same advantage against Magic Johnson for being able to join a team with Kareem Abdul Jabbar but I don't think that Magic ever took due credit away from Kareem in the way that Duncan did from Robinson in the eyes of many.
Its not like Kareem is considered a failure or soft because he was unable to win a title in LA before Magic arrived and I don't think its fair for people to paint David Robinson in such a light as he was far more successful leading the Spurs before they got Duncan then Kareem was in leading the Lakers before Magic arrived.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:34 am
Kareem DID win a title before magic arrived. It just happened in Milwaukee, not LA.
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Yeah Kareem won a title before Magic arrived...With the help of Oscar Robertson.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:00 am
How many guys have actually won any titles without one other hall of famer (in some semblance of their prime) on their roster? Hakeem in '94, Duncan in '03? Anyone else? You can't hold it against Kareem for needing good teammates to win a team game.
October 6th, 2010 at 9:53 am
BEHOLD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtsS2BYmzz4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVKWBrVqCzs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42NC1wQN-0A&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKVqpXl3M18&feature=related - that's a 7 footer folks!