Admiral among legends
Mike Monroe

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Nearly four months before he was officially recognized Friday as a member of basketball's most prestigious circle, Spurs center David Robinson picked up his Sunday newspaper and knew his basketball legacy already had been indelibly stamped in the lexicon of greatness.

There, in the New York Times' Sunday crossword puzzle, to be entered into the seven spaces making up the answer to 104 Across, was this clue:Nickname of the NBA's David Robinson, with“the:”

A dedicated crossword solver, the man basketball fans long have known as “The Admiral,” smiled, and filled in his distinctive basketball moniker.

“You know you've made it when you're a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle,” Robinson said a few hours before the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame afforded him even greater acclimation. “Maybe now they'll use: Basketball Hall of Famer David Robinson.”

Indeed, the Admiral was inducted Friday into the Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Springfield Symphony Hall, part of an induction class already being called one of the greatest in the Hall's 50 years. Heading the class: Michael Jordan, a player many regard as the greatest ever. The others: Robinson; John Stockton, basketball's all-time assists leader; longtime Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan; and C. Vivian Stringer, who has coached three different schools to the NCAA women's Final Four.

Robinson addressed the audience Friday with typical humility and eloquence. He thanked most of the major influences in his life and career, including his parents, his wife, friends and teammates from the U.S. Naval Academy, and the entire Spurs organization.

He saved a special recognition for a special Spurs teammate.

“Timmy, my man,” Robinson said, gazing at Tim Duncan in the audience, in a group that included Spurs owner Peter Holt, head coach Gregg Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford. “The greatest power forward ever to play the game, in my opinion.”

Then, he turned back to the audience and said: “Have you ever gotten down on your knees and prayed for something real hard? (Timmy) was my answered prayer.”

Robinson was presented by two Hall of Famers with Spurs connections: Larry Brown, his first coach after he began playing for the Spurs in 1989, and George Gervin.

Brown recalled the first time he had a chance to watch Robinson after he took the Spurs head coaching job in 1988, while Robinson was still in the U.S. Navy.

Brown and Popovich, then Brown's assistant coach, went to watch Robinson work out with the U.S. senior national team.

“After watching him a couple of times, up and down the court, I just started to giggle,” Brown recalled.

“I thought he was the closest thing to (legendary Hall of Fame centers) Bill Russell and Nate Thurmond I'd ever seen in our sport.”

Popovich was equally impressed, but said a Robinson stunt before his first Spurs practice convinced him fully of Robinson's potential for greatness.

“Just imagine him as a young man, walking in the gym, and doing a handstand, from one end of the court to the other, at 7-1 or 7-2, whatever he is,” Popovich said. “Then, he runs the sprints and beats everybody. Then, they're throwing balls up to him and he's dunking over everybody ...

“It took only one practice, and everybody knew it was a different deal. And that's when the Spurs started winning again: when David arrived.”

Jordan, the final honoree, was momentarily overwhelmed after the audience stood, as one, and gave him a long ovation before his speech.

Wiping tears from his eyes for several seconds, he spoke about the factors that drove him throughout his career.

Sloan, the Jazz coach whose team Jordan's Bulls defeated in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals, winced as Jordan revealed one motivating factor of his amazing career. He recounted a meeting with a young Bryon Russell in 1994. Russell, Jordan said, chided him for leaving the game in 1993.

“Bryon came over and said, ‘Man, why did you quit? I can guard you.'

“So when I did decide to come back, and we played Utah in 1996, I looked over at Bryon Russell and said, ‘You remember that conversation in 1994 when you said, ‘I think I can guard you?' Well, you're about to get your chance.”

Russell, of course, is most famous for having been the defender over whom Jordan made the final shot with Chicago, a jumper that gave the Bulls the le over Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals.

*********************

SLIDESHOW

Hall of Fame - The Big Day

http://www.mysanantonio.com/slidesho...e_Big_Day.html