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Top three. Top ten. Respectively.
At center and all-time?
Top three. Top ten. Respectively.
I think an argument could be made for top 10 for centers and top 30 overall. If he had played longer or been more selfish his numbers might be a bit better but that is not what seemed to drive him. If he could have won the championship in 1994 or 1995 before TD he would also move up on the list.
No particular order but I would put the following centers in front of Big Dave:
1. Lou Alcindor
2. Wilt
3. Hakeem
4. Russell
5. Shaq
6. Moses Malone
Then probably David
Don't forget two gold medals and a FIBA championship, as I recall. That's still worth something. And he has tons of accolades. Also 71 points in a game is pretty incredible. (Going off memory here so if I am wrong, well, it is not by much.)
Well, he's the only player in NBA history to lead the league in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots and win Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and Most Valuable Player award during his career. He is also the only player in NBA history to rank among top five players in the league in rebounding, blocks and steals in the same season. He has two NBA championships, two Olympic gold medals, and was named to numerous All-NBA teams, All-Defensive teams, and All-Star teams. He has one of the few quadruple doubles in NBA history, and scored 71 points in a game. He stacks up very well against the other star centers he played against throughout his career in terms of points, rebounds, blocks, and games won. He has 519 win shares in his career and only 11 loss shares. That is incredible.
Unfortunately, the simple-minded and ignorant among us view his career solely based on the 1995 playoffs against the Rockets. While David was outplayed by Hakeem during that series, he still played well. He faced a lot more double teams due to the Spurs not having as strong a supporting cast. And despite that, I still maintain that the Spurs would have won the series if Dennis Rodman had not been such a distraction. Nonetheless, Houston was certainly a more talented team. The Spurs had a lineup of Robinson, Rodman, Elliott, Del Negro, and Johnson, while Houston had Olajuwon, Thorpe, Drexler, Cassell, Horry, Elie, etc. Just an incredible amount of talent, which even a great series by David would probably not have been enough to overcome.
As for the argument that he never led the Spurs to a championship, I disagree. The 1999 championship team was decidedly David's. Sure, Duncan played well and led the team in scoring, but David had some huge performances during that playoff run. His defense was incredible, he scored the ball reliably, and his leadership (along with Mario Elie) was so key. We would not have won that le without him.
Stepping back and looking at his career as a whole, including his stats, wins, awards, and performance against his contemporaries, I put him as the fifth best center ever behind Kareem, Wilt, Russell, and Shaq among centers, and just ahead of Hakeem and Moses Malone. I think he is in the top 20-25 overall.
He also has a quadruple double. Averaged 21+ and 10+ per game.
20,000 points & 2900 blocks in ,essentially, 13 seasons. Starting at age 24 and playing 6 seasons with a dominant scorer and defender. top 7 atleast, arguable top 5 center (kareem, shaq, wilt, Russell, Hakeem)
Off the top of my head, he's probably one of the 10 best regular season players of all-time..
Overall, one of the top 20-25 players of all-time..
Tim Duncan was the 1999 championship. I love David Robinson and he is my all time favorite player. Duncan's numbers outside the Minnesota series were god like.
I should add that the two most enjoyable sports viewing events in my life were 2003 game 6 against Dallas when Robinson was jumping in circles on the bench after Kerr's 3 pointers and then his embrace of Willis and his fist pump after he checks out of game 6 against the Nets.
Robinson is one of the most underrated and under appreciated player of all time. Personally, I think he's a top 15 player (but top 10 when it comes to sheer talent and athletic ability). He's probably more athletic than both Dwight Howard and Lebron James. To fill out like he did at 7'1" and running the floor... that's nuts. He's one of the few guys I put up there with the level of Shaq-Wilt-Lebron-Kareem-Jordan like dominance.
First, he never won a single le as the guy. His career was relatively short, and he's often perceived as "too nice" and didn't really have an edge to him. Personally, I think he's better than Duncan. He's faster, stronger, and bigger than Duncan. He's more athletic and can run faster. He's a better scorer, rebounder, and shot blocker. In their respective primes, Duncan was never even better than a rookie/2nd yr. Robinson.
Robinson outplayed shaq in most of their heads up meetings before his back injury
No way is Big Dave ahead of Hakeem.
Robinson over Olajuwon is complete lunacy.
Look, DRob is my favorite player of all time but there's no way he's in the top 3 or even top 5 center conversation. Just not possible.
You can make a pretty convincing argument that Hakeem is the #2 center of all-time behind Jabbar (or Wilt, if that's what you're into). Hakeem is basically a slightly better version of Robinson all the way around. He was a ing shooting guard in a center's body. Absolutely ridiculous. Hakeem in today's NBA would be even more lethal than he was in the 90s. It's crazy to think about.
Hakeem is the GOAT center imo
Holy I actually agree with you...
6th greatest center, maybe 5th, but he has this compe ion: Wilt, Kareem, Hakeem, Shaq, Russell, Malone.
Top 20 overall
Top 15 all time and top 5 center. He was the reason that I started following basketball and the spurs growing up.
He's not a top 10 all time player, stop it. The dude was my favorite player growing up but try not to be that big of a homer guys. He didn't lead a team to a le (won two, but didn't clearly "lead" them), so he is penalized. He also got one of his rings as a busted up old man. . .so he's really a one ring co-captain type player in the grand scheme.
His personal stats and records are extremely good, but if you really look at all the all time greats, you kinda can't put him above a lot of them because of just the one ring. You can argue he's as high as maybe. . .20ish, but if you go much higher it's just homerism imo.
Lol, some of y'all are ridiculous. I'm a huge D-Rob fan, but let's be serious.
Top 5 centers (in no order): Kareem, Wilt, Russell, Hakeem, and Shaq.
Top 10 players (in no order): MJ, Russell, Wilt, Kareem, Magic, Bird, Duncan, Shaq, Hakeem, LeBron
There's no way he fits into either of those categories. He's probably the 6th best center of all-time (I'd put him ahead of Moses Malone given Robinson's defensive impact), and maybe a top-15 player of all-time. I'm sorry, but the dude never won a le as a first option. He was an underperformer in the playoffs. Let's take off the Spurs homer goggles and be objective here.
Hakeem was great, but I don't see why one outstanding series should elevate a player's stature to the degree it seems to with Hakeem. Isn't it interesting how Hakeem dominated and "lead his team to a championship" in the seasons he had an amazing supporting cast? Don't you think that has something to do with it? I'd love to know how David would have done with a cast of Drexler, Thorpe, Horry, Cassell, etc. Sort of how I'd love to know what David would have done with Duncan's supporting cast. If we're being honest, Elliott, Rodman, Johnson, Del Negro, etc. weren't even close to those supporting casts.
That's not to take away from Hakeem's performance, because it was amazing. But that's one series out of an entire career. So if we're going to give Hakeem almost royalty status for his performance in 1995, then we should also detract points for the year when he was criticized for faking injuries and demanding a trade out of Houston.
Seriously, David vs. Hakeem throughout their careers showed almost identical performance when you look at scoring, rebounds, blocks, fg%, etc. The only difference is that David's team won more games. That should carry a lot of weight in a conversation like this. They are fairly even, to be honest. Not a huge difference either way.
Top 5-7 centers, tbh.
Top 25 players in general, tbh.
Hakeem an amazing supporting cast?
please stop smoking pot..he had an underrated cast considering how people think 94 was all Hakeem but amazing...
geez
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