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happy birthday to my favorite player of all time!!!!!
Happy 59th birthday to David Robinson, aka The Admiral!! He was my favorite player growing up and the reason I'm a Spurs fan.
happy birthday to my favorite player of all time!!!!!
David Robinson is 59? Man that makes me feel old since I still remember watching him at Navy and my mind constantly wandering to the thought of him in a Spurs uniform. And then being in shock watching the Spurs win the 87 lottery and knowing it was actually going to happen. Happy Birthday Admiral!
Last edited by baseline bum; 08-06-2024 at 10:02 PM.
My childhood (super) hero...
Imagine if a guy this size with such strength and mobility arrived in the NBA today
He would easily be the best player in the league.
I think so too
Question for those who now... What lead to his back injury?
I'm wondering why being so bulked (same for Kareem) wasn't an issue at that time but nowadays eveybody wants to avoid putting too much muscle?
ZERO core strength.
What did you mwan by Kareem? I never saw Kareem play, but he was pretty skinny from what I remember. It's why I've asked a few times what his game was like for those that watched him play. What his go-to moves were apart from the sky hook as I feel Victor might be able to take some stuff from his game.
Not sure how far off Victor is from Kareem's playing weight, but I assume he's a few kilograms lighter still than Kareem.
And happy birthday D-Rob. I wouldn't be a Spurs fan without him. Tim's my favourite Spurs player, but D-Rob is still in my top 3 or 4. Also can't believe D-Rob's now 59. 2003 doesn't feel like it was that long ago.
Reason I’m a Spurs fan till this day!
Who was in his fan club as a kid? I mailed him a card and he signed it! Got it back like 6 months kater.
For real? How can it be?
If you have any link/article, I'd love to know more. I thought he was hurt on the floor or something.
I meant Hakeem (:smh)
But Kareem is actually another good comp even if I didn't see him play either. His era was less atletic than Hakeem or David had to deal with tho
[/QUOTE]
He was 7’1” 250, but had a 32” waist, what would be referred to as wasp waisted. I remember reading that if he stood on one foot, and pivoted at the waist, he couldn’t pick up a paper cup off the floor. That kind of build flaw would inevitably lead to injury.
The initial back injury started with him trying to overcompensate for a hernia he was dealing with. He had one during the 1996 Olympics. He pushed it back in and kept playing with it.
Kareem was about 225 lbs when he came in the league at age 22. Victor I have seen listed anywhere from 209 to 230 lbs. The skyhook was Kareem's go-to and he used it relentlessly in the post, with most of the rest of his points coming off putbacks or assisted dunks. Moses Malone used to wreck him when they played. Moses was ridiculously strong, four inches shorter so lower center of gravity, and more than happy to muck the game up, and he was definitely Kareem's kryptonite. Well him and Wilt, Wilt could actually block Kareem's skyhook. But Wilt was out of the league by Kareem's maybe 4th year.
Nice. He and his parents wrote a book on parenting. My wife bought me a copy for my birthday a few years ago. I opened it to find it signed by both Dave and his parents. I nearly started blubbering like a fanboy.
Just an absolute class act. He signed it and included a bible verse. As someone who has only recently started taking a knee again and someone who has gotten in trouble along the way I wish I paid more attention to the role model he was off the court and not just the basketball player.
He was 7’1” 250, but had a 32” waist, what would be referred to as wasp waisted. I remember reading that if he stood on one foot, and pivoted at the waist, he couldn’t pick up a paper cup off the floor. That kind of build flaw would inevitably lead to injury.[/QUOTE]
Hopefully my memory isn't too faulty on this stuff, but I recall reading an express new article back in the early 2000s and I'm sure this is something similar to what you said. I think the article said that his coach (Pop) at whatever age he was at the time had a stronger back.
I thought I also read that he had a piece of one of his discs broken off floating in his back and it would occasionally hit a nerve and he'd lose feeling in his leg. This was especially dangerous when he was guarding someone as strong and powerful as Shaq. I remember it being mentioned if it hit the nerve during a game, he could have gotten hurt. David was A LOT tougher than people gave him credit for.
Thanks for the story about the hernia as I didn't know that.
Thanks. I hadn't ever seen Kareem play so I wasn't sure what sort of game he had and if he had any other go-to moves apart from the sky hook.
Hopefully my memory isn't too faulty on this stuff, but I recall reading an express new article back in the early 2000s and I'm sure this is something similar to what you said. I think the article said that his coach (Pop) at whatever age he was at the time had a stronger back.
I thought I also read that he had a piece of one of his discs broken off floating in his back and it would occasionally hit a nerve and he'd lose feeling in his leg. This was especially dangerous when he was guarding someone as strong and powerful as Shaq. I remember it being mentioned if it hit the nerve during a game, he could have gotten hurt. David was A LOT tougher than people gave him credit for.
Thanks for the story about the hernia as I didn't know that.
Thanks. I hadn't ever seen Kareem play so I wasn't sure what sort of game he had and if he had any other go-to moves apart from the sky hook.[/QUOTE]
A piece of one of his discs did break off, but IIRC, that happened around 2000 or 2001.
For someone who generally doesn't give off old guy vibes, it's surprising that you're old enough to not only seemingly have first hand accounts of watching players as far back as the 70s, but remember details too.
I'm only old enough to have watched him live in the 80s but there are plenty of his games in the 70s available to watch now too. He's a guy whose legacy has inflated enormously in the last 25 years as people forget at the time he was considered soft, a bad teammate, someone who wasn't going to carry a team, etc while Magic and Bird have both become super underrated this century. Don't get me wrong, still an amazing player, but Kareem wasn't someone you could pencil your team in for ~50 wins if he was healthy like LeBron, Jordan, Tim, Magic, Bird, Wilt, Russell, etc despite Kareem always having good teammates (even in his weakest supporting casts Kareem still had HOFers like Bob Dandridge, Adrian Dantley, Jamal Wilkes, and Gail Goodrich lining up next to him).
Wasn't a lot of that because he was shy, shunned the spotlight and didn't play the media game, so they called him aloof and worse?
Despite never having seen him play, I've always liked him and found him to be one of the few athletes worth listening to.
His "legacy" is similar to Duncan. He's generally ranked as the third best player ever, but rarely gets talked about. Far less so than the likes of Bird and Johnson.
I agree with Kareem's politics way more than I do say Wilt's and as a person I like him way better than I do say Magic, but it doesn't change the fact that Kareem's just not the hop on my back and ride it to contender status kind of guy LeBron, Tim, Jordan, Bird, Wilt, and Magic were, and I think it's lunacy that he's often ranked top 5 all-time. He'd likely be remembered a lot differently if the Bulls had won that coin flip for Magic in 79 or if he got the trade to the Knicks he pushed for in 81 or if Sampson would have come out in 82 when the Lakers were begging him to when they had the #1 pick.
Last edited by baseline bum; 08-07-2024 at 04:38 PM.
Fair enough, but the "catch-all" metrics say he was that kind of guy and unlike a Robinson or Garnett, his back to the basket game made it so he could be the hub of a championship caliber offense.
He's unquestionably a much better player than David or KG and he was the clear best player on a dominant Bucks team that won a le and on another that got close. But for top 5 I want a lunatic who lives and breathes basketball like Jordan, LeBron, Magic, Tim, or Bird and someone guaranteed to make you a winner.
Where do you watch those games?
I also forgot to mention in my previous post another story I remember. Not sure which NFL player it was or how long ago (it was a while ago), but an NFL player was asked who is the truest freak you've ever seen and he said something similar to (can't remember the exact quote) : "David Robinson. His muscles had muscles."
Kareem’s biggest problem was that he relied heavily on his PGs to set him up at certain spots on offense. I’m not saying he can’t create offence because he certainly could but compared to a player like hakeem, duncan or even shaq, he just doesn’t generate something out of nothing consistently like they could. He’s almost like a Karl Malone, more a finisher than a creator.
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