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You Got Schooled: Mr. Robinson's neighborhood was a great place to grow up
By Chris Ferrell - Express-News commentary
For a generation of kids growing up in San Antonio who were too young to see George Gervin light up the NBA, we only knew the Spurs as a bad basketball team.
A Nerf basketball hoop hung on my bedroom door with a homemade backboard featuring a Detroit Pistons logo. The wall next to my bed had a couple of Michael Jordan posters that came with the boxes of Wheaties I begged my mom to buy, even though I wasn’t crazy about the taste of the cereal.
On the blacktop, I threw up shots at the buzzer in my head while pretending to be Jordan, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson.
The Spurs just didn’t seem like a big deal. Well, not until David Robinson showed up.
When the Spurs won the lottery and the rights to draft the star center from the Naval Academy, it was the first time I could remember the team being a national story. The day Robinson signed his contract was like Fiesta.
I also remember that two years feels like an eternity when you’re in elementary school. It felt like he was stationed at that submarine base forever.
To an 11-year-old in San Antonio, the Admiral’s arrival in 1989 was the biggest thing to happen in the city since Pee-wee Herman tried to find his missing bicycle in the basement of the Alamo.
We had sat in a half-empty HemisFair Arena for years watching the Spurs lose. The most entertaining thing on the floor was usually the Coyote. That changed after San Antonio became Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood.
The Spurs started winning, and the Pistons backboard came down. The Michael Jordan posters were replaced by one featuring Robinson. (Hey, it’s fine to be a fair-weather fan when you’re 11.)
And there was no bigger thrill that year than opening a pack of NBA Hoops basketball cards with No. 138 inside — the rookie card with a picture of Robinson holding up a Spurs jersey after signing his first contract.
There are certain teams from your childhood that stay with you forever. You can still name the starting lineup (Robinson, Terry mings, Sean Elliott, Willie Anderson and Rod Strickland, who replaced Maurice Cheeks). Their successes still make you smile, and their failures still haunt you (where was Strickland throwing that pass against Portland?).
The 1989-90 Spurs are that team for me.
Since then, there have been far more good times for Spurs fans than bad ones.
And there were few role models in any city in America who were better than Robinson was for us impressionable youths in San Antonio. He was a giant — an MVP, an All-Star and an Olympian. He was a military man in a military city. He always seemed to do and say the right thing.
He could even make math cool to an Eisenhower Middle School student who struggled mightily to pass Algebra I.
But it never seemed like the rest of the country fully appreciated what we had here. Even when he’s enshrined into the Hall of Fame on Friday, Jordan will steal the show.
Maybe that’s why the final seconds of his final game rank among my favorite sports memories.
I had grown up by then and was out of school dealing with a real job and adult responsibilities. But on June 15, 2003, for a few minutes anyway, it was easy to forget all that. With a crowd on its feet and a second NBA championship secured, the eyes of the sports world were on the Admiral as he left the court with a storybook sendoff.
And I felt like a kid again.
There will probably be a time Friday when that feeling comes back.
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My all time favorite sports moment was when Drob won his final game as a Spur in the NBA finals. It just doesn't top that...and in truth, it used to hurt when my teams didn't win at the end and I thought they would(especially the Spurs), but it never has since. I've seen the storybook ending everyone else dreams of....what more can you ask for?
Especially since he did it all with one team.
Wow that could've been written by alot of us that grew up in SA. ESPECIALLY the parts about the Hoops cards and remember the starting 5.
Awesome article that rings true for those of us in our late 20s early 30s that grew up in SA.
The window of time between the Gervin era and the Robinson era was actually pretty small. But I guess if you were a kid during that time it would have felt like forever.
Just a quick question as I'm not american, why he said San Antonio is a military city? Did he mean the military bases here or the just Alamo victory?
He meant military bases and military personnel, retired and active duty. San Antonio is a huge military town....might be the biggest military town in the United States. It's definitely the biggest in the Southern United States.
Not only that but in addition to Drob, Peter Holt was in the military, and so was Pop...
Question from another Chinese, is the "Pee-wee Herman" thing just a sense of humour or something meaningful?[To an 11-year-old in San Antonio, the Admiral’s arrival in 1989 was the biggest thing to happen in the city since Pee-wee Herman tried to find his missing bicycle in the basement of the Alamo.
Let me not forget to congratulate Mr Robinson for his induction to the HOF. He is the ultimate role-model for all althletes.
Never liked the *@&%#@+ Celitics, Lakers or Bulls......this article reminds me of the bandwagon fans that started going to Spurs games, because they started winning when we got D. Rob. that really sucked. I hated those teams....always loved my Spurs but hated the bandwagoners....that weren't there during the brutal losing season of 21-61. Good or Bad Support your local team you fakers!!!!!
I was 19 in 89 but this rings true for me as well. It was tough being a young Spurs fan at 15 and 16 when they were losing and a lot of your friends were all fans of different teams...watching them change their tunes was priceless.
in "Pee-Wee Herman's Big Adventure" He is trying to find his bike and is told by a fortune teller that his bike is in the basement of the Alamo so he comes to San Antonio, Tx to find it...... There is no basement in the Alamo.
FYI.... I dont know anyone in San Antonio that has an accent like the tour guide.
Great article
It was a movie:
Lol the guy was 11 at the time. Seriously I think it's ok to cut kids a little slack sports wise at that age
Speaking of Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood:
I became a fan during these dark years. Go Jon Sundvold!
Thanks for the info.
The all time best Mr. Robinson's neighborhood commercials were the one where David goes:
Speaking of Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood:
Last year Mr. Robinson scored 24ppg, pulled down 12rbg and blocked over 3 shots per game to help produce the greatest single season turnaround in NBA history...
Can you say contract renegotiation? Mr. Robinson can *big grin*
I mean it was actually funny.
The other really funny one was the one where Larry Brown was nagging him...rebound rebound rebound defend defend defend defend...I can't really remember all the details but Larry Brown was hilarious in that video.
My least favorite one is the one with Charles Barkley in it...because Charles ended up kicking Dave out of his own commercials.
I liked the commercials that had David's boys in them - I think they were "dunking" cookies. I also liked the Pizza Hut one with Dennis Rodman - there was such a stark difference between the two and it was funny watching Rodman tell David he could be a rebel and eat his pizza crust first.
What really made it funny is that it was actually David telling Rodman to be a rebel and eat his crust first.I liked the commercials that had David's boys in them - I think they were "dunking" cookies. I also liked the Pizza Hut one with Dennis Rodman - there was such a stark difference between the two and it was funny watching Rodman tell David he could be a rebel and eat his pizza crust first.
Those commercials were the ONLY worthwhile thing to come from the time Rodman was a Spur.
I couldn't find some of those. You Tube has another one where he says that David Stern gives crummy presents and another where he is dunking over a pianist.
Yeah, those two are hard to find and it sucks because they are the two best ones. The contract renegotiation commercial was pretty controversial(it was definitely an "I can't believe they actually did that" moment)
LOL I remember the pianist commercial, I had actually forgotten about that until you mentioned it...that was a pretty good one. What really made it cool is that David actually plays classical piano.
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