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Who do you think Spurs fans will say?...
Who would you rank higher all time?
Who do you think Spurs fans will say?...
If Dirk played defense, I would dignify that question with a response.
lol all those Spurs homers who think Robinson was better than Dirk.
-Mav fan
Different positions and totally different players.
This.
And if one were to consider/remember that Robinson was one of the better defenders in NBA history, one would realize just how ridiculous of a comparison this really is.
Dirk only plays 1 side of the court. One of the best ever at that certain end of the court but plays zero defense.
Why would you want to compare a center against a power forward?
I don't think this is a completely ridiculous question tbh; though, I'm not naive enough to NOT know why it was posited.
Dirk's fun to watch, but David was on another level as far as exciting basketball. I started watching him his MVP season, and was hooked. He was athletic enough to be an impressive 6'-5" SG, much less a 7 foot center.
As far as leading a team, who's to say. He played a lot of his best ball in the MJ (and Hakeem) era, and obviously, no one could really touch those guys. I'd be interested to see how Dirk woulda' performed against those guys in that decade.
Power Forward in name only. He plays the game like a Small Forward.
Dirk is one of the greatest offensive talents of his generation. But his all around game has always been the talk of debate.
Just from a statistical point of view:
His career year, when he either set or came close to setting all of his career highs was in 2004-05:
PPG: 26.1
RPG: 9.7
APG: 3.1
SPG: 1.2
BPG: 1.5
DRob's career year came in 1993-94, his 5th year in the league:
PPG: 29.8
RPG: 10.7
APG: 4.8
SPG: 1.8
BPG: 3.3
Incidentally, DRob was avering 12 RPG and 4 BPG for his career coming into this season , so while it was a 'career' year from an overall statistical viewpoint, he actually dipped in two categories.
The point, Dirk has proven to be one of the elite scorers of his generation, while DRob was considered one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the league. They may offset each other on their respective ends of the floor, but DRob did have a better all around game than Dirk. Even in the playoffs this year when he was the Finals MVP, his scoring increased 5ppg compared to the regular season, but his rebounds, assists, steals and blocks were right in line with his regular season averages.
DRob was a career 21ppg/11rpg/3bpg player, even with the last four years of his career being below 15ppg and 9rpg.
Dirk is a career 23ppg and 8rpg player, with his rebounding steadily dropping off over the last four years to 7rpg this year.
But it is apples and oranges, because they are two different types of players in two different positions.
If I'm rebuilding a team? DRob. If I'm looking for the missing piece to take a team over the top? Dirk. And that takes nothing away from Dirk or his accomplishments. He has proven his elite status in the league. But as a scorer, not an all around player.
If only Dennis Rodman had been more Tyson Chandler and less... Dennis Rodman.
I disagree... I think Rodman helped Robinson have 2 of his best seasons. Rodman enabled Robinson to win his MVP
Imagine what Rodman would have been if he was concentrating on being an upstanding human being, and a dedicated basketball player.... I think we would be talking about a top 50 player all time.
He seems like a fun guy and was a good player but the dude is/was a headcase.
Dirk
I really like both players, I think though that Robinson brought more to a team overall so I would have to rank him higher.
Robinson. Not only because he is my favourite player of all time, but because Robinson was ridiculously underrated throughout his career.
Of all the people, I would have thought that Dirk fans would understand what Robinson went through with his career. Up until this year's playoff run, Dirk Nowitzki was roundly criticized for being a choker, and a player who was unable to carry a team to post season success.
While there are certainly chokers in this game (Karl Malone comes to mind), neither Dirk Nowitzki and Robinson were them. Those two were simply victims of some very flawed teams.
Dirk Nowitzki is a player who requires another big man to do the dirty work for him (rebound, defend the paint, guard the opposing team's best big), but would not get in the way offensively (Chandler), he requires someone to distribute the ball for him on the perimeter (Kidd), and a slashing scorer to compliment him (Terry).
Robinson is a player who requires a decent shooting PG (never had one), a bunch of three point shooters (Elliott, maybe Chuck Person/Dale Ellie, but they didn't spend enough time with Robinson), and a supporting rebounder (Rodman when sane). He got that in partial chunks in his career, and never really had the support he needed.
The Spurs didn't have good outside shooters for the most part (especially in the post season), have a PG you don't have to guard outside of 18 feet, and teams just learned to cram the paint to guard Robinson.
I guess what I am trying to get at is, if Robinson had the right team around him, there would be no question that he could have won a championship as the centre piece. look at his rookie year when he had Larry Brown, mings and Strickland, they went pretty deep into the playoffs. Look at his supporting casts and his coaches since then, Jerry Tarkanian, Bob Hill, Lucas, 2 of these three coaches couldn't get another head coaching gig in the NBA after the Spurs, and Lucas didn't fare particulary well elsewhere either.
One cannot use the sole championship Dirk won as the be all and end all in deciding Robinson vs. Nowitzki, but rather look at all the cir stances that both were in, and look at their games.
Robinson was one of the best defensive players of all time (top 10 probably), and is no weakling on offense. Dirk is one of the best offensive players of all time (I would say top 10 to 15), and is mediocre on defense.
I would pick Robinson.
^^^agree
People always forget that drob won a scoring le
Dude had a legit offensive game and was a monster on defense
Well Dirk was the best player on a championship team, something Robinson cannot say.
On the other hand, Robinson was dominant on both ends and had the misfortune of playing during Jordan and Hakeem's prime.
"They're different players, who play different positions", while technically true, ignores the reality. And that is, they're both 7-1 (Carlisle claims Nowitzki is 7-1 or 7-1 1/2). Nowitzki has no excuse to not at least be a competent defender/rebounder. It's different with Barkley, who's 6-4 1/2, which gave him virtually no chance to be a shot blocker/plus defender.
Robinson, statistically, is one of the most underrated and well rounded players of all-time. I value all around play too much to put a one dimensional player ahead of him. That's the same reason why I still have Garnett ahead of Nowitzki.
Mavs fans who even consider this have delusions of grandeur. Dirk wouldn't even get a shot up with David or Hakeen guarding him for that matter. Heck, Malik Rose could shut him down in his prime and then posterize him on the other end.
Cheers for winning the NBA championship finally and not having to go through a young Lakers or Spurs squad. Just as many young people could take Bill RusseLl down now.
The fact that Dirk is 7 feet tall and can barely play defense is pretty disgraceful really.
David Robinson was the last player in the league to put up a quadruple double and regularly was a beast on both ends. When Dirk starts getting close to that let me know and I'll consider him in the same sentence.
Fixed
Ask yourselves the age old question then:
You're starting a franchise..........who do you take?
Dirk only dominated one end of the floor, David both.
/thread
DRob might have not been the choker that Malone really was, but didn't get many chances to prove that either. The series against Hakeem was his only big run before Duncan, and he got thoroughly outplayed in that. That makes it very hard to see him stack up well against other all time greats. Heck, even Ewing had more deep runs than Robinson had.
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