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Mav fan is great. He realizes this was a stupid debate and starts talking about Hakeem.
A ring has hardly cured mav fan of little brother syndrome. Even after a lot of Spurs fans were happy to see Dirk get a ring and embarrass the Heat, Mav fan still wants more. Dirk obviously doesn't stack up to Duncan, so Mav fan wants to see how he stacks up to Robinson.
I've always been a fan of Dirk and I've been pretty open about that. As much as I've hated the Mavs, Dirk will easily end up going down as one of my favorite players. But on the first page it was funny to see FPoonsie try to keep the peace by being nice and saying it wasn't a "completely" ridiculous question. In all honesty, it is a ridiculous question. Dirk is no where near the player Robinson was.
The best argument for Dirk is his offense and how he takes over games offensively. I've never seen a player Dirk's size shoot the way he does. But that doesn't mean there haven't been players his size who have scored as well as he does. Robinson was in many ways just as good, and at times better than Nowitzki on the offensive end. In his prime, Robinson had range just shy of the 3-pt line and was also capable of playing with his back to the basket and taking his man off the dribble. He didn't have Dirk's pure ability to shoot the ball, but his quickness, athleticism and body control were in a completely different league than Dirk's.
When it comes to defense and rebounding, it isn't even close. Though Dirk has improved defensively and is no longer a liablity, Robinson was much more than "not a liability". He was the best defensive player in the game. When they were at their respective bests, Robinson still averaged over 3 RPG more and 3 BPG more than Dirk.
As far as longevity is concerned, Robinson had 10-11 seasons as an elite NBA player. It's not as if Robinson dominated for a few years and then fell off. He sustained that level over the course of a decade.
Dirk was finally able to lead his team to a le as the clear #1 star. Something Robinson was unable to do for 8 seasons. But as the #1 option, it also took Nowitzki 12 tries to finally accomplish that. It would be foolish to think Nowitzki had stacked teams for all these years, that obviously isn't the case. But Robinson would have killed to have a prime Michael Finley starting next to him. Forget about having Antoine Walker, Antawn Jamison, Michael Finley, Steve Nash and a young Josh Howard all on the same roster.
Dirk was able to win because he grew as a leader and finally had the right pieces put around him. Robinson was basically asked to be all the pieces. He never had an owner willing to spend money. Cuban and Dirk turned the Mavs into a winning franchise. Robinson was asked to do it on his own.
Seriously?! Up until a week ago Dirk was widely considered a playoff choker. Robinson didn't choke once he had a decent team either. Good take though.
