Alvin Robertson 6-4 G / Dude could defend, score, pass and rebound. I was watching an old game. Spurs vs Lakers 1988 series and I finally got to see him in action for the first time. Its pretty incredible that throughout his career he only averaged under 2stls a game once and that was his rookie year.
During the 1987-88 season Robertson put up these numbers ( 19pts / 6rbds / 7ast /3stls in 36minutes a game. Not to mention that when the Spurs faced the Lakers in the first round (part of the series I was watching) He averaged 23pts / 5rbds /9ast /4stls a game in 40minutes of work and shot 56% from the field and 43% from 3.
Sadly, the seasons he played were times Spurs fans would like to forget. Bob Weiss was coach, and the only good players they had were Brick, Berry and Johnny Dawkins. Gervin was gone and Mitc was toward the end. It sucked that they ended up trading him for TC, but I wonder what life would have been like with him roaming the perimeter while Robinson owned the paint.
He wound up being a total psycho, so it was good that we got a couple of excellent seasons of TC out of trading him. Very talented, very ed in the head. He was in trouble almost from the minute he left SA. I think I remember him starting a fight the first game he came back to HemisFair.
Yup, still remember Alvin Robertson. Still is my all-time favorite Spur. He still holds the NBA record for steals in a regular season at 301, back in 1985. I've even sent him a friend's request on Facebook...and well...negative response. I guess he likes his private life after the run-ins with the law.
Last edited by twincam; 01-14-2012 at 07:00 AM.
Alvin was like George Hill on steroids. He was really really good in SA. As another poster mentioned, his Spurs career was during the only extended down period for the Spurs (84-88).
I saw Alvin play a number of times in those days - I saw games in the HemisFair Arena while in college in Austin.
Robertson arrived in SA in '84, was the 7th pick in that draft that I think included Akeem, Jordan, Perkins, and Barkley before him.
Nobody really mentions him much now days as a really great Spur, but if he had played his entire career in SA (AND avoided the legal troubles he eventually had), he would have been way up there statistically.
How good was he? He made the All NBA team in 1986, back when there were only 2 teams, not 3 like there are now. He also made All Defensive first or second team his first 5 seasons in the NBA.
I think the Spurs made the playoffs once in that down period with Alvin, but actually had a losing reg season record. IIRC, they played the Lakers in a mini series and got dispatched in 2 games.
Alvin was also on the 1984 Olympic Team with a BUNCH of eventually BBHOF members. This may be the best player Bob Bass ever drafted when he ran things in the Spurs front office - I won't give BB any credit for David Robinson because that was a no-brainer even with the military committment.
Used to play with him and his son. He could still ball at the time maybe 15 years ago. I did swat a sot of his out of bounds but he was knocking down 3's in my face. He is one of my favorite spurs of all time.
Tom Chambers said "Top to bottom this Suns team is better than that Spurs Team and they should be able to get this win."
They actually made the playoffs three times in his five years in SA between 84-85 and his final season of 88-89. Two of those times were with losing records, which I guess was more possible when there were many fewer teams in the NBA.
Thanks for the correction. I knew they had not so great records in that time period. Willie Anderson was a young rookie pup back in 1988-89. Didn't SA have a pretty bad record the year before Robinson started playing? Sean Elliott was the first pick in 1989.
They were 21-61, leading to the (at the time) biggest turnaround in NBA history at 56 wins David's first year. Tim topped that by helping a 36 game turnaround from 20 wins to 56 his rookie year. Not sure if that's been topped or not. It might have been.
I believe the Celtics topper that a couple of years ago when they got KG and Ray Allen
I remember this one.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baske...-charged_N.htm
On the NBA/TV show "Open Court" one segment was about players who were psycho bordering on dirty and you shouldn't mess with them.
Some familiar names like Mad Max and Meta World Peace (ARTEST)came up, but then Reggie Miller brought up Alvin.
He said a teammate took him aside his rookie year and warned him to absolutely leave Alvin alone, no trash talk, nothing. He said he didn't understand it at first but then said something like if you pissed Robertson off and he told you he would trip you or submarine you while you were in the air that he would do it on the next play. Alvin didn't play trash talk.
I still have an autographed BB from Alvin.
I remember Tim Duncan.
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