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Tuesday, June 3
Robinson deserves praise, not criticism
By Scott Howard-Cooper
Special to ESPN.com
Here's to you, Mr. Robinson.
Here's to years of public service in the name of the NBA, with such an overwhelming commitment to charity that the league named a community-service award in your honor, as well as the military commitment. It is the only aspect of 14 seasons as a San Antonio Spur that can dwarf a career down to its final series. Pick up your one-way ticket to the Hall of Fame on the way out the door.
It's the New Jersey Nets, and then it's over. The problem comes in that people won't be attaching the next four to seven games to his legacy, but using it to help cement. This is not a bad thing ordinarily -- reputations are made in the playoffs, and champions step forward -- except that it comes as a loaded question in Robinson's case.
|  | | Robinson's un-Admiral-like final season shouldn't tarnish his career accomplishments. |
His image is not the best to begin with. The whole soft thing. He knows the rep, even admits that it used to bother him, so there's no need to whisper around him. And now Robinson begins the Finals averaging 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds in 22.2 minutes in the postseason, a starting center playing less than backup Malik Rose and 7-foot-1 of chiseled testimony to the weight room while grabbing about two more boards per game than 6-8 Stephen Jackson.
This is no way for any proud man to go out. It's just that, if the playoff pace continues, it will be compounded because we're talking the Admiral here, like he wasn't up to the task of Jason Collins. The praise will come from teammates and opponents and a league that celebrates one of its brightest lights, and the four coaches with jobs might comment as well, but they'll all have to speak up. Those machines the cynics are using to sharpen knives can get loud.
Look at the abuse Michael Jordan took for his failed season, and he posted good numbers. Not as many numbers as there were members of the Washington Wizards lining up to help him pack, but you get the idea. Now, Robinson has to retire as a bit player after a career in which his heart had been questioned. You do the math.
It's not just this series. It's his whole final season. This stage magnifies everything, though.
"But the way I look at it," he said earlier in 2002-03, "they've got to say something. They've got to say something about Michael Jordan. They've got to say something about everybody. It doesn't matter. They spent the first five, six years of my career building me up, so, the way I look at it, you kind of go through the whole phase.
"I think a lot of it, too, is people have this kind of image about how you're supposed to be kind of yelling and cursing out your teammates. Everybody is not the same type of player. People understand that with Tim (Duncan). Tim's not the get-in-your-face. He's not the rah-rah-rah type of guy. But it doesn't work against him that way."
Because?
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If we had the right personnel around him early in his career, where he could have been just like (Bill) Russell, he would have been just like him. As much as he did down on the offensive end, nobody's ever given him credit for the rebounding, shot-blocking and defensive player that he was. ” |
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— Larry Brown on David Robinson |
"I don't know," Robinson said. "It's a good question. Everybody's personality is different, so I think people kind of dig on different things. They're going to find something about Tim in a few years and then kind of, you know, dig on that. But right now, Tim is the king. He's a great player. One of the best players in the league. But in a couple years, they'll find something and they'll dig on him about it."
Remember Robinson for the great moments, not a final season.
Too soft? The wimp had nine consecutive healthy seasons of double-digit rebounds, discounting the 1996-97 that lasted six games because of back and foot problems.
No fortitude? You do the Naval Academy and then postpone the first two years of fame and fortune to complete a military obligation.
"He's as great a player as I ever saw in this league," said Larry Brown, a former Robinson coach in San Antonio. "I had him when he was really special. And I think one of the reasons I was let go (was that) we didn't surround David with the kind of people he needed. As his career went on, that happened here. I remember (then-owner) Red McCombs told me, 'Larry, we got the edge' when we had David. I believed it on both ends of the court. The one thing I always felt, if we had the right personnel around him early in his career, where he could have been just like (Bill) Russell, he would have been just like him. As much as he did down on the offensive end, nobody's ever given him credit for the rebounding, shot-blocking and defensive player that he was."
Some credit. But with criticism along the way for many other things. Just like what will come if he has an underwhelming Finals.
Around the NBA
The predicament over the Kings and Rockets playing in China next season is turning into a growing political problem for commissioner David Stern, caught between the uncertainty of when it will be safe to send teams to the region hit hard by SARS and the awareness that a cancellation would be an embarrasment to Chinese officials at the very time the NBA is building a strong relationship there. The trip has yet to be officially announced, although both teams confirmed plans, and one league executive concedes chances are rapidly diminishing it will come off in time to meet a July scheduling deadline. The Kings are being mentioned as a possibility to play in Europe instead.
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| O'Neal |
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| Nowitzki |
As proof that Most Improved Player is the toughest award to define, 14 players got first-place votes from the media panel, including Dirk Nowitzki and Jermaine O'Neal, after Nowitzki had been second-team All-NBA the season before and O'Neal third-team. Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady, superstars already, received second-place votes. Some used the award to acknowledge a comeback from injury, with Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Penny Hardaway each making ballots.
The Mavericks want Nowitzki, already an offensive force, to work on ball-handling and passing in the summer with the idea that he will return next season as a 7-foot point forward. Brought to you by Don Nelson, the coach who while with the Knicks had Patrick Ewing bring the ball up court. Nowitzki had nine assists in a playoff game and during the regular season had one outing with eight and four others with seven, even on a team with depth at point guard.
Scott Howard-Cooper, who covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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