# David Robinson was a bad teammate



## son of oakley

Hi folks.

Having a little discussion on the Knicks board regarding Mr Robinson. The charge has been levied that he was possessed of a poor work ethic, and was therefor a bad teammate. To substantiate the allegation two bits of evidence were introduced (well, more than two, but only two are currently being debated): a) from the time he entered the league he didn't add the weight/mass (required, I'm told, to be a good defender) to any part of his body but his arms, and, b) he didn't add anything to his offensive repertoire.

a+b=bad teammate

or more accurately, bad teammate as evidenced by a and b.

If you'd like to see what has transpired thus far see here, starting at post #67:

http://basketballboards.net/forum/showthread.php?t=192171&page=2&pp=50

I'd appreciate your thoughts on whether Robinson was a bad teammate, and if you believe that is evidenced by his conditioning and arsenal?

Thanks


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## KokoTheMonkey

Bad teammate? I suggest you try and search for any negative comments fellow teammates have ever sad about him. I doubt you'll come up with anything. 

To me, and honestly, I didn't go through and read your discussion, but to me it sounds like you are talking more about him maybe not living up to expectations as a player rather than being a bad teammate. So much more stuff is involved in being a "bad" teammate, for example, character, and I doubt you'll find anyone outside of Shaquille O'Neal that has said something negative about his character. David Robinson is really known as one of the nicest guys of this era, so I that alone makes it hard for me to even consider the idea he was a "bad teammate." Maybe a bad leader, maybe he didn't fufill his potential like he could have, but to say something bad about his personality and character is beyond me.

I guess everyone has a different definition of "bad teammate", but what you described in your post and from what I know about him, I don't even entertain the idea he's a bad teammate. Again, maybe you could consider him a bad leader since he was never able to push his team over the top, or maybe he was too soft, but when you are as good of a player as he was, plus all of your teammates love you, how can you be considered a bad teammate? I know I'm being repetitive here, but to me it sounds like you are questioning how good of a leader he was, not necessarily if he was a bad teammate. Thanks for bringing up the topic though.


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## son of oakley

Hmm, I don't want to say too much so as to sway a direction here, but lets assume "bad teammate" was a poor choice of words. Nobody suggested he was mean or crooked or anything like that.

Maybe the question would have been better asked, did Robinson lack "heart" and work ethic - specifically not working on his game in offseason, not scrimmaging enough during the season, and not adding muscle mass - such that it rubbed some of his teammates the wrong way and affected team chemistry. 

Did Avery and Rodman call him out on it?


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## KokoTheMonkey

son of oakley said:


> Hmm, I don't want to say too much so as to sway a direction here, but lets assume "bad teammate" was a poor choice of words. Nobody suggested he was mean or crooked or anything like that.
> 
> Maybe the question would have been better asked, did Robinson lack "heart" and work ethic - specifically not working on his game in offseason, not scrimmaging enough during the season, and not adding muscle mass - such that it rubbed some of his teammates the wrong way and affected team chemistry.
> 
> Did Avery and Rodman call him out on it?



Okay, I know where you are headed with this now. It's probably my fault for not going to that other thread beforehand, so all I can say is my bad.

Lacking "heart" is the one thing that will probably be forever whispered along with Robinson's legacy. The Spurs were regular season giants lead by David Robinson, but they would always fall short when it mattered the most. Some of it was deserving, some of it is not, but unfortunately D-Rob will always have the "Soft" word attached too him. You have to get results to avoid something like that, sort of what Kevin Garnett is facing with his career and legacy. Avery Johnson has called David Robinson out before, I'm pretty sure of that. I think at D-Rob's retirement ceremony Avery told a story about him getting onto David for not playing with enough emotion, but then again I'm sure Avery got onto all of his teammates.

As far as Robinson not really gaining muscle or adding mass or whatever, he did go to the Navy, so I have always been under the impression he was in fantastic shape as a player, and I doubt he was able to stay in great shape without putting in tons of work.


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## son of oakley

Thanks Koko, that's about how I saw it too.


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## DaBobZ

BS ! STOP HATING

I stoped reading when I saw the tittle. I felt obliged to answer to such an obvious anti DRob thread.
C'mon DRob might not have been the winner Timmy is but he was a great teammate, he also was the best presence in the locker room.


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## son of oakley

DaBobZ said:


> BS ! STOP HATING
> 
> I stoped reading when I saw the tittle.


Oh brother. I'll put a question mark in it if it'll make you try harder.


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## DaBobZ

I just made sure you were the same guy that post the topic, guess what I didn't read more than 3 words (out of two posts).

DRob was the greatest presence in the locker room the Spurs ever had. Too bad you are not aware of that. And too bad I'm not a mod to lock that thread which is just unacceptable in Spurs territory. 

Now here's an interesting read about DRob (as you asked for it):

David Robinson is a former NBA MVP, perennial All-Star, and a key member of the San Antonio Spurs Championship teams of 1999 and 2003, his last year in the NBA. In a 1999 Sports Illustrated article, the author gets to the heart of Robinson’s Christian faith.

David Robinson’s heart went to Jesus on June 8, 1991. He proudly notes it is “my second birthday”. Yet he is caught in this most secular of modern creations, professional sport with its instant gratification, easy adulation, and flowing beer taps. Money? It is paid for a rebound, for a jump shot, for a simple smile. Fame? Instant. Sex? Easy. Drugs? Certainly available.
Rock and Roll? Every timeout.

The door that is open here can lead to a level of hedonism that wasn’t even invented when the Old Testament prophets went to their writing tablets, an expansion of ego that the pharoahs couldn’t have imagined.

Robinson has felt himself taken by these NBA tides toward destruction, felt a loss of control. Nobody else might have noticed, but he did. He has found the answer that works for him. He is a Christian. The opponent every day and night on the schedule is sin. David Robinson versus sin. David Robinson versus all the seven deadly sins; pride, lust, greed, gluttony, sloth, anger, and envy. Every day, every night. It is a never-ending season.
“Tell me one thing” David would say to his normal friends after his trips to NBA activities right after he was drafted. “Tell me if I ever change, if my head ever starts to get bigger.” Two years into his career his head was getting bigger. His friends didn’t see it, no one said he was becoming a jerk, but he felt it. He was hanging around with people who told him only things he wanted to hear, mostly how great he was. He easily won the NBA Rookie of the Year in ‘90. He was rich. He was surely great. He believed that. In a way. “What surprised me was that I wasn’t happy. Here I had everything I ever wanted. I looked at myself and I didn’t like the person I was becoming. I felt I was so important. I had a selfishness and arrogance”.
David was neither a smoker nor a drinker. But he found himself in clubs on the road, vaguely searching for a “nice girl”. He wanted more, yet he had everything. So what was more? He didn’t know. He had felt in college that he always was learning and growing. He felt in the NBA he was regressing, forgetting lessons he had learned.
Religion had never been a big part of his life. He had been a nominal Christian, forced to go to church on Sundays by his mother, but he had never shown great interest in the faith. When Greg Ball, a locker room evangelist from the group Champions for Christ, showed up, David put him off for several months. When they finally sat down, the conversation was supposed to last several minutes. It stretched to 5 hours. “His purpose, his life focus, wasn’t established,” Ball says. “Here was this wonderful person, this superstar, but he was unhappy. He was a god of his own life. All of these guys in the NBA are gods of their own lives. I told him it doesn’t matter if you get all the Mercedes that are made, if you don’t have a focus, it’s like you’re standing in front of a painted fire, trying to keep warm.”
Robinson said; “I’d always told myself I was a good guy, no matter what I’d done. I think everybody tells himself that. The question is, whose definition of a good guy are you using? Your own?” He now had a different definition.
After being married, David enjoys spending as much time as possible at home with his wife and children. “I hear other players talking about ways to get out of the house.” He wonders about that. “I try to find ways to get back to the house. That’s where my true life is. I hear stories about the free-love life and notice that often they are followed by postscripts about domestic abuse, paternity suits, divorce and sexually transmitted diseases.”
A traditional knock against born-again athletes is that they don’t have a win-or-else passion for their games. But Robinson says his faith has helped him. He has realized that playing Basketball is his gift. His duty is to make the most of this gift that he can. “I’m not playing for the fans or the money, but to honor God. I know my motivation. I know where I’m headed.
Every night I try to go out there to honor Him and play great.”
Those around him might disagree with his beliefs and his words sometimes. But can there be disagreements with the way he lives his life? He walks through all the commercial hellfires that man has invented and comes out just fine. He prospers. I didn’t know him at all when I came here” said Will Perdue. “I’d played against him, but he never talks when he’s playing. I wondered about that. Was he stuck up? When you get here and see how he is, how he acts, how can you not like him? He doesn’t push anything on anyone, but you know exactly where he stands.”


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## FreeMason Jr.

DaBobZ said:


> BS ! STOP HATING
> 
> *I stoped reading when I saw the tittle.* I felt obliged to answer to such an obvious anti DRob thread.
> C'mon DRob might not have been the winner Timmy is but he was a great teammate, he also was the best presence in the locker room.


Perhaps that's the problem.


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## DaBobZ

I read and you made a point son of oakley, not sure about the relashionship between conditioning and beeing a good teammate or not, tough.


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## son of oakley

DaBobZ said:


> I just made sure you were the same guy that post the topic, guess what I didn't read more than 3 words (out of two posts).


Thanks for your contribution, and you might be pleased to know I read more than three words.

Thing is, what was called into question was his work ethic, not his Christian ethic. But of course you wouldn't know that from the three words you read.

But I came here to learn not to bicker. Thank goodness for guys like Koko...


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