David Robinson was one of the most unusual stories in the history of college basketball. Although highly intelligent, he was a very late bloomer. His college coach at Navy, Paul Evans, recruited him because his shoe size suggested he might grow taller than 6-6, and at at that time, in the early to mid 1980’s, Navy had a height limit. Evans figured that Robinson might sign at 6-6 and then go a bit past it.
Well he went past it by more than a bit, growing to 7-1 and becoming a superb athlete.
He turned
Navy into appointment TV as the Middies had the best basketball stretch in school history. He took Navy to the Elite Eight in 1986, falling to Duke as the Cameron Crazies in attendance chanted “Pond Scum! Pond Scum! Pond Scum!”
Years later, his son, Justin, came to Duke as a preferred walk-on.
He was part of an era of big men that we’ll never see in college again: in the 1980’s we saw Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Robinson, soon to be followed by Shaquille O’ Neal.
Robinson was as good as any of them and he was utterly refreshing, coming, as he did, out of nowhere and rising to greatness.
