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martin
Posts: 79154
Alba Posts: 108
Joined: 7/24/2001
Member: #2
USA
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Vet Leadership. This is why you need the likes of Malik on the team.
Class of '89
peter.vecsey
http://www.nypost.com/sports/62496.htm
Robinson's the last man standing from his draft
HOOP DU JOUR WHEN Clifford Robinson left the Huskies after four years for the NBA, Connecticut was still a colony.
At 39 - still lean and astonishingly limber despite a minimal amount of stretching (never before games), ice-downs or taped ankles - Robinson is the sole survivor of the largely unenchanting 1989 draft class; Vlade Divac the next to last to secede from the league.
"I'm most proud of my longevity," Robinson said, his face aglow, as a recent lunch was about to end.
Very few athletes get paid to play sports for anywhere approaching 17 seasons. Even fewer players actually make themselves available for duty the majority of the time. Luck is certainly a part of it. At the same time, those on the ball often underwrite their own luck. The key is to protect their bodies by maintaining a steady regimen and proper diet. Oh, yeah, and anything bad, do it in moderation.
John Stockton and Karl Malone are the patron saints of those principles. Stockton played an unreal 17 full seasons with the Jazz out of 19, missing four games one year and 18 another. Karl Malone played an inhuman 10 full seasons with the Jazz out of 18, missing a total of 11 games before his first major injury incapacitated him for all but 42 games as a Laker in his go-away season.
Robinson has been willing and able for eight full seasons. That includes his first five and the lockout-shortened, 50-game season. In another seven, he was present for all but two or fewer games, including his current one with the Nets. The remaining three seasons he missed four, seven and 11.
In other words, Robinson has 1,220 reasons to be proud, in addition to another 129 in 15 playoffs, and I haven't even mentioned he rarely passes on practice. He has needed but one surgical procedure, a scoped knee just before the players were locked out.
To be abnormally blunt, I'm stunned Robinson lasted the length of his first contract, much less this long. I never expected him to be this dedicated. Never imagined he'd be so desirable. Never foresaw him developing into a coveted defensive commodity, capable of chasing on the perimeter (not so much anymore) and covering in the low docks. Never thought the skinny, 6-10 jump-shooter would expand his offensive repertoire enough to be nearing 600 points of notching 20,000. Never believed I'd be sitting across from him saying how much I respected what he's accomplished.
I vividly remember Robinson coming into the Garden with the Blazers his rookie season and essentially getting succinctly grouchy answers from him. Time to back off while staying close to a Portland team that lost in the Finals two of his first three seasons. In many ways, Robinson was the forerunner of Rasheed Wallace - the good, the bad and the surly.
"I definitely had a chip on my shoulder when I arrived in the league," Robinson admits. "I had been drafted No. 36. I felt a bunch of guys taken ahead of me weren't as good. I was out to prove a whole lot of people wrong."
There was that. And there was more than that. When Robinson, oldest of five children, was 10, his father, Clifford Sr., died of pneumonia.
"My biggest regret is he never got to see me play or how well I did," Robinson said.
Though his mother had a decent-paying job for Bethlehem Steel in Buffalo, he sensed the sheer necessity to succeed. Knowing college was beyond her means, Robinson put pressure on himself to win a scholarship. So much so, when he suffered a hyperextended knee injury as a high school quarterback, he quit playing football immediately to intensify on improving his best sport, basketball.
First-round picks get guaranteed money and glory. Second-round picks must claw for every penny and parcel of publicity. Robinson felt he was robbed. He reported to Portland with slouched shoulders, hands in pockets and no eye-to-eye contact. Fortunately for him, it was a team loaded with concerned veterans, consummate professionals like Buck Williams, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey and Clyde Drexler.
"If I was out of line because I felt I hadn't gotten enough time or shots, those guys would help me realize that's not how it's done," Robinson recalled. "I learned everything I know from them. They taught me you must earn my way, that nothing is given and nothing should be taken for granted. They taught me how to embrace a role, to take it seriously, how to be a good teammate."
Buck would get into Robinson's face.
"I'd be upset that the vets got to lounge on the side while I had to play two-on-two or three-on-three after practice," Robinson said. "They helped me understand it was my time to show what I could do, not have an attitude that I had to do it."
On the whole, it was more about what the Blazer vets did than what they said. Robinson saw them practice hard each day, and their conscientiousness rubbed off on him. Kersey and Buck would kick butt if he half-stepped it.
Robinson remembers one episode when Buck accused him of playing dirty.
"I kept pushing him in the back when he was boxing me out," Robinson said. "He told me if I did it once more, there'd be consequences."
He did it again. Had Robinson's reflexes not been so quick, he would've missed his career. Buck wheeled fast and grazed his eye with a punch.
"He missed me and I still had a black eye for a month," Robinson said, uttering an everlasting sign of relief.
As I recall, Robinson's complete transformation took years. His recollection is it didn't take all that long for his teammates' counseling and leadership by example to sink in.
One way or the other, Robinson has long since crossed over from the dark side. Who would've suspected he'd evolve into a role model? Who would've predicted he'd be able to buy his mother a house in Phoenix? Who would've thought the father of six, the youngsters twin boys born in November, would be set for life should he ever decide to retire from the game? Who would've believed he'd be advising frustrated first-round rookies like Antoine Wright?
Robinson tries to pick and choose when to say something.
"I don't want to be a guy who's always vocal," he said. "If someone is in need of help, I will reach out. I try to tell Antoine not to be upset over things he can't control when he doesn't get a run. I tell him to work on his game and be ready so he can take advantage of the opportunity when it's presented. Most of the time I simply play and practice by example."
There are a lot of players sitting home today, Robinson accentuates, "thinking had we practiced what Buck and Jerome and Terry and Clyde preached, we might still be in the NBA."
At last June's Finals in Auburn Hills, Robinson saw Drexler from a distance. He made a point to seek him out.
"I had to tell him how much I appreciated what he and the others did for me. I had to tell him how much it meant that they took the time to show me how to act professionally. I had to tell him 'thank you.'"
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