In the 1989-90 season, the Spurs won 35 more gas than the previous year—this was the biggest single-season turnaround in NBA history.
In the NBA playoffs, David Robinson led the team to defeat the powerful Los Angeles Lakers and advance to the Western Conference Finals.
In his second year as a professional player, according to NBA reports, Robinson’s rchandise sales exceeded all players except Michael Jordan and Ah Gan.
Within a year, he beca a superstar with a national fanbase.
David was the only NBA player who ranked in the top ten in four statistical categories.
He ca in third in the 1990 Most Valuable Player voting, behind only Ah Gan and Magic Johnson.
David was richer, more famous, and more successful than he dread.
He was young, smart, tall, and very wealthy.
He had five luxury cars and two beautiful houses.
He dated beautiful won, and people always spoke well of him.
Everyone he t seed to want to do sothing for him—when you’re successful, you find good people around you.
When his brother Chuck ca to visit David, he couldn’t believe his brother’s lifestyle.
"This is amazing," he told David, "you’ve really got it made, but you should think about the future."
At that ti, David Robinson thought his brother was sowhat jealous of him, but many years later, he realized that his brother’s reminder was well-intentioned.
"My first year in the NBA, everything went smoothly. I played well, I was a mber of the NBA All-Star Team. I had lots of endorsents, everything you could think of. I had houses, money, fans, but I wasn’t happy."
Despite having it all, his life didn’t seem satisfying to him.
David couldn’t help feeling that sothing was wrong, but he didn’t understand what it was.
David said, "Success is like a marshmallow, it tastes good when you first put it in your mouth, but it quickly dissolves. I quickly gained a lot of success, made a lot of money, got all the good things I wanted, but it didn’t make happy. It had no substance. It looked good, but soon it disappeared without a trace. When you wake up in the morning, you still need to look in the mirror and wonder what kind of person you’ll beco."
The truth was, fa and wealth had started to change David.
Others still thought he was a great person and an excellent role model.
But he said, "When I looked at myself, I didn’t like the person I was becoming. I felt too important, I began to be selfish and arrogant. If I was half an hour late, I would think it was okay because they couldn’t start without . I was that important, and the more I realized it, the more I would use it."
"I felt uneasy—happy at tis, sad at other tis. If the dia wrote a critical article about , I would be down. If everyone supported , I would feel good."
He adjusted his mood according to other people’s opinions of him, which were always changing.
He knew he needed sothing else to be the foundation of his emotions and life.
At first, he thought it was success, it was championships.
In the 1990 playoffs semifinals, they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, which was a remarkable achievent.
Before then, in the 80s, only the Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers were able to defeat the Lakers in the Western Conference, the Spurs were the third.
During the series, David Stern presented David Robinson with the Rookie of the Year award at the Arena.
Advancing to the Western Conference Finals boosted David Robinson’s reputation to its peak in San Antonio.
It was just his first season, what more possibilities lay ahead for them?
Robinson himself believed he had a chance to earn the foundation of his life, that shiny, glittering trophy.
The Spurs’ opponents in the Western Conference Finals were the powerful Portland Trail Blazers, who had swept through the first two rounds.
During the regular season, the Trail Blazers had achieved a record-tying 69 wins, and Ah Gan had won the weightiest Regular Season MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards.
The award ceremony took place before the first ga of the Western Conference Finals at the Portland morial Coliseum, where David Stern handed two heavy trophies to the dominating center Ah Gan.
Sitting in the stands, David Robinson watched all this unfold, head down, eyes closed, imagining what it would be like to defeat Ah Gan and the Trail Blazers.
They would advance to the Finals, win the championship, and by then he would be at the pinnacle of life, just like Bill Russell.
A few minutes later, the fantasy was shattered, Ah Gan on the court demolished Robinson and the Spurs, the Twin Towers he ford with Sabonis were invincible.
Ah Gan’s Western Conference Finals were of an intensity not ant for just anybody, not even David Robinson; they t a crushing defeat in their first battle at Portland.
Robinson’s bewildered conduct against Ah Gan was repeatedly broadcast on television.
Robinson was toyed with; Ah Gan’s illusory footwork and tender hook shot had him spinning in circles, completely losing his sense of direction.
The sa thing happened in the second ga, where Ah Gan, with a slick 360-degree spin move, left a cleanly beaten Robinson behind. And when Robinson attempted to block Ah Gan from behind, Ah Gan deliberately slowed down to draw a foul, completing a 2 1 play.
The cara focused on Robinson, on a yelling Brown by the sidelines, on Ah Gan’s clenched fist after scoring, on the towering Sabonis.
The network even began showing footage from the 1988 Olympics, where Sabonis defeated Robinson, defeated Arica.
dia was abuzz with doubts about Robinson.
David faced enormous pressure, recognizing the vast gap between himself and Ah Gan, and how unrealistic his previous illusions had been.
But he still had a chance.
Returning to San Antonio, he prepared ticulously, but a pastor nad Greg Ball found him and told Robinson that he had always been praying for him.
Robinson didn’t want to bother, simply saying, "Sorry, I need to train and prepare for the ga."
In the third ga, where a confident Robinson aid to take back control on the noisy ho court, the sa thing happened as in the semi-finals.
Ah Gan and the Trail Blazers guards, on an away ga, blew out San Antonio with three-pointers; they triumphed over the Spurs, bringing the series to a 3:0.
The series had lost its suspense; David Robinson crumbled.
After the ga, he t Greg Ball again. Greg asked him, "David, do you love God?"
"Of course, I do," David replied, surprised.
"How often do you pray?" Greg inquired.
"Occasionally, before als, sotis before I go to sleep."
"And how much ti do you spend reading the Bible?" Greg persisted.
"I think I have one here," David answered, feeling uncomfortable, "I don’t quite understand it."
"When you love soone, don’t you spend ti getting to know them? God is omnipresent, watching over you, David," Ball insisted.
"That’s when God grabbed ," David recalled. "He gave everything, and I never thought of giving back."
He finally understood why he had felt so restless.
Upon hearing Greg Ball’s questions, David thought to himself that he had never dedicated a full day to praying and giving thanks to God.
I behaved like a spoiled child, it was all about , , .
How much money could I make? I played basketball to hear the cheers for , to have people applaud for .
I never stopped to glorify God or ponder what He had given .
David suddenly felt an overwhelming sha and began to cry, unable to stop.
He cried all afternoon, God had sent Greg Ball with a ssage.
All the material wealth he possessed was like cotton candy—they were nothing.
They did not fill the void in his spirit.
Two days later, the Spurs faced off against the Trail Blazers at ho once more.
David Robinson fought with all his might and played the best ga of the series.
They battled the Trail Blazers to the last second, but Ah Gan beat the Spurs with a phenonal last-second shot with only 0.8 seconds on the clock.
At that mont, David Robinson peacefully accepted defeat, convinced it was also granted by God.
He reflected, "I had always been focusing on Ah Gan, watching him seize victories and trophies, and I thought, Wow! I always wanted to be a player like Ah Gan, right? To win championships, to be the best player in a ga. I wanted everything he had. But seeing him win the series, capturing the Western Conference title, I thought soon you’d want to get the overall championship. You already have three of those trophies, but still, you want more, always more. The past is always forgotten, people only think about the next one, endlessly."
"This thought hit again; that seeking success is like chasing your own tail, you can never win. Proving yourself to others is like trying to catch the wind. No matter what you do, there’s always soone raising the bar. Or they start to discredit you. I realized if this was the path I was to take, I was going to have a lot of trouble, it was a road with no way out. Like chasing rainbows. The world’s view of success would never satisfy ; there had to be another way."
David was sure he had finally found it with God.
— Published in 2003, an excerpt from Admiral: The David Robinson Story by Greg and Deborah Shaw Lewis
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