David Robinson

In 1989 Robinson donned a Spurs uniform and became a member of a team that had won only twenty-one games the previous year. However, with the added support of the 1989 College Player of the Year, Sean Elliot of the University of Arizona, Robinson, who soon became known as "the Admiral," helped turn the team around. In his rookie year he averaged 24.3 points, twelve rebounds, and 3.9 blocks per game, leading his team to fifty-six wins, the biggest one-season turnaround in league history. Robinson was the unanimous choice as NBA Rookie of the Year.

Over the next seven years Robinson became one of the premiere players in the NBA. He played in the NBA All-Star Game from 1990 to 1996 before missing the All-Star Game and all but five Spurs games in the 1997-98 season due to a strained back and broken foot. Despite his impressive performance, which earned him the scoring title in 1994 with an average of 29.8 points per game and the NBA's Most Valuable Player award in 1995, Robinson's detractors weren't sure that he had the leadership ability and passion it would take to propel his team to an NBA championship. Robinson, a devout Christian since 1991 who listened to classical music, didn't party. He read the Bible, and took seriously his job as a role model, and was considered by some as simply too nice to win big.