Ensign Robinson Worries About Course Navy May Plot for Him

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — He stood there with the rest of the recent high-school graduates, probably sweating in the heat and humidity on that July day in 1983. They were valedictorians, student-council presidents and sports heroes in high schools from Bangor to Barstow.

They probably had too much luggage and definitely too much hair. Being 6-feet 7-inches, he might have been taller than all the rest, but not much else distinguished David Maurice Robinson from the other plebes who formed the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1987.

“The first day is always the longest day ever,” Robinson recalled last week. “I came in dressed in jeans. We were standing in all these different lines waiting to go all these different places. I remember it being a long day. At the end of it, we had swearing in, and then we went back into the (Bancroft) Hall.

“And then they started yelling at us and telling us where to go. Most of the day they were pretty polite, but then they weren’t polite at all. I remember thinking, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ I didn’t get much sleep that first night. I didn’t know what to expect, especially the first few weeks.”

Four years of Academy life ended last Wednesday, when Robinson and the rest of his graduating class received their diplomas and commissions as ensigns in the United States Navy.

If Robinson wasn’t entirely sure of what to expect upon entering the Academy, he isn’t absolutely certain of what to expect upon exiting. He was the best college basketball player in the country this past year and almost certainly will be the first pick in the National Basketball Assn. draft in June.

In April, Navy Secretary James H. Webb reversed the policy of his predecessor, John F. Lehman Jr., saying that officers no longer would receive special accommodations they probably would need to play professional sports while on active duty.

The policy directly affected Robinson and former Navy running back Napoleon McCallum, who graduated in 1986 and played last season with the Raiders while stationed in Long Beach.

After Webb’s announcement, Robinson said little except that he hadn’t had time to look closely at the options. He said he still wanted to choose between playing in the NBA right away or remaining an amateur in order to play in the Pan American Games and the 1988 Olympics, for which the Navy said he would be made available. But now, he can see that the choice may actually have vanished.

“I don’t know, but it looks tough,” Robinson said of the prospect of playing in the NBA next season.

If that wasn’t clear on the day of the announcement, it became clearer the week before last when it was learned McCallum would be sent temporarily to San Diego, not back to Long Beach.

“They were pretty blatant about it,” Robinson said with some anger. “It’s pretty obvious what they were saying with that. I guess you can say I took that as a sign.”

Robinson’s situation would have been complicated if he chose to play right away, given the need for an assignment close to an NBA team’s city and that many games are on the road during the week. But now, since Webb said he disapproves of the idea, it’s questionable how many commanding officers would give permission, even if Robinson did land at a base close to a team.

“I’d have to be very, very, very fortunate,” Robinson said. “I’d have to end up in the right spot. And you saw what they did with Nap. That was tough on him.”

Like the rest of his class, Robinson will have about a month’s leave after graduation, and he will use that time to choose an agent. Recently he spoke with Michael Jordan concerning the subject. “His agents (with ProServ) wanted me to meet him because he’s one of their clients,” Robinson said. “It was just regular stuff. He said, ‘I saw you play against Michigan, and I know what it feels like to score 50 points and lose.’ We talked about cars, and he talked to my brother (Chuck) a little bit, and told a few sea stories.”

Robinson’s commission will be in the Civil Engineering Corps, and eventually he’ll go to the corps’ school in Point Hueneme. He is still not certain when.

“There is one (session) in July,” Robinson said. “There was supposed to be another one in October but there weren’t enough students, and then there probably will be another in January. But if I’m playing in the Pan Am Games (Aug. 7-23), I can’t start school in July.”

A player can retain amateur status after signing a professional contract as long as he does not play in NBA games and receives only enough money to cover living expenses, with the rest of the money going into a trust fund.

The team that drafts Robinson will have until the following year’s draft to sign him. If they cannot, his name goes back into the pool for the 1988 draft. Whatever team picks him then also will have one year to sign him.

But if he goes through that second year without signing, he would be a free agent and could negotiate with any team in the league. If that were to happen, it would mean Robinson, now 21, would not play until the 1989-90 season, but he would be in a better negotiating position.

In February, Robinson went to Indianapolis as one of the finalists for the Sullivan Award. During a breakfast conversation at the hotel, he was asked if it was enjoyable to have the Olympics as leverage in negotiations with an NBA team. He shook his head no, saying, “It’s a vicious circle.”

“It really is,” he said last week. “Everyone tries to gain control over you and what’s going on. I have things I could use as leverage but so do they. Maybe someone (Robinson’s agent) goes in and proposes to them that I’m worth so much. But then they say, ‘Come on, he can’t shoot free throws.’ (He made 63.7% in ‘86-87.) They’re holding as many cards and it’s just a circle.”

Isn’t that also true with the Navy, which has a base in Iceland that might need a civil engineer?

“Yeah, but I don’t hold as many cards as the Navy does,” Robinson said. “It’s a little bit bigger than I am, so . . . “

Ambrose and Freda Robinson’s oldest son never expected to become the best basketball player in the country. Ambrose Robinson spent 20 years in the Navy, and his son wanted to follow a similar course. But David Robinson kept growing. His interest in the game had never been great, but as he grew and got better on the court, he focused more of his attention on getting better still. The result was that in 1986-87 he was everybody’s player of the year and rewrote the Navy record book. Robinson, an easy-going young man, has seemed to take it all rather nonchalantly.

“But to me, it seems like I stumble on to everything,” he said. “I work hard for everything, but when it happens . . . I don’t really look ahead to those things. I set my goals and I wrote them down on a piece of paper. When I first came to the Academy, I said I wanted to score 1,000 points and grab 600 rebounds in my career at Navy. I got those (early in his junior year), so I set other goals. I wanted to get 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and be a first team all-America by the time I graduate. I got those goals but I sort of stumbled on the player of the year awards. Not until halfway through this year did I think I was having a pretty good year. But everything that happens to me in basketball is a bonus, because I never expected it to head anywhere.”

Intended or not, Robinson became a star, and part of him enjoyed being the center of attention. He played his best games against the top opponents in the big arenas with a lot on the line. In front of 23,000 at Rupp Arena, Robinson single-handedly kept the Midshipmen in the game against Kentucky by getting 45 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocked shots. Kentucky observers called it one of the best performances by a Wildcat opponent, and Kentucky Coach Eddie Sutton led the crowd in a standing ovation when Robinson was taken out with 14 seconds left. Robinson beat James Madison with an amazing 40-foot heave, after which he was carried from the court by classmates and fans.

At the Sullivan Awards dinner, Robinson-looking sharp in a dress uniform-was the most at ease of all the nominees and had the crowd of about a 1,000 laughing at jokes. On another level, he can also show immense patience with the little girl who wants him to sign her T-shirt after a game, or by taking time to record a message about staying clear of drugs and close to books for an elementary school in Pennsylvania. After four years, it’s all part of how he’s changed while staying the same.

“I’m able to accept a lot more things now without getting so upset,” Robinson said. “I don’t procrastinate as much as I used to. My confidence level is lot higher than it was in high school. Mostly because of basketball, but in everything.

“The biggest way I’ve changed, I guess, is that when I came to school, I was a lot more sociable. I loved to talk to people, loved to be around people all the time, but now I don’t. I like my time alone and I really appreciate my privacy much, much more. I didn’t ever try to make time to be alone when I came to the Academy because I didn’t really care. Now, it’s a lot more important to me.”

Too many interviews, too many packs of autograph seekers?

“Maybe,” Robinson said. “You take a lot of things for granted, like going to the mall and having nobody recognize you. A lot of times you don’t want the recognition. Sometimes you don’t mind it, and sometimes it feels good. But you don’t appreciate those times when you can go somewhere and be anonymous. But being 7-foot-1, you’re not too anonymous anyway, even if people don’t know anything about basketball.”

Basketball on top of the rest of Academy life meant free time was short. “Sleeping every free minute,” Robinson said of what he’ll remember about the little aspects of Academy life. “The daily schedule is so regimented. The same thing every day and it keeps you really busy. When you come back from practice, you’re tired. Get up in the morning and you’re tired from something yesterday. That’s one I’ll remember most, and also getting to travel a lot.

“I’ll remember the people a lot, too. The Naval Academy has a wide variety of people,” Robinson said, rolling his eyes and trying to remain diplomatic. “There’s a lot of good guys here . . . But just like any other place, there’s a lot of other guys, too.”

Robinson was asked if he regrets going to Navy or staying past his sophomore year. If he had left then, he would not have had any military obligation, though he would have had to sit out a year at another school as a transfer. He paused and chose his words carefully.

“I don’t regret coming,” he said. “This was the best place for me my first two years. Hindsight is always the best sight. If I’d known I was going to grow to be 7-1, of course I would have gone somewhere else. If I’d known my basketball was going to develop like it did, of course I would have gone somewhere else. But things turned out for me real well the last two years and I can’t complain at all. By sophomore year, I don’t think I could’ve made a mistake, leaving or staying. Staying turned out great. If I had left, I guess it would have turned out about the same.”