Ranking the 30 best NBA seasons from players over 35 years old
San Antonio Spurs. David Robinson. 12. player. 29. . C
The 30 best NBA seasons from players over 35 years old — 12. David Robinson, 2000-01 (35)
Prior to the 1996-97 season David Robinson, one season removed from winning league MVP, suffered a back injury that caused him to miss the start to the season. Six games into his return in December he broke his foot and missed the rest of the season. The shrewd San Antonio Spurs front office tanked the rest of the season, ending up with the top pick. They selected Wake Forest college phenom Tim Duncan.
In pairing two big men who both liked to work in the paint, the Spurs copied a formula that had been used many times before in league history but was not often successful. Most title teams, both before and after the Robinson – Duncan pairing, needed a perimeter player to go alongside an interior power. The Washington Bullets, pairing Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, or the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers with Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas are perhaps the best examples. Each of those teams won just a single title.
Robinson and Duncan won two, including at the end of the 1999-00 season, Duncan’s second year in the league. Even as the baton passed from Robinson to Duncan, The Admiral was still a dominant post presence on both ends of the court for the 2000-01 Spurs.
At age 35, Robinson scored 14.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, along with a robust block total: 2.5 per game, 5.8 percent block percentage.
Even as his minutes went down as the Spurs worked out a rotation including the best power forward of all time in Duncan, Robinson was elite on a per-minute basis. He led the league in win shares per 48 (.246), was second in defensive box plus/minus and second in defensive rating. Duncan finished first in defensive win shares, and Robinson finished fourth while playing fewer than 30 minutes per game.
The Spurs were a league-best 58-24, but faced a gauntlet in the postseason: seven teams in the Western Conference won at least 50 games, all loaded with talent. After dispatching Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round, and Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks in the second, they were overwhelmed by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in the Conference Finals, felled short of repeating as champions. For one final year, Robinson was still among the league’s very best, an All-NBA selection and fringe MVP candidate.