Today, NBA fan Steve Schindler reviews the career of San Antonio's David Robinson and explains why he is the most complete big man in the game today.

With Alonzo Mourning out indefinitely, leaving the NBA East bereft of quality big men, basketball purists look to the giants in the NBA West and wonder who is the best. Sure, Shaq can dunk, but he can't hit a lick from the charity stripe. Patrick Ewing is getting close to the end of his road, and he finally left the Big Apple in desperate search of a ring. And all the rest have a lot of growing up to do.

But taking a close look at San Antonio Spur center David Robinson, you wonder how this guy hasn't won two fists full of rings in his 11 years in the NBA. Watching Robinson operate in unison with his new towering twin Tim Duncan, you come to realize that David's strength today only can come from all that came before.

And all that came before was not always very pleasant. Drafted in the first round of the '87 NBA draft, Robinson completed his two-year commitment to the Navy before crashing the professional scene and stealing Rookie of the Year honors. It didn't take David long to establish himself as a dominant center in the game.

Since '89, Robinson only missed being named to the NBA All-Star Game one year, because of injuries. David was a three-time Olympian for Team U.S.A. and led the NBA in scoring during the '93-94 season, pouring in 71 points against the LA Clippers.

David has been no defensive slouch all these years either. He was named Defensive Player of the Year for the '91-92 season and has been named to the NBA All-Defensive Team eight times in his career. David nailed down a quadruple-double, racking up 34 points along with 10 rebounds, assists and blocked shots in a game against the Pistons in '94.

The Spurs have made some grand mistakes with whom they tried to match the Admiral up with, but they made no mistake in taking the most complete big man in the game today. Many of David's best performances came with a mix-to-match supporting cast around him. He performed at a high level in spite of having to endure the antics of bad boy Vernon Maxwell and the dramatics of the disruptive Dennis Rodman.

With all of this revolving around him, Robinson took heat from the likes of Charles Barkley and Karl Malone for most of his career because he hadn't taken the Spurs to the top. And he'd be lying if he ever said it didn't bother him. But after climbing the championship summit in '99, he now has something neither of them has. He has that ring.

Building a reputation early on as a dangerous shot blocker, Robinson has grown into a tenacious defender of his territory under the hoop. With the experience of all those frustrating losses and seasons under his belt, there is little he hasn't seen in his time in the NBA.

If you isolate on him and watch Robinson in the defensive transition, he is the smoothest I ever have seen at floating down the court, skipping backward, constantly surveying the scene and having almost instant recognition of where the opposing attack is coming from. This only comes from over a decade of seeing it all before. But not just seeing it, learning from it and knowing how to attack it as well.

David always has been a tremendous physical specimen. He has as ripped a body as anyone in the NBA and uses that body with the utmost efficiency. There is little wasted motion to the Admiral's game. He made a move in a recent game in Dallas that blew my mind. Robinson went from a flatfooted position on one side of the basket, and in one swift motion, he turned his body, took two steps and launched himself to block a driving shot off a quick pass to the right side of the hole. I was amazed how swift, fluid and deadly this human giant could be.

There are very few like him in today's game. A lot of his current success is due to the fact that the Spurs finally figured out how to put together a well-rounded team in Mr. Robinson's neighborhood. The beta factor now is the presence of new NBA force Tim Duncan watching David's backside. Robinson and Duncan work together to present the most formidable defensive tandem in the pro game today.

David is teaching T-Dunk the tricks of their trade and has passed on to him his cool, calculating demeanor that so many have mistaken for a lack of passion. They both appear so calm and unaffected by the dramatic ups and downs of life on the hardwood. Well, don't buy it. These two will block you, rob you and shoot you blind before you know what hit you.

When they are on, David and Duncan communicate flawlessly in putting an almost impenetrable double wall between the ball and the basket. David floats out from under the basket, takes in the action and instinctively ducks back to block the exact point of attack. The scariest part about this whole thing is that T-Dunk is learning David's game rather well. When he finally gets it down to the instinctive level, the rest of the league is dead meat.

That final obstacle was hurdled when the Spurs downed the Knicks in New York to take the crown in '99, and the weight of a career of question marks was lifted from the Admiral's shoulders. He suddenly looked around and realized there were no more bullies to beat up. And as music to his poor sore ears, the Barkleys and Malones finally clammed up. He had vanquished the demons and, at last, the view from the top was sweet redemption indeed.