Jabari Young: Speaking of players and teams, the situation with Kawhi Leonard is the biggest NBA mystery at this point. Did you try and intervene? I’m sure the Spurs are hoping to save the relationship.
David Robinson: Yeah, I’m still hoping. I think it’s frustrating from one point because we’ve had this great success. We’ve built on this for so many years, and it seems like a natural progression. You go from me to Tim Duncan, to Kawhi Leonard. It just seems like it made sense. But clearly, it doesn’t make sense to somebody. So, it is frustrating at a certain level, but at the same time, you can’t expect everybody to think in the same way. I remember when Tim Duncan was thinking about leaving San Antonio. It’s simple man, just come and have a conversation. Let’s sit down and talk. And we sat down and talked. I said, “Tim, why would you leave a situation where you have a championship level team; you’re going to win more championships, and go to a situation where you hope to put together a group that can win championships. That doesn’t make any sense.” And in this particular situation, you’re going to take less money now to do that? That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. I don’t understand the logic. It seems like a simple conversation would be able to bring some simple logic to the guy. And say, “Look man. Let’s think this through. Does it even make sense to anybody?” Why do you think everybody is wondering what the heck is going on? You have that kind of a conversation face-to-face, it seems like you can figure it out. But I think that’s why everyone is baffled because nothing makes sense about this whole scenario. Here is a franchise that spent 25 years and has a reputation for taking care of players. Not just the star players, I’m talking about the Cory Joseph’s, the Boban Marjanovic’s. The guys that have come in here and gotten contracts other places. Jonathon Simmons. We’ve nurtured these guys. We’ve haven’t been mad at them when they had other opportunities. They go and take those other opportunities. That’s their blessing. We send coaches out there who have other opportunities. I mean they have a long track record of actually supporting guys. Now, why would you fight that and turn the team into the enemy? That doesn’t make sense. So, a lot of things about this don’t make sense. It seems like simple conversations could really solve some of the problems. But to this day, I don’t hear him talking. I mean, who is saying all this stuff. If it’s you, speak up. If it’s you, step forward and be the man. You’re the face franchise. I don’t want to hear about anybody else in your party. I want to hear from you.
Jabari Young: Did you think about getting involved? Did you think about meeting with him as you did with Tim?
David Robinson: You know what, I try to do things in an organic manner. But with this particular situation, I’m not that guy that’s been there every day with him. There is a locker room. There are people that he’s lived with the last few years. If I’m a young guy and I have the opportunity to have a relationship with a guy like Tim Duncan, why wouldn’t you? A lot of things I don’t understand. So, no. I don’t feel like it’s my place necessarily. I have talked a little bit to the parties. …. You would think would be a level of respect and appreciation for the position and who is there. If I had access to the people, I’d go talk to the people. But in this particular situation, that is not what happened. So, I respect the fact he can make decisions and do whatever he wants to do. What can I say? I don’t know what’s best for the young man. I can give him some advice, but I don’t know what is best for him.
Jabari Young: At this point of your life, basketball aside, what is David Robinson’s superpower?
David Robinson: (Laughs) My superpower? I wish I had a superpower.
Jabari Young: Everyone has a superpower.
David Robinson: Man, you know, I think my ability to bring people together. Whether it’s in the philanthropy world, whether it’s in the business world. I’ve been very blessed in being in the right place, making things happen; get people on the same page. I’m playing in that arena, and I love it. It’s been fun. We’re building Admiral Capital, and what a journey that has been.
Jabari Young: Well if that is your superpower, bringing people together, you should get Kawhi, Pop, and everyone else at the table again to resolve this issue.
David Robinson: (Laughs) There you go. That seems easy enough, right. But you look at Popovich; he is a master at that. Last year it looked like LaMarcus (Aldridge), who was unhappy, it looked like we weren’t going to get that settled. He’s just really good at making things like that happen. I trust the team of Pop and R.C. to make good choices and do the right things, and they pretty much have. I’m not going to try and act like I know more than you guys do. I don’t know more than they do about the situation. They’ve been there and involved in the conversation. But if either of the parties would say, “Hey David, would you come and be a part of this conversation?” I would come. …I respect all the parties involved, and I’m available. But the active running of the team, I respect the chain of command.
