David Maurice Robinson is an American former professional basketball player, who played center for the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association for his entire career. Based on his prior service as an officer in the United States Navy, Robinson earned the nickname "The Admiral". Robinson is a 10-time NBA All-Star, the 1995 NBA MVP, a two-time NBA Champion, a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner, a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, a two-time U. S. Olympic Hall of Fame inductee, he is considered one of the greatest centers in both college basketball and NBA history. To date, Robinson is the only player from the Naval Academy to play in the NBA. David Robinson was born in Key West, the second child of Ambrose and Freda Robinson. Since Robinson's father was in the Navy, the family moved many times. After his father retired from the Navy, the family settled in Woodbridge, where Robinson excelled in school and in most sports, except basketball, he was 9 inches tall in junior high school.
Robinson attended Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, just outside Washington, D. C. where Robinson's father was working as an engineer. By his senior year in high school he was 6 feet, 6 inches tall, weighed 175 pounds, had not played organized basketball or attended any basketball camps; when the coach added the tall senior to the basketball team, Robinson earned all-area and all-district honors but generated little interest among college basketball coaches. Robinson scored 1320 on the SAT, chose to go to the United States Naval Academy, where he majored in mathematics. David Robinson is considered to be the best basketball player in Naval Academy history, he chose the jersey number 50 after his idol Ralph Sampson. By the time he took the court in his first basketball game for the Navy Midshipmen men's basketball team, he had grown to 6 ft 9 in, over the course of his college basketball career he grew to 7 ft 0 in, he began college with no expectations of playing in the NBA, but in Robinson's final two years he was a consensus All-American and won college basketball's two most prestigious player awards, the Naismith and Wooden Awards, as a Naval Academy first classman.
In 1986, Robinson led Navy, a number seven seed, within a game of the Final Four before falling to Duke in the East Regional Final. Robinson played his first three years for the Midshipmen under Paul Evans and his senior season under former University of Georgia interim Head Coach Pete Herrmann. Upon graduation, he became eligible for the 1987 NBA draft and was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the first overall pick. Robinson was 6 ft. 8 in. When he was admitted to the Naval Academy, two inches above the height limit, but received a waiver from the Superintendent of the Academy. Robinson considered leaving the academy after his second year, before incurring an obligation to serve on active duty, he decided to stay after discussing with the Superintendent the likelihood that his height would prevent him from serving at sea as an unrestricted line officer, which would be detrimental to his naval career, might make it impossible for him to receive a commission at all. As a compromise, Secretary of the Navy John Lehman allowed Robinson to train for and receive a commission as a staff officer in the Civil Engineer Corps.
As a result, Robinson was commissioned in the Naval Reserve and was only required to serve an initial active-duty obligation of two years. After graduating from the Naval Academy, Robinson became a civil engineering officer at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, he was featured in recruiting materials for the service. Despite the nickname "Admiral", Robinson's actual rank upon fulfilling his service commitment was Lieutenant. Since he had not signed a contract, NBA regulations stated that Robinson could have reentered the draft after his naval service. Although there was speculation that he might choose not to sign with the Spurs, Robinson agreed to move to San Antonio for the 1989–90 season, but the Spurs agreed to pay him as much as the average of the salaries of the two highest-paid players in the league each year, or release him to free agency; the Spurs had spent the second half of the 1980s as an also-ran, bottoming out in 1988–89 with a 21–61 record, the worst in franchise history at the time.
While it was thought that the Spurs would become respectable again once Robinson arrived, no one expected what happened in his rookie season. Robinson led the Spurs to the greatest single season turnaround in NBA history at the time; the Spurs leaped to a record of 56–26 for a remarkable 35 game improvement. They advanced to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs where they lost in seven games to the eventual conference champion Portland Trail Blazers. Following the 1989–90 season, he was unanimously named the NBA rookie of the year, subsequently Sega produced a game featuring him entitled David Robinson's Supreme Court; the Spurs made the playoffs seven more seasons in a row. Robinson made the 1992 US Olympic Dream Team that won the gold medal in Barcelona. During the 1993–94 season, he became locked in a duel for the NBA scoring title with Shaquille O'Neal, scoring 71 points
The origin of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty has been a controversial topic and has been debated over the past decades by historians. The differing opinions revolve around issues such as the home of the earliest ancestors of the medieval Rashtrakutas, a possible southern migration during the early part of the first millennium and the relationship between the several Rashtrakuta dynasties that ruled small kingdoms in northern and central India and the Deccan in the 6th century - 7th century. Further, the relationship of these medieval Rashtrakutas to the most important and famous dynasty, the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta of the 8th century - 10th century time period has been debated. Contested is whether the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta were related by ancestry to the early Kannada, Rajput, Reddi or Punjabi communities of the Deccan and northern India. While the history of the early Rashtrakutas has caused much debate, the history of the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta of the 8th–10th centuries can be constructed because numerous contemporaneous inscriptions and texts refer to them.
The crux of the Manyakheta empire extended from the Kaveri river in the south to the Narmada in the north. At their peak they were the only south Indian empire that conquered regions in far northern India as well as the extreme south; the Lata branch of the empire was an important dynasty belonging to the Manyakheta family line which merged with the Manyakheta kingdom during the 9th century. The study of the history of the early Rashtrakutas and the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta has been made possible by the availability of numerous inscriptions spread all over the Deccan, ancient literature in Pali, contemporaneous Kannada literature such as Kavirajamarga and Vikramarjuna Vijaya, Sanskrit writings by Somadeva, Gunabhadra and others and the notes of Arab travellers of those times such as Suleiman, Ibn Haukal, Al Masudi, Al Istakhri and others. Scholars have left no topic unstudied in an effort to propose the history of the Rashtrakutas. Theories about their lineage, native region and ancestral home have been proposed using clues from inscriptions, royal emblems, ancient clan names such as "Rashtrika", epithets such as Ratta, Lattalura Puravaradhiswara, names of royalty and contemporaneous literature.
These theories from noted scholars have resulted in claims that the Rashtrakutas were from either Rajput, Kannadiga,Reddi, Maratha, or Punjabi origin. The appearance of the terms Rathika, Ristika or Lathika in conjunction with the terms Kambhoja and Gandhara in some Ashokan inscriptions of the 2nd century BCE from Mansera and Shahbazgarhi in North Western Frontier Province and Dhavali and the use of the epithet "Ratta" in many inscriptions has prompted a claim that the earliest Rashtrakutas were descendants of the Arattas, natives of the Punjab region from the time of Mahabharata who migrated south and set up kingdoms there, while another theory points more to north western regions of India. Based on this theory, the Arattas may have become natives of the Deccan having arrived there during the early centuries of the first millennium; this is counter to the argument by other scholars that the term Rishtika used together with Petenika in the Ashokan inscriptions implied they were hereditary ruling clans from modern Maharashtra region and the term "Ratta" implied Maharatta ruling families from modern Maharashtra region.
But this has been rejected on the basis that from ancient books such as Dipavamsha and Mahavamsha in Pali language it is known the term Maharatta and not Rashtrika has been used to signify hereditary ruling clans from modern Maharashtra region and the terms Rashtrika and Petenika appear to be two different displaced ruling tribes. It is noted by another scholar that ruling clans called Rathis and Maharathis were in power in parts of present-day Karnataka as well in the early centuries of the Christian era, known inscriptions from the region and further proven by the discovery of lead coins from the middle of 3rd century bearing Sadakana Kalalaya Maharathi in the heart of modern Karnataka region near Chitradurga. In the face of these facts it is claimed it can no longer be maintained that the Rathi and Maharathi families were confined only to present day Maharashtra, it is claimed there is sufficient inscriptional evidence that several Maharathi families were related to Kannadiga families by marriage and they were naga worshippers, a form of worship popular in the Mysore region.
No evidence to confirm that these families were either Aryan or non-Aryan is available. The epithet Ratta, it is claimed is a Kannada word from which the word Rashtrakuta has been derived; the use of the word Rattagudlu has been found in inscriptions from present day Andhra Pradesh dated prior to the 8th century indicating it was a South Indian word. From the Deoli plates and Karhad records it is argued there was a prince called Ratta and his son was called Rashtrakuta. Hence it has been argued, it is said the term Rashtra means "kingdom" and Kuta means "lofty" or Rashtra means province and Kuta means chieftain. Another epithet used, it is proposed that it refers to their original home Lattalur, modern day Latur in Maharashtra state, bordering Karnataka. This area it is claimed was predominantly Kannada speaking based on surviving vestiges of place names and cultural relics, it is explained that Latta is a Prakrit variation of Ratta and hence Rattana-ur became Lattan
Hemayel Michael Anthony Martina was a Curaçaoan poet. While studying at the International School of Curaçao, the 17-year-old Martina started writing poems addressed to young people; these were collected in a book, with each poem appearing side-by-side in both Papiamento and English. The book has two titles: Ansestro Preokupá Worried Ancestor Rest in Peace; the poems explore politics, music and various personalities who have made important contributions to Martina's homeland of Curaçao. After residing for a while in Leiden and continuing his university education at Webster University in Leiden, he toured Curaçao with musician and friend Levi Silvanie, they performed at various venues combining poetry with Silvanie's music. They both organized a night of music on local television, he toured South Africa in December 2010. On 29 January 2011, while touring Curaçao, he died from injuries suffered in a car crash, he was buried in Curaçao. 2010: Ansestro Preokupá Sosegá / Worried Ancestor Rest in Peace An archive of Hemayel Martina's website, no longer available.
An archive of the Ancestro Preokupá Sosegá book's website, no longer available. Hemayel Martina Facebook. "Poet of Curaçao: Hemayel Martina interviewed by Lee Bob Black"