Devin Booker's 70-point game on Friday night is a prime example of how much better the social media era is for sports compared to any other era. By the time Booker had 50 points early in the 4th quarter, the whole world was spreading the news.
You saw the highlights on social media, you could find a live feed of the game on the internet or at a bar somewhere. But you knew about it either as it was happening or right after it happened.
That wasn't the case when David Robinson scored 71 points in a game in 1994.
Do you ever wonder why we don't see tons of highlights of Robinson's historic performance in a San Antonio Spurs win over the LA Clippers?
It's because the game wasn't broadcast on TV.
As a kid, I remember hearing about it the next day because the performance gave Robinson the scoring title that season, which is really as good as it got for Spurs fans looking for good news back in 1994.
The early 90's was the start of the cable sports era, but that really refers more to the highlights that were available rather than live games. Several years later, it still wasn't the case that all games were broadcast.
(I remember one time when I was in high school, I was watching TNT NBA coverage toward the end of the regular season and the Sacramento Kings were playing a home game with playoff implications. Ernie Johnson had to keep reminding people that it was a scoreboard feed because every few minutes "GET LOUD" or "DE-FENSE" would pop up on the screen.)
As a result, the only footage we have of Robinson's legendary game is archive footage from the Spurs, which really isn't readily available or compelling because of the angle from which it's shot.
You can view it here, which features the Spurs radio call:
Watching the game, itself, tells you more than the stat line ever could: 26-41 with only one three-pointer made and going 18-25 from the line.
The Admiral shot a better shooting percentage (63 percent) than Booker did on his 70 (52 percent) or even Kobe did when he scored 81 (60 percent).
His 71 is incredibly impressive too because, as you can see in the video, he's working really hard to create space on the perimeter when he's isolated on the wing and getting a lot of buckets in the paint. He didn't have a three-point game to fall back on to get hot, nor was he nearly as good a free throw shooter.
My favorite thing about David's game that was similar to Booker's that it's a road game, and yet you can hear the crowd reactions growing for every Robinson bucket late in the contest. At the 8:45 mark of the video, it sounds like a Spurs home game as Robinson score a jumper as a whistle is blown for a foul.
Also in this game, the Spurs were fouling late and having Robinson hang on the Spurs side of the court really early in possessions. Not quite cherry-picking... but close.
What's also funny is that Clippers head coach Randy Woods is called for a technical late in the 4th quarter and despite the fact that the Spurs had six players with a better free throw shooting percentage than David that season, guess who goes to the line? David Robinson, of course!
Another hilarious moment: The Clippers fans start booing their own team for holding the ball and milking the clock late in the 4th quarter. They wanna see David score!
The Clippers don't play around either. Late in the game, they're making Robinson earn it with aggressive double-teams.
After he gets his last bucket to give him 71, Robinson checks out of the game and gets a standing ovation from the Clippers crowd.
It's a shame this is the only video we have.
