“And just where do you think you’re going?” The woman’s voice was stern, though she was fighting a grin. “Lunch,” he answered. “If that’s okay with you, that is.” “Okay then,” the woman said. “But you still have work to do when you come back.” Ensign David Robinson nodded, smiled, and ducked his head going through the door of the trailer. It was a warm November day in south Georgia. Ten days earlier he had signed a contract to play basketball for the San Antonio Spurs that had made him rich, extremely rich. Over an eight-year period, the Spurs would pay him about $26 million. “It’s the kind of money,” he said, “that doesn’t even seem real to me.” This, though, was very real. This was King’s Bay, Georgia, the offices of the Resident Officer in Charge of Construction on what would become, during the next three years, a giant submarine base. Robinson, six months removed from the Naval Academy, worked for the ROICC negotiating with contractors. For this, he was paid considerably less than $26 million.
