 Robinson at the 2009 Obama Home State Inauguration Ball | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1962-04-21)April 21, 1962 (age 63) DeYoung, Illinois, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1979–1983 | Princeton |
| Position | Forward |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1988–1990 | IIT (asst.) |
| 1999–2000 | Chicago Lab School |
| 2000–2006 | Northwestern (asst.) |
| 2006–2008 | Brown |
| 2008–2014 | Oregon State |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 2016–2017 | Milwaukee Bucks (VP, player/org. development) |
| 2017–2020 | New York Knicks (VP, player/org. development) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 122–128 (.488) |
Craig Malcolm Robinson (born April 21, 1962) is an Americancollege basketball coach, basketball executive, and broadcaster. He is a former head men's basketball coach atOregon State University andBrown University. He was a star forward as a player atPrinceton University in the early 1980s and a bond trader during the 1990s. He currently is the executive director of theNational Association of Basketball Coaches. He is the brother of formerFirst LadyMichelle Obama and brother-in-law of 44thPresident of the United StatesBarack Obama.
Craig Malcolm Robinson was born on April 21, 1962, inCalumet Park, Illinois, to Fraser Robinson, a city water plant employee andDemocraticprecinct captain, andMarian Robinson (née Shields), a secretary atSpiegel's catalog store.[1] Robinson grew up inChicago's South Shore with his younger sister,Michelle.[1][2] Helearned to read by the age of four at home and skipped the second grade in school.[1] He attended the parochialMount Carmel High School, graduating in 1979.[3]
When Robinson was considering which college to go to, his father insisted that he attendPrinceton University for its Ivy League academics, rather than either theUniversity of Washington orPurdue University, which offered scholarships and major basketball conference play.[4]
Robinson was a two-timeIvy League Player of the Year atPrinceton University, in 1981–1982 and 1982–1983,[4] leading the league infield goal percentage both years.[5] He is the fourth highest scorer in school history.[1] He graduated in 1983 with aB.A. inSociology.[5] His senior thesis was onsocial stratification in prisons.[6] Robinson and former teammateJohn W. Rogers, Jr. were among those invited to practice withMichael Jordan as he prepared for his comeback.[7]
Robinson was drafted in the fourth round of the1983 NBA draft by thePhiladelphia 76ers,[8] but never played in the league. He played professionally for theManchester Giants in theBritish Basketball League for two seasons[4] and returned to the U.S. in 1988 to become an assistant coach at theIllinois Institute of Technology, a position he held until 1990.[5]
Robinson left basketball partly on the advice of his Princeton coachPete Carril[4] and pursued a business degree, earning anM.B.A. inFinance from theUniversity of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1992.[5] Robinson worked in the 1990s as abondtrader. He became a vice president atContinental Illinois Bank and worked there from 1990 to 1992.[5][9] He was then a vice president, from 1992 to 1999, atMorgan Stanley Dean Witter.[4] Later, he was amanaging director andpartner at Loop Capital Markets, a minority-owned boutiqueinvestment banking firm.[4][9]
When Robinson's sister, Michelle, began dating her law firm colleague,Barack Obama, who played basketball recreationally, she asked her brother to play with Obama and give her a character assessment so that she would know whether she could become serious with him.[10][11] He gave an encouraging report to her.[9][12] As he later related, "When I played basketball with Barack, he was quietly confident, which means he had good self-esteem without being cocky. He was certainly a team player – he wasn't a pig, he passed when he was supposed to pass, and he cut when he was supposed to cut. To me, that speaks to a lack of selfishness. He had natural leadership ability because he didn't just pass me the ball because he was dating my sister. Whenever a player gets tired, he reverts to the player he truly is. That's how you tell. And we played for hours. That's how I could tell."[10] The story of thispick-up game and of a "test" being passed became a key part of the Obama narrative.[10]
While working in the business world, Robinson kept a hand in basketball by doing area scouting for Princeton and coaching one year atUniversity of Chicago Laboratory Schools.[4] He earned a high six-figure income in his business career, but he eventually decided the financial world had lost its appeal and found his luxury lifestyle was not enough to save his marriage to Janis Robinson.[13] By 2000, Robinson was going through a divorce.[4] Robinson has two children from his first marriage, a son Avery (born 1992) and a daughter Leslie (born 1996).[14] Robinson remarried in June 2006 to his current wife Kelly.[3] They became parents of sons Austin in 2010[15] and Aaron in 2012.[16] His daughter Leslie played for thePrinceton Tigers women's basketball team as a forward.[17]
Robinson returned to coaching in 1999, making one-tenth his former salary.[13] He was an assistant for six years toBill Carmody atNorthwestern University,[8][13] where he was an effective recruiter.[9] He then became a head coach atBrown University in 2006, where he ran a variation of thePrinceton offense which he learned fromPete Carril during his years at Princeton. In improving a mid-level basketball program,[11] he stressedwork ethic, usedtough love, and tried to improve the players'vocabulary.[13] Having placed fifth with a strong finish to the season garnered Robinson theIvy League men's basketball Coach of the Year for the 2006–2007 season by Basketball-U.com.[8] The following year, theBrown Bears finished second in the league, and their 19 wins for the season was a team record.[13]
Robinson assisted his brother-in-law throughoutthe latter's 2008 presidential campaign, including campaigning for him during theIowa caucuses and campaigning and giving speeches for him in a number of other states, sometimes combining campaigning with recruiting visits.[9][13] He introduced his sister Michelle before her speech on August 25, 2008, the first night of the2008 Democratic National Convention,[18] which gave him his largest national exposure.[19] He was also on stage followingObama's victory speech inGrant Park after his election as president on November 4, 2008.[13]
On April 7, 2008, Robinson was hired as theOregon State Beavers' head basketball coach[14] following the team's winlessPacific-10 Conference record and overall 6–25 mark the year before.[13] (Jesse Agel, Robinson's assistant of two years, took over Robinson's former position at Brown.)[13]
Oregon State got off to a fairly good start in Robinson's first year, starting with a 6–6 record; a January 2009 conference win overUSC broke a nearly two-year Pac-10 losing streak and earned Robinson a congratulatory call from his brother-in-law, then-President-elect Obama.[20] Robinson continued his tough-love approach, tailored to strengthening each player's weaknesses.[10] After that first win, Robinson's team won another six Pac-10 games, exceeding expectations for his first year on the job, given that his personnel were essentially unchanged from the team's prior year.[21] One key was that the offensive system he installed raised the team's collectivefield goal percentage almost 10 points.[21] Some commentators felt he was deserving of consideration for the Pac-10 Coach of the Year award,[21] and by late February, Robinson had hopes of the team getting a bid from one of the postseason tournaments.[22] The team was indeed accepted into the2009 College Basketball Invitational, where it went on to post a 5–1 record and captured its first post-season tournament championship ever with a final series victory over theUTEP Miners.[23] Of the win, Robinson said, "I can't tell you how proud I am of these guys. ... This is a great story for anybody."[24] The Beavers finished with an 18–18 record for the season[23] and had whatRivals.com deemed a top-25 recruiting class as well.[24]
In July 2009, President Obama alluded to the possibility of Robinson coaching elsewhere by saying: "Craig Robinson is an outstanding coach. ... Anybody in Oregon and anybody who knows sports knows he turned it around. He loves Corvallis, and I'm sure that as a young, successful coach, he's going to start getting offers."[25] Oregon State's 2009–10 season featured an inconsistent level of play in a conference dominated by parity, leading to an 8–10 regular-season conference record for a tie for fifth place. They then lost in the first round of thePac-10 tournament. Despite the losing record, the team was invited to defend their championship at the2010 College Basketball Invitational,[26] but lacked focus and energy and were beaten easily in the first round,[27] leaving them with an overall season record of 14–18.
In March 2010, shortly before the end of the season, the university and Robinson agreed on a two-year contract extension that would keep him in place through the 2015–16 season.[28] In April 2010, Robinson published his memoir,A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond.[29]
The 2010–2011 season was one of regression for Oregon State, with the team falling to a 5–13, ninth-place finish in the conference, and a sharply losing record overall. However, Robinson professed to not being overly worried or disappointed, saying he was encouraged by the development of some of the underclassmen.[30] The Obamas showed their support for Robinson by attending an Oregon State game againstTowson in November 2011.[31] The 2011–2012 season saw a Robinson-era best for overall wins, 21, including a pair in the2012 College Basketball Invitational, but a fourth consecutive losing record within the conference. It was the highest win total for the team since 1990,[32] and the completion of it saw star guardJared Cunningham leaving after his junior season and being selected in theNBA draft,[33] the first Beaver to be drafted in over a decade. In June 2012, construction began on a $15 million basketball practice facility that Robinson and previous coaches had long been campaigning for.[32]
Prior to the 2012–2013 season, Robinson characterized his squad as "probably the best team I've had."[34] But the Beavers went in the opposite direction by suffering one of their worst seasons ever, with a penchant for second-half collapses and end-of-game failures.[34] Attendance atGill Coliseum fell to half capacity, and thestudent section lost enthusiasm.[34] The team finished with a dead-last 4–14 record in the conference and a 14–18 mark overall. Fans began calling for a change in coaches, but the university athletic director said, "Coach Robinson is our coach, and this administration is in full support of him."[34] Following the season, Robinson appeared on theCBS Sports Network as a studio analyst during theNCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship tournament.[35]
The 2013–2014 season saw the team improve to a 16–16 mark overall but have its sixth consecutive losing season in the conference. The team faced the loss of all five of its starters and its five top scorers following the season, due to graduation, transfers, and the like.[36][37] In March 2014, thePac-12 announced that Robinson would coach an all-star basketball team that would tour China in August.[38] On May 5, 2014, Robinson was fired from his position as the Oregon State men's head basketball coach.[36] He was given a $4 million buyout of the three remaining years on his contract.[37] The team had failed to make theNCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship or theNational Invitation Tournament during Robinson's tenure.[37] His overall 93–104 record did make him the fourth-winningest coach in team history.[37]
TheMilwaukee Bucks hired Robinson as vice president of player and organizational development on August 15, 2016.[39] After one season, he left the Bucks to join theNew York Knicks in a similar position.[40]
On October 7, 2014,ESPN announced the hiring of Robinson as a college basketball analyst.[41] There, he began to work broadcasting games and doing studio work onESPNU.[42]
On July 13, 2020, Robinson was named the executive director of theNational Association of Basketball Coaches.
Robinson is the older brother of formerU.S. First LadyMichelle Obama and thebrother-in-law of formerU.S. PresidentBarack Obama. Robinson has been married twice and has four children.
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown Bears(Ivy League)(2006–2008) | |||||||||
| 2006–07 | Brown | 11–18 | 6–8 | 5th | |||||
| 2007–08 | Brown | 19–10 | 11–3 | 2nd | CBI First Round | ||||
| Brown: | 30–28 (.517) | 17–11 (.607) | |||||||
| Oregon State Beavers(Pacific-10 / Pac-12 Conference)(2008–2014) | |||||||||
| 2008–09 | Oregon State | 18–18 | 7–11 | 8th | CBI champions | ||||
| 2009–10 | Oregon State | 14–18 | 8–10 | 5th | CBI First Round | ||||
| 2010–11 | Oregon State | 10–19 | 5–13 | 9th | |||||
| 2011–12 | Oregon State | 21–15 | 7–11 | 9th | CBI Semifinals | ||||
| 2012–13 | Oregon State | 14–18 | 4–14 | 12th | |||||
| 2013–14 | Oregon State | 16–16 | 8–10 | 10th | CBI First Round | ||||
| Oregon State: | 93–104 (.469) | 39–69 (.362) | |||||||
| Total: | 123–132 (.482) | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion | |||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
