Cliff Robinson was a Forward for the UConn Huskies from 1985 – 1989. He’s
a member of the UConn Basketball All Century Team, and was a player on the
first UConn National Invitational Tournament Championship Team in 1988.
Cliff is one of only four UConn players to score at least 600 points in
two separate seasons, and he’s on the top ten lists for both career
scoring, and career blocked shots. He also enjoys the longest National
Basketball Association career of any UConn player, entering his 16th
season, and has scored more than 15,000 points. I had the pleasure of
meeting Cliff in October 2004, after a Golden State Warriors game in Los
Angeles as he reflected on his college, and post-collegiate days on the
court.
Cliff grew up in Buffalo, New York where his first athletic love was
football as a child. Around the time he was entering Riverside High
School, he went through a growth spurt, and became too tall to play
football. His mother suggested he play basketball so his first years of
organized basketball began at the high school level.
Cliff enjoyed his high school experiences. “It helped me to get prepared,
playing in the competitions that I played in Buffalo, to play in the Big
East Conference.” By the time Cliff was a sophomore, he began to blossom,
and as a junior he was really becoming a good player. Although his high
school teams did not win a State Championship it was a highlight to win
the City Championship while at Riverside. Cliff started getting recruited
as a sophomore, and then more and more schools became interested in him.
“Howie Dickenman (former UConn assistant coach) was probably one of the
first guys who sent me a letter, and started recruiting me so I felt as
though he showed a lot of interest in me from the start, and I wanted to
give UConn a good hard look, and at the time I was really interested in
playing in the Big East Conference.” Howie’s interest paid off; Cliff
decided on coming to UConn.
It
wasn’t an easy transition from high school to college. Each level is
another step of guys that are better and quicker, but Cliff was eager to
get there, and try to make things happen. “I think the biggest memory
while at UConn was winning the NIT. We didn’t have the talent that other
teams had, so my junior year when we came out, and we won the NIT, it’s
the best memory for me.” Looking back at his experience at Uconn, Cliff
said the coaching staff played a big part in molding his game to be able
to take the steps he’s taken to make it as far as he has.
After UConn, Cliff was drafted as a second round pick in the NBA to the
Portland Trailblazers. He thought he was going to be selected
higher/sooner, so he used that disappointment as a challenge to become
more aggressive in reaching his goals. It worked. Cliff is enjoying his
16th year in the NBA. He said the transition from the college level to the
pros was probably twice as hard as the high school to college transition
because he was then playing against the best college players from each
team in the country, and against great players in the NBA. Cliff was
anxious to prove he could play on that level too. “I’ve had a lot of fond
memories but I think the biggest one was probably my rookie season with
the Portland Trailblazers, our team made it to the NBA finals that year.”
Cliff spent eight seasons with the Trailblazers, then four with the
Phoenix Suns, two with the Detroit Pistons, and he’s in his second season
with the Golden State Warriors.
Cliff’s thoughts about his former coach at UConn, “Coach Calhoun, he’s the
best coach out there. He played a big part in me being able to achieve a
lot of the things I’ve been able to achieve in basketball.” When asked
about UConn having won the National Championship this year, Cliff said, “I
never really expect that kind of thing (winning) because that’s a lot, 64
teams fighting for it but I’m always looking forward to UConn getting it
done.”
Cliff has four children from a previous relationship: Savvanah, age 6,
Isaih, age 7, Jaylin age 8 and Jessica age 17, and his wife Heather has
one child Madelyn age 9, also from a previous relationship. The kids like
the game of basketball, but Cliff doesn’t push them into it.
Cliff ended our conversation saying, “I still love to play basketball. I’m
going to keep playing as long as my body allows me to.”
|
