Former KU forward Robinson returns to Lawrence for inaugural youth basketball camp
His arrival delayed a couple of days as he completed a playoff run with Puerto Rican professional basketball team Gigantes de Carolina, Thomas Robinson was back in Lawrence on Thursday for his Ground Up Training camp at The Good Game facility on Clinton Parkway.
“The kids have been asking about him every day,” co-camp director Mario Little, a Kansas Jayhawks teammate of Robinson’s during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, said of the still-popular 33-year-old power forward.
“I’ve been doing all this work. He’s out here smiling, joking around,” Little added with a smile.
Robinson — he played five years in the NBA before heading overseas for the past seven seasons in a still-active 12-year career — acknowledged he wanted to make sure the kids (ages 7-16) “had a good time” at his camp this week.
However, his main message would be delivered to the campers in a serious tone.
“I want them to know you have to train yourself to become a hard worker,” Robinson said. “Working hard isn’t something you do one day. It’s something you do daily. You train yourself to do it every day. That’s all I want them to learn. Of course, we’re giving them some skill work they can take with them.”
Robinson, the 2012 Big 12 player of the year and first-team consensus All-American, had his jersey No. 0 hung in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters at halftime of the KU-Missouri game Dec. 9. And he has always been known for his peak physical condition.
The fifth overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft is a well-sculpted 6-foot-10, 240-pound inside force.
“Him, David Robinson and Karl Malone,” Little said when asked if Robinson is the most physically imposing player he’s seen.
“That’s a strong group,” Robinson said with a smile.
The key to Robinson’s solid physique?
“Milk, pushups, raw eggs, raw meat,” Little said of his teammate and friend.
Robinson indicated Thursday he’d like to play “two or three” more seasons of pro basketball while hopefully establishing Ground Up Training, or GUT, camps all over the country.
“This is something that will be part of my journey now,” he said. “We’re doing Florida next, then maybe Jersey and the East Coast. We’ll be doing this every year nationally. We started in Lawrence because of my connections here. We’ll be in Philadelphia over Christmas. Giving back to basketball is what we’ll be doing.”
A native of Washington, D.C., Robinson said he’s unsure where he’ll reside when he retires.
“I’ll be here more. This is a place I miss, will always miss. I had a great experience here,” he said of Lawrence. “I don’t plan to be anywhere sitting still. Even after I do retire I’m going to go into either the mentorship field, basketball (instruction), being busy with business stuff, so I don’t plan to stick anywhere.”
Of his jersey-retirement ceremony last season, he said: “It was perfect. I loved it.”
Robinson said he wanted to return to Kansas last month for The Basketball Tournament. The KU alumni team went 2-1 and did not advance to the Final Four in its third appearance in the single-elimination, 64-team tourney.
Robinson played for the KU squad in summer 2023 — another Mass Street entry that went 2-1.
“I was mad I couldn’t make it,” he said. “I was in the middle of trying to get my team (in Puerto Rico) into the playoffs. My emotions were all over the place (in wanting to get back). Tyshawn (Taylor) did a great job running that team. I look forward to doing it again one year.”
Little, who also has played 12 seasons of pro basketball, said of Robinson: “People should know he is coming back to make some roots here. He’s going to give back from a standpoint of teaching kids the game, teaching them to be competitive.”
