Last month, I had a chance to chat with former UConn and NBA star Cliff Robinson, to discuss his time at UConn and in the NBA, his feelings about the current team, and his appearance on Survivor.
Peter: Cliff, when you started at UConn, it wasn’t a really successful program yet. What led you to decide to go to UConn?
Cliff: Well, I thought that it was a program that was going to be on the rise, to tell you the truth. That was my biggest thing. They recruited me super-hard; they had another player coming in that year, Phil Gamble, so I was excited about him coming in. I had played against him in the AAU tournament and I was excited about his talents. I thought it was going to be a program on the rise, and I wanted to be a part of that.
When you and Phil went against each other in AAU, who won?
Phil. They had a team of guys who, none of them were taller than 6’5”, but they could all run and shoot. They were all good players.
The way you played, you were sort of a stretch four before it was a popular thing, do you think your game would have fit in even better in the modern NBA?
I hate to even think like that. My era was my era. I had a great run, and I like to think that I was instrumental in bringing some things to do the game. I don’t really worry about that. I had a great time during my era. I love watching the guys play today. This is a different game. It’s a much different game. At the same time, I think that any player would materialize differently in any different era. It’s just a matter of being in that era. So that’s why it’s hard to even say.
How much have you been following UConn this year?
Oh, I’ve been following them quite a bit. I’m a UConn guy. That’s my school that I support every year. Kevin Ollie’s doing a great job.
What do you think about their chances to go deep into the tournament this year?
I like them. I think that, any time you have good guard play in the tournament, you can have success. It’s been proven on our other title teams. Kemba had a great run during the Big East Tournament, and then carried that into the NCAA Tournament. Rip and El-Amin. We’ve had great guard play over the years, and it hasn’t changed. This year we have Shabazz, and he’s had a tremendous year. He’s done a really good job at putting the team on his back when he has to. When you have a guy who has that kind of confidence, going into March, you never know what could happen. All the other guys are playing their roles, and he’s doing best at making sure he makes big shots.
I always feel like the college game has a great deal more variability, you get a lot of good upsets because the game is very guard-based. One guy has a hot shooting night, you never know what could happen, especially in March.
It definitely does. A big can be dominant, but in the college game, when you have so much zone defense, it’s kind of hard to play inside-out when there’s a lot of zone. So you have to be able to knock down shots and penetrate, and that’s where guards come into play. I think that Boatright, he’s a good ball-handler and penetrator. He probably needs to work on his jumper a little bit more, but I like him.
They’re certainly a lot of fun to watch, and they do a lot of things well even when they’re not shooting well, which helps.
Well, Daniels has picked up his game this year, which was huge. He’s gotten a lot more aggressive this year, which has helped. Giffey, he’s been steady. So what they’re getting out of those guys, they’ve been playing 7-8 guys, and I don’t think they can play more than that, when you look at what they have on the bench, so they guys who are playing are playing a lot of minutes, and they’re doing a good job at holding their own out there.
Well, you’ve got a bunch of hard-working guys working for a hard-working coach, and when you get well-conditioned guys, they can go a lot of minutes. They’re willing to play through some pain and play tired, and even in those overtime games, you still see that explosiveness from Shabazz, and hopefully that serves them well in the tournament.
I think it will. Whenever you have a season like he’s had, making big shots, just keeping the team in position to be in the tournament, to be relevant, you know you’ve got to give all those guys credit, but he’s definitely been the driving force behind everything.
Back to your career, you came into the league in the ’89 draft, a pretty deep draft, 9 all-stars in that draft, and out of that draft, you’re the all-time leading scorer. Going in the second round, do you feel a little vindicated that you had the longest career out of those guys, scored more points than those guys, a group of guys that includes Glen Rice, Shawn Kemp, Tim Hardaway, some marquee names, and there you were at the end, still hitting shots.
You know, I felt vindicated after my rookie year. After all that, I was disappointed that I went in the second round, but as far as sticking it to the other teams that passed me by, I felt vindicated after my rookie year, because I was able to come in and play on a team with veterans like Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Buck Williams, Kevin Duckworth, I could go down the line. That I was able to carve some kind of playing time with that group, for me that was tremendous, because a lot of guys that came into that situation, and seeing who that had to compete against to try and be in front of for playing time, they could have gotten discouraged. And I didn’t get discouraged, so I felt vindicated after my rookie year.
I know that there’s a lot about the game that you can’t talk about, but I wanted to ask what appealed to you about going on Survivor.
The challenge. The challenge of the show. It’s a tough game. You have to be on your p’s and q’s socially and physically at all times, so I looked at it as a challenge to see if I could do it. Sometimes I’m kind of a quiet guy, I sit back and observe things, I wanted to see if I would be capable of going out and playing this social game at 6’10”, where everybody knew I was a basketball player. I was intrigued by the challenge.
Do you think that’s what appealed to you about getting into athletics in the first place? The competition?
Oh, I love the competition. I love to compete. That’s probably why I played in the NBA as long as I did. I love being a part of a team and being out there trying to work hard for a common goal. I just love competing.
