Thomas Earl Robinson (born March 17, 1991) is an American-born naturalised Lebanese professional basketball player for the NLEX Road Warriors of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). A consensus All-American at the University of Kansas, Robinson was drafted fifth overall in the 2012 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings.
High school career
Robinson grew up in Washington, DC, and attended Eastern High School, and Riverdale Baptist before moving on to the Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Robinson averaged 16 points, 13 rebounds and 5 blocks per game his senior year.
Robinson was ranked as the No. 24 recruit by Scout.com, No. 31 by Rivals.com and No. 40 by ESPN.com as a high school senior.
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College career
Robinson began his junior year and the 2011–2012 men's college basketball season as one of 50 candidates for the preseason John R. Wooden Award. Along with senior teammate Tyshawn Taylor, Robinson was expected to become one of the leaders for the Kansas team.
On December 31, 2011, in a game against the University of North Dakota, Robinson scored 30 points and grabbed 21 rebounds. He was the first Kansas player to record a 30/20 performance since Wayne Hightower scored 36 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in a 1961 game against the University of Missouri. At the end of the Big 12 conference regular season, Robinson was second in the nation with 22 double doubles behind O.D. Anosike of Siena College. At that point, Robinson averaged 18 points and 11.9 rebounds.
Prior to their game on January 22, 2011, against Texas, Kansas players, coaches and fans held a moment of silence in honor of Robinson, who had lost his grandmother, grandfather, and mother all within three weeks of one another. After the game, Kansas coach Bill Self said "For him to even be out there on the court was remarkable."
On March 4, 2012, Robinson was named the 2012 Big 12 Player of the Year. All-Big 12 awards are selected by the league's head coaches. On March 5, 2012, he was named the Associated Press Big 12 Player of the Year.
On April 9, 2012, Robinson decided to forgo his senior season and declared for the 2012 NBA draft.
College statistics
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|2009–10
|style="text-align:left;"|Kansas
|33||1||7.2||.485||.000||.395||2.7||.3||.2||.5||2.5
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|2010–11
|style="text-align:left;"|Kansas
|33||2||14.6||.601||.000||.510||6.4||.6||.4||.7||7.6
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|2011–12
|style="text-align:left;"|Kansas
|39||39||31.8||.505||.500||.682||11.9||1.8||1.1||.9||17.7
|- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career |105||42||18.7||.525||.500||.606||7.3||1.0||.6||.7||9.8
College awards and honors
Consensus first-team All-American (2012) NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team (2012) Big 12 Conference Player of the Year (2012) First team All-Big 12 (2012) ESPN.com National Player of the Year (2012) John R. Wooden Award Finalist (2012) Naismith College Player of the Year Finalist (2012)
Professional career
Sacramento Kings (2012–2013) On June 28, 2012, Robinson was drafted fifth overall in the 2012 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings. On November 7, 2012, in the fourth quarter of a game against the Detroit Pistons, Robinson hit Jonas Jerebko in the throat with an elbow, and was ejected from the game. The following day, he was suspended for two games.
Houston Rockets (2013) On February 21, 2013, Robinson was traded, along with Francisco García and Tyler Honeycutt, to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Patrick Patterson, Toney Douglas, Cole Aldrich and cash considerations. Robinson was given up on by the Kings due to the emergence of DeMarcus Cousins as well as the Kings' struggles to find playing time for Robinson.
Portland Trail Blazers (2013–2015) On July 10, 2013, Robinson was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for the rights to Kostas Papanikolaou and Marko Todorović, as well as two future second-round picks. On February 23, 2014, Robinson recorded 14 points and a career-high 18 rebounds in a 108–97 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. In 2013–14, he averaged 4.8 points and 4.4 rebounds in 70 games.