BOLTON COMMON: Brian Robinson talks about overseas professional hoop career

June 27, 2008

From Brazil to Bolton

Friday, June 27, 2008

BOLTON --- Sitting in the stands at Sawyer Middle School Tuesday morning, instructing a group of young basketball players through some drills, BRIAN ROBINSON '05 is able to relax for a change.

For the last three years, since graduating from Assumption College as the school's fifth all-time leading scorer (1,907 points) and rebounder (1,027), Robinson has embarked on a professional basketball career overseas.

After playing two seasons in Portugal with second division Atletico and first division club Belenenses, Robinson averaged 12 points and seven rebounds a game last year for Sardanha in Brazil, the team that produced Anderson Varejao of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This summer, however, Robinson is back in Bolton, where he has spent a week the last several summers as a counselor at the Nashoba Sports Basketball Camp. The connection between Robinson, who is from Bayonne, NJ, and the town began at Assumption, where he was classmates with Christine Keenan, daughter of the camp's director, Valerie Keenan.

Robinson, an English and psychology double major and secondary education minor at Assumption, jumped at the opportunity in 2002 to join the camp as a counselor.

"I love kids and I love basketball, so the two just fit together," Robinson said.

Rest assured, participants at the week-long camp can learn plenty from Robinson's experiences.

Six weeks after graduating from Assumption, Robinson was invited to play in Taiwan for an American traveling team against national teams from around the world. Six weeks after that, he found himself in Lisbon, where he would go on to average 20 points and nine rebounds a game for Atletico.

"I really had no idea what I wanted to do fresh out of school, so when it began it was more of a buying time kind of thing," Robinson said. "But it became such a part of me, it's all I can see myself doing for right now."

While the 6-foot-8 forward has had his share of success as a professional, he sees his experience as a humbling one.

"I think playing overseas is a way to humble yourself as a player," Robinson said. "You realize how big the world of basketball really is. You also get to understand that the NBA is a little bit more of a struggle than people give it credit for. A lot of these young kids, who think they can just make the adjustment from college to the NBA, it's not that simple.

"I've been through NBA-type workouts, and it is not easy at all."

Going from a Division II college in America to playing professionally in Europe proved to be difficult, too. Robinson recalled on instance in particular during his season with Atletico.

"In Europe, you have to be ready to play defense all over the floor, all night long," Robinson said. "I played against a guy who was about 38, 39 years old and I'm like, "I'm 22, I'm going to kill this guy.' He lit me up. He hit five or six threes in the first half alone. It's one of those humbling experiences."

To be an effective player in the European hoop scene, Robinson says, he had to make changes to his game. None of those 1,907 points he scored as a Greyhound came from behind the three-point line, a fact he says he takes pride in, but in Portugal, he learned how to take his game away from the basket.

"I remember I shot my first three in my first game, and I made it," Robinson said. "[The other team] called a timeout, because they didn't know anything about me. They just knew that I was a big man. So I made the three-pointer and we go to the bench, and my coach says, ?You can shoot?" And I said, "No! That was luck."

"But as my career has advanced, so has my understanding of how to play the game."

After a season at Belenenses, also based in Lisbon, Robinson made his way to Brazil. And while the fans were certainly into it in Portugal, Brazil was a whole different story.

Robinson said he saw people with tattoos of their favorite team's logo, and houses painted the colors of their teams. He and teammates were also spat at and had batteries thrown at them.

And there was this one time?

"We beat this really good team on the road by one point at the buzzer, and the riot squad had to come in and escort us out of the building," Robinson said. "There were fans from the other team following our bus back to the hotel, so we had to take a whole bunch of detours?It was unbelievable."

Robinson may call Brazil home next year, and he has also been in contact with teams from Germany, Australia and Luxembourg. At the moment, however, he has his sights set on Korea.

During his season at Belenenses, Robinson befriended a player from Seattle, Jason Robinson. Jason now plays professionally in Korea, and gave Brian a heads-up about an upcoming tryout in Las Vegas for the Korean league.

Brian Robinson says he plans to spend time in Houston with Jason Robinson beforehand to train.

"You just have to stay on top of your game. If you fall off, somebody is going to pass you," Robinson said. "That's my motivation to work out all the time. If I take today off, I'm one day behind the person who's getting better than me."

It's that kind of work ethic that Valerie Keenan says she wants to rub off on her young campers.

"Brian is the real thing, and that's what I want the kids to see," Keenan said. "I want them to see their potential, and to see that if this is what you want and you practice everyday and you work hard, this is what you can be."