Joe Robinson: Love for Basketball

Joe Robinson (2), a sophmore guard of the Santa Monica College Men's Basketball Team, poses for a portrait at the SMC Pavilion at the Santa Monica College Main Campus. Santa Monica, Calif.. February 17, 2018. (Photo by: Justin Han/Corsair Staff)

The season for the Santa Monica Corsairs basketball team is officially over, as the team ended with a 3-22 record, a drop from last year's near .500 record. Despite the record, there was a bright spot to their season - Joe Robinson.

Robinson, a 6'3" sophomore point-guard out of Palisades High School, averaged 17 points, two rebounds, and two assists per game. Showing his elite ball-handling skills all year long, the sophomore was efficient defensively as well, averaging over one steal per game.

When asked about what attributed to the skills that he displayed on the court this year, Robinson said, "I just try to soak in everything that they teach me. I know it can be difficult sometimes, but I feel like I'm growing as a player on and off the floor. I think being expunged and soaking up everything he's trying to teach me, I think that's the biggest part."

First-year SMC men's basketball head coach Joshua Thomas described Robinson's prowess for his ability to make shots. "Joe does have a knack for scoring, he has the ability to make tough shots under duress…. Joe possesses some of the skills to still concentrate on the rim," Thomas said. "He’s probably our most dynamic, he’s one of those guys that can go off and drop 30. He doesn’t care if he misses five in a row, now he’s gonna make eight in a row."

A Californian for most of his life, Robinson stated how he left Los Angeles for Las Vegas at a very young age before moving back to L.A. for middle school. "When I moved back, it was different. Vegas was kind of slow, slow for kids at least it's a city that never sleeps basically, but it was really nothing much for me to do. So when I got back here it was a lot to do. I was kind of overwhelmed, I didn't know how to take it all in, but I got used to it and settled in."

Robinson currently is a business major at Santa Monica College, wanting to follow the footsteps of his mother, who serves as his biggest inspiration. "She's a businesswoman. I always see her doing her thing trying to make her money, she's my biggest inspiration," he said. "She keeps me on track, keeps my head on straight, I just look at her for inspiration like if she can do it then I definitely can."

Robinson also gave insight on how his love of basketball began. "My dad always played, then he put the ball in my hand at a young age," said Robinson. "I didn't start taking it seriously until middle school I would say, because people said I could be good at it. Just playing it serious at the blacktop and stuff at P.E., so I just started taking it serious and it got me pretty far so far."

Before coming to Santa Monica College, Robinson originally planned to go Arizona Western, but their lack of financial aid prevented him from doing so. He then explained how he was recruited out of Palisades by his former SMC head coach, Jerome Jenkins.

"He kind of steered me here. First I wasn't even going to go here as it wasn't even one of my options, but I wanted to stay home and he was the only guy at school that knew about me, so I just came and play for him."

Some of his teammates, including sophomores Michael Fry and Jhamad Norwood, have praised his work ethic and have drawn close with him off the court. Fry has been a longtime friend of Robinson for 10-years. He described what it was to play with him.

"We grew up together in middle school and high school," Fry said. "We came here together then we played our first season here, he averaged like 19 in his freshman year. In high school he averaged like 20 points too, so he's a good teammate of mine."

Fry also described a few things he knows about Joe more than anyone else on the roster. "He's a good guy, he's trustworthy, he's loyal, he's a good friend, he's like my brother. A cool person to be around, he always keep my interest in hand, or whoever he cares about interest in his hand. So he's a good guy."

Jhamad Norwood also described his own experience with Robinson. "Joe is a lot to handle but he is a good player," Norwood said. "He has a good heart, he's there a lot, he's ready to play a lot. He brought a lot of energy to the team too. Since my first year here, I've created a bond with Joe."

Robinson gave his plans on what he will do after SMC, within the next five to ten years. "The NBA has always been my biggest goal, but I think more realistically would be playing overseas which is something I would be interested in too, traveling the world and get to play basketball I think that's pretty cool," Robinson said.

"Hopefully I'm still playing basketball, hopefully playing overseas in the country somewhere, and making money doing what I love."