“If you want to check the stats, then I’d be the number one pick, easily. If that’s what you want to do,” Robinson, a consensus first-team all-American from Kansas, said with a laugh. “I should get one of those shirts. Get a shirt that say, ‘Numbers don’t lie.’ ”
Robinson said he picked up his competitive side while battling in the District — where backing down is not an option and showing respect is allowed but “not too much,” he said — and that helped him rise from being an unheralded prospect, to a backup his first two years at Kansas, to now a top-five pick.
“I’m a grown man. I don’t feel that I should hide my thoughts. And I don’t feel I’m saying anything wrong,” Robinson said. “Anybody that competes in this game, most of them are probably not saying it, but I’m sure they feel that way. This draft is very deep with talent. It’s a lot of guys that could be the number one pick. Anthony Davis is definitely worthy of the number one pick. We all know that. I don’t want to get my words mixed up, but I compete, just like everyone else.”
Washington could address their need for perimeter help with several talented wing players available to them at the No. 3 pick — including Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Florida’s Bradley Beal and North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes — but the team has only two starting positions set with Nene and John Wall, giving the Wizards the flexibility to go in a number of directions.
They have drafted three big men in the past two drafts — Kevin Seraphin, Trevor Booker and Jan Vesely — but Washington also has interest in the 21-year-old Robinson, arguably the most NBA-ready player expected to go early in the draft. The Wizards also could go even bigger with Connecticut freshman center Andre Drummond, an intriguing prospect who has considerable upside but remains a mystery.
Robinson will work out for his hometown team on Tuesday at Verizon Center. He hasn’t hidden his desire to play for the Wizards, but he won’t be too upset if the Charlotte Bobcats take him second overall. He said he had been looking forward to his meeting with the Wizards on Thursday, when the two sides discussed his background and he let them know that he was willing to play whatever role they asked of him.
“You’re going to have distractions everywhere. This whole league is full of distractions. I’m not worried about that,” Robinson said, when asked about playing in Washington, where he would be closer with his 9-year-old sister, Jayla. The siblings lost their mother, Lisa, to a heart attack last year. “It would be great to go back home and to hold my city down. To be back where it all started would be great for my family. I wouldn’t have to move my family around a lot.”
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