To nobody's surprise, he was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft Wednesday night, and now he's expected to be both a superstar player and a Jordanesque personality.
"Everybody wants to be like Mike, but I'm not going to try to be like him," said Robinson, who takes his tremendous all-around game to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Meanwhile, Michael Jordan "has just about decided" to leave minor league baseball and return to the Chicago Bulls, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Robinson, a 6-foot-8 forward from Purdue, was unquestionably the best player in the nation last season, when he led NCAA Division I with a 30.3-point scoring average.
The Big Dog, as he is known, downplayed the big contract he will receive -- possibly the first nine-digit deal in sports history.
"I don't think the millions have anything to do with playing," said Robinson, who scored at least 20 points in 52 of his 62 college games.
The next several picks also went according to form.
The Dallas Mavericks, drafting second, went with California point guard Jason Kidd and the Detroit Pistons took Duke's do-everything forward, Grant Hill.
The Minnesota Timberwolves then selected Connecticut forward Donyell Marshall, the Washington Bullets drafted Michigan forward Juwan Howard, the Philadelphia 76ers picked Clemson forward-center Sharone Wright and the Los Angeles Clippers chose Kidd's Cal teammate, forward Lamond Murray.
Hill was the only senior among the first seven players selected. Three other underclassmen also went in the first round; the total of nine tied the record set in 1982.
According to a Thursday report in the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, Jordan is likely to leave the Class AA Birmingham Barons when the season ends Sept. 3 and rejoin the Bulls in time for the start of the basketball season in October.
Jordan was traveling with the Barons, a Chicago White Sox farm team, and could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for the Bulls denied Wednesday that Jordan's return was imminent, and a spokesman for the Barons said he doubted it, too.
Jordan, a nine-time NBA all-star before retiring from basketball last year, is not posting all-star numbers in his new sport. He is hitting .197 with 26 RBIs, 29 walks and 73 strikeouts in 269 at-bats this season. "This has been difficult for Michael," the Sun-Times' source said. "He's been so frustrated that his hitting hasn't clicked consistently, ... that he's letting down his teammates."
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