Nate Robinson is a rookie globetrotter
Children surrounded the little man at the Great Wall, and even halfway across the world they knew Nate Robinson and what Nate Robinson does best.
"You dunk! You dunk!" they shouted.
Yes, they know Nate Robinson in China now. Same as in Seattle and New York and everywhere in between. It has been only one year since Robinson left the University of Washington for the NBA, and he has already expanded his fan-favorite reach to famous structures around the world.
He has played for the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, eaten dinner at the White House and visited China and its famous wall — Nate and the Great — for a Nike-sponsored basketball camp. Along the way, he lobbied Spike Lee for a movie role, took pictures with rapper/actor Ludacris and actor George Clooney and won the NBA slam-dunk contest.
"I would never think, growing up as a kid, or even last year when I was in college, that I would be able to experience some of the things that I did," Robinson said on a visit home recently. "It kind of blows my mind."
Robinson is in Las Vegas now, playing for the Knicks' summer-league team. This is the latest stop on his Summer of Love tour.
It started shortly after the season ended, when Robinson joined other correspondents — he wrote a blog last season for MSNBC.com — for a dinner at the White House. They ate salad and halibut and a chocolate dessert, while watching pundits and impersonators skewer George W. Bush.
Robinson can relate to a little skewering. After all, he did play for the dysfunctional Knicks during a season that turned into a circus.
"It was like a roller-coaster that never ended," Robinson said. "It just kept going and going. At times, it was rough, just on our record alone. It was tough to go through."
Still, New York fans embraced Robinson right from the first practice at The Garden. Like fans here in his hometown, they rooted for the little guy with the big hops, and Robinson embraced them back. He started 26 games and played in 72, averaging 9.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists.
This offseason has brought more changes to New York while Robinson has been jet-setting. Isiah Thomas replaced Larry Brown as coach. Robinson declined to comment on Brown's dismissal but said Thomas has always been a fan favorite in the Robinson household. In fact, Nate's father, Jacque, liked Thomas so much as a player he named another son Deron Isaiah Robinson (he died from sudden infant death syndrome in 1997).
The proximity to celebrities at The Garden also gave Robinson a chance to network for what he hopes will be his career after basketball. He's about 60 credits shy of a degree in theater at UW; and after promising his mom he would earn his degree, he's planning to take online classes and finish next summer.
Acting influences include Eddie Murphy, Chris Tucker and Martin Lawrence. Favorite movies include anything by Disney (Robinson knows every line from "Toy Story"). As such, Robinson wants to work in movies or voice cartoon characters or do anything for a famous director who likes to watch a little basketball.
"I talked to Spike Lee," Robinson said. "I'm always bugging him. 'Hook me up. Hook me up.' He said, 'I got you.' I don't care if I'm an extra or I'm walking across the street or something. As long as I get in a movie."
For now, he'd settle for getting in the playoffs. But in the interim, Robinson continues smiling, traveling and winning the world over.
His most recent stop was in China for the Nike camp. Robinson visited the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, went shopping, ate a lot of shrimp fried rice and learned how to say "thank you" in Chinese.
He then returned for a short break in his hometown. He took his family to Wild Waves in Federal Way and made stops at all the fine dining he misses in New York — namely, Jack in the Box, Dick's and 7-Eleven (for some Slurpees).
Sitting in a conference room in his agent's office in Post Alley, Robinson struggles to comprehend all the places he has been in the past year, all the things he has done. The good news is that his nickname, Nate the Great, lends itself perfectly to a character — a movie maybe? — leading expeditions.
Spike Lee, are you listening?
"I ate dinner with the president, met all these different stars, visited the Great Wall," Robinson said. "I'm just blessed.
"I miss it here [in Seattle] a lot. But at the same time, my job — playing basketball — is where my heart is. And if it can take me all over the world, then that's great."
Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com