Craig Robinson is known for being a basketball coach, a broadcaster and the sibling of a former first lady.
The 62-year-year old is the big brother of Michelle Obama, and as his famous sister announced on March 10, 2025, he’s also the co-host of “IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” a podcast premiering March 12.
The program, meant to shed light on questions listeners may have about the world around them, is a natural fit for Robinson, according to Obama.
“Craig is one of the people I turn to whenever I have anything on my mind,” she wrote in an Instagram post about the project. “He always has the insights, the wisdom and the humor to get me through anything.”
Read on to learn more about the man who’s earned such high praise from sister.
Humble beginnings
Born April 21, 1962, to secretary Marian Robinson and water plant worker Fraser Robinson, Craig Robinson was raised in the South Side of Chicago.
“In reality, I had no clue that we were poor and wouldn’t until leaving home for college,” Robinson wrote in his memoir “A Game of Character.” “But what I did know was that I never had to want for anything that I needed or wished for.”
He’s extremely close to his little sister
Robinson’s bond with his sister, whom he calls “Miche,” is a remarkable one.
When sharing a childhood photo of the pair to his Instagram, Robinson referred to his sister as, “My first pitcher, catcher, and friend!”
And it’s clear the admiration is mutual.
In her own memoir, “Becoming,” Obama wrote a message to her older sibling, stating, “You have been my protector since the day I was born. You have made me laugh more than any other person on this earth. You are the best brother a sister could ask for, a loving and caring son, husband and father.”
He was a basketball star at Princeton
Robinson attended Princeton University and made a name for himself on the Princeton Tigers basketball team. In fact, the two-time Ivy League Player of the Year (1981-1982 and 1982-1983), still ranks as the seventh highest scorer in in the team’s history with 1,441 points accrued over the course of his NCAA career.
After graduation, Robinson went pro — but not in the U.S. Despite being picked by the Philadelphia 76ers in the fourth round of the 1983 NBA draft, he went on to sign with U.K. pros the Manchester Giants.
From basketball to business and back again
After his two-season tenure with the Manchester Giants, Robinson returned to the U.S. and briefly gave coaching a go before leaving the court behind and getting his M.B.A. in 1992.
But even though he found success as a high-ranking executive with investment banking firms, Robinson’s love of the game would eventually win out.
In 2000, he returned to coaching when he took on an assistant’s job at Northwestern, which, according to the New York Times, left him earning just a tenth of his salary from his bond trading days. A swap he considered worth it.
Robinson went on to eventually become the head basketball coach at Brown University for two seasons, before holding the same title for six seasons at Oregon State.
He’s been married twice
In his 2010 memoir, Robinson explained that his first wife, whom he married in 1988, didn’t support his career change, and their marriage ended around the same time he returned to the basketball court.
But in 2006, Robinson married again, this time to Kelly McCrum, a former education administrator at Brown University.
He’s a father of 4
Robinson fathered two children during his first marriage — son Avery (born 1992) and daughter Leslie Robinson (born 1996). The latter followed her father’s hoop dreams and became a star player for Princeton’s women’s basketball team in 2014.
And he’s the father of two more children. Robinson and his current wife have two sons, Austin (born 2010) and Aaron (born 2012).
The proud pop has raved about all of his kids online, and he’s dubbed them all “GOATs.”
How he bonded with his brother-in-law
It’s obvious that basketball has played a tremendous role in Robinson’s life, from his days playing against his sister as a child to career that’s included being a commentator for the game for ESPN. It even played an important role when he got to know one of his sister’s boyfriends — a young Barack Obama.
“Since Dad and I had preached the gospel of basketball being the true revealer of character, Michelle had come up with the idea that I include Barack in a game of pickup basketball and check him out,” he wrote in “A Game of Character.”
Robinson recalled, “My initial concern was that Barack would be so far out of his element that I’d have to protect him on the court — not wanting him in any way to lose face. The other worry was that he might turn out to be one of those jerks who is oblivious to everyone else on the floor but himself. Almost as soon as we started playing, it was clear that I didn’t have to worry about his competence.”