A heartbreaking loss in the basketball community as Clifford Robinson has died at 53 years old, as confirmed by the UConn men’s basketball team on Twitter.
Robinson was part of Jim Calhoun’s first teams at UConn, helping build a program that would become one of the nation’s best and most consistent teams for decades. In the NBA, he played for 18 seasons, earning Sixth Man of the Year honors in 1992-93 and appearing in the All-Star Game in 1994 while a member of the Portland Trail Blazers. He would later play for the Suns, Pistons, Warriors, and Nets. For his career he averaged 14.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game, shooting 43.8 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from three-point range.
Robinson ranks 13th all time in games played in the NBA, having played 1,380 games and being one of the league’s true iron men. He also was ahead of his time in the NBA as a stretch big man, as he ranks 55th in NBA history in career made three-pointers with 1,253 and 52nd in three-point attempts with 3,515.
The cause of his death is still unknown.
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