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A Game of Character:
A Family Journey from Chicago’s Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond
by Craig Robinson
Foreword by First Mother Marian Robinson
Gotham Books
Hardcover, $26.00
302 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-1-592-40548-0
Book Review by Kam Williams
“A fundamental teaching my parents always emphasized
[was] that life happens to you, putting choices in your path that offer
an abundance of opportunities as well as challenges, and that the best
choices are usually the ones that require courage… Really, that’s what
inspired me to write A Game of Character—not only to share what I’ve
learned, but also to help reclaim the value of character that I believe
is as intrinsic to basketball as it is to life. What’s more, as the
pages ahead will elaborate, true character is a quality that can be
found everywhere and anywhere, in some of the least likely
places—including the Southside of Chicago.
-- Excerpted from the Preface (pg. xxvi)
For most of her life, Michelle Robinson lived in the shadow of her
older brother, Craig, both literally and figuratively. After all, not
only did he always tower over and protect her from neighborhood bullies
as a child, but he was also even more of a standout later at their alma
mater, Princeton University, where the 6’7” basketball phenom was twice
voted the Ivy League Player of the Year.
As Craig reflects in this touching, intimate memoir, “Michelle was
the head of my fan club… Being known as Craig Robinson’s little sister
was a badge of honor that she wore well into our college years. Of
course, later on the tables would turn and I would have the honor of
being known as Michelle Obama’s big brother!” We all know that she went
on to study law, marry Barack and become a cultural icon as the first
African-American First Lady, but her overachieving sibling’s
accomplishments are nonetheless noteworthy in their own right.
Post Princeton, he went on to play professionally in Europe, before
returning to the States to earn his MBA at the prestigious University of
Chicago. Next, he would enjoy a meteoric rise up the corporate ladder to
the rank of vice president at Morgan Stanley before following his
passion and taking a huge pay cut to be an assistant college basketball
coach. But his hard work and dedication led to the head coach position
at Oregon State where he is still employed today.
A Game of Character is mostly a heartfelt homage crediting Craig and
Michelle’s parents, First Mother Marian Robinson and the late Fraser
Robinson, III with making countless selfless sacrifices on behalf of
their offspring while instilling them both with “fundamental values like
love, discipline and respect.” What makes the book so compelling for
this critic is that after reading so many unauthorized biographies about
the Obamas by authors neither one seemed to have spoken with much if at
all, we finally have a legit opus by a person who you tend to believe
when he says he grew up sharing the same bedroom with his little sis who
is now the First Lady. Sorry, nobody can question the cred of anyone
that close to her.
And when you factor in that Chicago witnessed 40 gang-related
shootings on the Southside over a recent weekend, the deteriorating
state of affairs in the Windy City makes this uplifting success story
about how a couple of kids miraculously made it out of that very same
‘hood all the more remarkable, refreshing and eminently worthwhile.
To order a copy of A Game of Character, visit:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592405487?ie=UTF8&tag=thslfofire-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592405487
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Lloyd
Kam Williams 