:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56730033/660354222.0.jpg)
Is it over? Is it ACTUALLY over?
We’ll believe it when we see it, but it certainly seems like it is.
Mitchell Robinson will not attend Western Kentucky this year and will instead spend the season preparing for the NBA Draft, he told Scout.com on Sunday.
“I’ve decided to leave Western Kentucky and just focus on next year’s NBA Draft,” Robinson said. “I want to thank Western Kentucky, the coaching staff, the fans and my teammates, but I decided to pursue a professional career.”
Scout also reports that Robinson and his mother will move to Dallas, where the five-star prospect will begin work with a professional basketball trainer.
This is the latest in a story that’s featured more twists than a season of Big Brother and sharper turns than the jury will take on Paul on Wednesday (trust me).
Robinson initially committed to Texas A&M in October 2015, then de-committed the next spring when assistant coach Rick Stansbury took the Hilltoppers coaching job. The top-10 recruit stayed a Western Kentucky pledge for 14 months and even moved onto campus for summer classes.
In early August, Robinson unexpectedly left campus, seemingly with a change of heart about his future in Conference USA. He took visits to LSU, Kansas, and New Orleans before ultimately returning to Western Kentucky on Aug. 28.
And now he’s off again.
Robinson also told Scout:
“The lifetime goal of mine is to play in the NBA and I feel like forgoing my year of college and going straight to work on a day to day basis will help prepare me, so I can focus just on basketball and maturing.”
On talent alone, Robinson should be a first-round pick in the 2018 draft, but skipping college all together presents a risk. Pro scouts will have to rely on his high school performance and news from his workouts the coming months, rather than watching him against collegiate competition. There will not be tangible evidence of Robinson’s progress, only the promise of what he can become.
Spending an entire season training may pay off for Robinson, but it is a risk. And now that we’re in mid-September, with the fall semester well underway, there really is no turning back.