Justin Michael Robinson was born on October 14, 1996 in San Antonio, Texas, the youngest of David and Valerie Robinson's three sons. The Robinson home in San Antonio was, by 1996, the most famous basketball house in Texas. David Robinson — the Admiral, Naval Academy graduate, #1 overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft, 1995 NBA MVP, two-time Olympic gold medalist, future first-ballot Hall of Famer — was in his eighth season as the franchise center of the San Antonio Spurs and had just begun assembling, with rookie Tim Duncan joining him a year later, what would become two NBA championships and the Spurs dynasty that defined Western Conference basketball for two decades. Justin's older brothers, David Jr. and Corey, were already playing sports. The Nerf hoop in the back yard of the Robinson family home got more use than any piece of furniture. Justin would wear it out — for hours, every day, by himself.
He was, in 7th grade, a 5-foot-5 shooting guard at San Antonio Christian School. By his freshman year of high school he had stretched out five or six inches and weighed about 125 pounds. By his junior year he was 6-foot-7 and 180 pounds. By his senior year he was 6-foot-7 and 185 — built, in the words of one San Antonio reporter, like an upside-down exclamation point. He was a power forward who had grown up watching his father play in the post and decided to do the opposite: he became a perimeter shooter, a shot blocker on defense, and a player who brought the ball up the floor. As his San Antonio Christian coach John Valenzuela told the Express-News in January 2015: "His basketball IQ is off the charts. He will come up and make suggestions to me that I don't even think of. He's a coach out on the court." That was when Justin was 18 years old.
His senior year at San Antonio Christian, the Lions went 33-8. He averaged 13.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 4.6 blocks per game. He led the team in all three categories. He made the TAPPS 4A All-District First Team. He was a high-character, high-IQ, late-blooming forward who had also been raised in one of the most academically supportive families in American sports — David Robinson had famously been a brilliant student at the Naval Academy, the kind of player who could have been a nuclear submarine officer if basketball hadn't worked out. The schools that recruited Justin reflected that academic profile: Navy (the family alma mater), Columbia (Ivy League), Texas State, and Lamar all expressed interest. None had made an offer when, in December 2014, Coach Mike Krzyzewski reached out personally to David Robinson and offered Justin a preferred walk-on spot at Duke.
The connection between Coach K and the Robinson family ran much deeper than a 2014 recruiting call. In the summer of 1992, when Justin was minus-four years old and David Robinson was 26 and one of the most famous basketball players in the world, Krzyzewski had served as an assistant coach for the original 1992 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team — the Dream Team — under head coach Chuck Daly. David Robinson played for the Dream Team. They won gold in Barcelona. Coach K and David Robinson had known each other for over twenty years by the time the Justin recruitment conversation happened, and David had been a frequent guest speaker at Coach K's basketball camps in Durham, including ones that Justin himself attended as a sophomore in high school. So when K called and said he wanted Justin to come to Duke as a walk-on with the chance to earn a scholarship, it was less of a recruiting pitch than a continuation of a long family relationship.
There was one more thing. David Robinson, a Naval Academy graduate, had grown to 7-foot-1 during his time at the Academy from 6-foot-7 — a late growth spurt that nobody had seen coming when he had committed to a service academy where the height limit for officers was 6'6". His son was 6-foot-7 and still growing. "Like his father who grew from 6-7 to 7-1 at the U.S. Naval Academy, Justin has been a late-blooming revelation," the San Antonio Report would later observe. The Robinsons had seen this script before.
Justin received early academic acceptance to Duke based on his grades and test scores. He committed to the Blue Devils in December 2014. "I'm happy to get early decision from Duke since it is so amazing academically," he said at the time. "It's been a long-time dream for me. The opportunity to be a preferred walk-on is exciting and I'm looking forward to being a part of the Duke Basketball tradition." His father, asked about the decision, was characteristically measured: "It's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity. It's a wonderful opportunity to be a part of one of the best basketball programs ever. Whenever you can be around excellence, you should be around excellence. He'll have an opportunity to earn a scholarship. This is maybe one of the most challenging situations in college sports. Duke's got, what, eight McDonald's All-Americans? This is where you find out who you are." K's message to David, conveyed by phone before the announcement: "Tell him it's a long journey. It could be a five-year journey for him. Get his degree from here. Regardless of what happens on the basketball court, this is the right school for him." That message turned out to be exactly true. The journey took five years. He got the degree. And what happened on the basketball court ended up being more than anyone had predicted.