Florida Gators forward Devin Robinson will not return for his senior season, he and the program announced — somewhat coyly — on Friday.
Robinson posted a letter to Gator Nation — formatted with Florida’s logo and a font used frequently by the program, including — on his social media accounts on Friday afternoon.
Thank you Gator Nation for all of your support! I will forever and always be a Gator! pic.twitter.com/Kc6FNDXiAo
— Devin Robinson (@drobbb3) April 14, 2017
That was followed shortly after by a release from Florida confirming Robinson’s “intention to forgo his senior season and enter the 2017 NBA Draft.”
But, technically, Robinson could do that and still return to school. He already has, after all: In 2016, he declared for the Draft before a foot injury helped force him to withdraw from the Draft pool and return to school for his junior year.
And it was reported in late March that Robinson would, as expected, enter the 2017 NBA Draft, but would not — as of then, anyway — hire an agent. The difference between that report and Friday’s announcements by Robinson and Florida, which do not indicate that he has hired or will hire an agent, would be lost without other context — like, for example, Jon Rothstein’s report, tweeted just prior to Robinson’s letter being posted, that Robinson will, in fact, hire an agent, which forecloses the possibility of him later withdrawing and playing a senior season in Gainesville.
Why that isn’t explicitly stated in Robinson’s letter, Florida’s release, or Chris Harry’s more holistic piece on Florida, published Friday, is anyone’s guess. And it doesn’t really matter — Robinson’s going pro and not coming back, like virtually anyone connected to or observing the program closely expected — except in the sense that it’s an annoying omission someone like me can and will fixate on and grouse about, when all the focus of a story about Robinson should be on Robinson.
Regardless, Robinson — Florida’s first early departure for the pros since Michael Frazier II in 2015 — projects as a second-round pick, though his prodigious peaks as a scorer and athlete have long led some to believe he could be a lottery selection.
Robinson’s early NBA Draft entry means Florida will lose no fewer than six contributors from its 2016-17 team, one that made the Elite Eight.