Tarik Robinson is a lifelong Patersonian. He attended Paterson Catholic H.S. where he lettered as a varsity basketball player for three years. After graduation he attended a Junior College in Maryland (Harford CC) and then transferred to Ventura College in California, where he eventually garnered many Division I scholarships as a basketball player and selected to attend University of Loyola Chicago, after a high school career that attracted a few Div. I scholarships but due to poor academic standards he didn’t qualify. He never enrolled at Loyola due to some misfortunes and his scholarship being revoked.

He then attended local Universities Rutgers Newark and William Paterson, meanwhile never giving up on his goal of playing professional basketball. He took a job playing in Mexico in 2006, followed by a few American minor league teams such as the ABA’s New Jersey Express, NPBL’s Jersey Monarchs, and the EBA’s New Jersey Starting 5. He also received two high profile opportunities at achieving his goal of playing in the NBA; one when he was invited to the NBA’s Washington Wizards mini-camp, and during a stint in NBA- Development league which he was invited and  participated with the Idaho Stampede 2008 training camp until he was released a day before the season began.

Tarik currently works as a school teacher in Paterson. He also trains student-athletes (basketball players) daily through his Non-profit organization that he started in early 2008 to help inner-city student-athletes qualify for college through academic assistance, athletic training, and mentorship. Something he feels our community can deeply benefit from and something that could’ve really helped me during my youth years achieve excellence in both the classroom and athletics.  Tarik has a have a three year old son named TJ.