All About Michelle Obama’s Brother, Craig Robinson

Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, have always leaned on each other.

The former first lady and the sports executive grew up in Illinois with their late parents, mom Marian Shields Robinson and father Fraser C. Robinson III. (Fraser died at age 55 of complications from multiple sclerosis in 1991, and Marian died “peacefully” at 86 in 2024.)

Over the years, Michelle has shared details about her childhood with Craig, including in her memoir Becoming and on social media. In a September 2019 post on Instagram, she reflected on their humbling beginnings.

“When I think back to my childhood, I remember moments like this with my brother Craig,” she captioned a photo of them as kids. “We grew up on the South Side of Chicago, in a diverse and changing neighborhood, hanging out with friends from all backgrounds.”

Now, the siblings are embarking on a new creative venture together. The two are joining forces for their weekly podcast, IMO With Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson, which premiered on March 12.

The show will feature the sister and brother discussing various topics, such as their shared upbringing, life-changing moments in their respective lives and more. In addition, they’ll be joined by experts and celebrity guests who will weigh in and answer listeners’ questions with them.

Here’s everything to know about Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson.

He is two years older than Michelle

Craig Malcolm Robinson was born on April 21, 1962 — about two years before Michelle’s arrival on Jan. 17, 1964.

The siblings were raised on the South Side of Chicago by their mom, Marian, and dad, Fraser, who also grew up in the Midwest city.

Speaking to ABC 7 Chicago in December 2022, Michelle recounted their modest childhood and what she and Craig took away from their parents.

“We were poor. We lived in a small house, but what they gave us was a feeling of importance, a belief that our voices mattered at a very young age, a sense of understanding, of pushing through, resilience,” she said.

He made history at Princeton University

Craig was a star athlete in high school who was offered full scholarships to several colleges across the United States, including Princeton University. Still, he considered turning down the prestigious opportunity because of the cost. Craig ultimately chose to go to Princeton after his dad talked him out of it.

“If you pick your school based on how much we have to pay, I’d be very disappointed,” Craig recounted his dad saying in a November 2017 interview with Graham Bensinger.

Craig went on to become the fourth all-time leading scorer in Princeton basketball history, a title he has held for 40 years, per The Daily Princetonian.

He graduated in 1983 with a sociology degree and was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. While Craig never played in an NBA game, he competed professionally for the Manchester Giants in the U.K. for two years.

Michelle followed in her big brother’s footsteps and graduated from Princeton in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, though she didn’t play basketball.

He left a lucrative banking career to be a basketball coach

Craig later earned his master’s in finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and started a prosperous investment banking career with Morgan Stanley. He also coached youth and high school basketball on the side.

Though he made great money, he wasn’t fulfilled in his career; in 1999, Craig left banking to be an assistant basketball coach at Northwestern University, taking a 90% pay cut for the new role.

“My business success, albeit good — in fact, maybe even grand by some measures — wasn’t bringing me the kind of pleasure and joy that I felt when I was coaching,” he told Inc. magazine in May 2011.

From 2006 to 2008, Craig was head coach at Brown University. He then coached the Oregon State Beavers until 2014 — and was the fourth-winningest coach in the team’s history, according to ESPN. That same year, Oregon State released Craig from his contract, and he was hired as a college basketball analyst for ESPNU.

In 2016, the Milwaukee Bucks hired Craig as vice president of player and organizational development. After one year in the role, he left Milwaukee to take a similar job with the New York Knicks, and he credited his background in banking for some of his success.

“I think there’s an analytical bend to this game that people are now just sort of paying attention to over the last 10 years,” he told Andscape in May 2018. “Anytime there’s stats involved, you will attract guys who are more quantitative and more analytically inclined, like people who used to work in banking.”

Craig exited his role with the Knicks in 2020 to become executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, where he works today.

He is a husband and a father to four kids

Craig was previously married to his first wife, Janis Robinson, and they welcomed two children together: son Avery and daughter Leslie.

After they split in 2000, Craig met his second wife, Kelly McCrum, on the night of the NCAA March Madness Final Four the following year. Craig and Kelly later married in 2006. The pair share two sons, Austin and Aaron.

While the sports executive has kept details of his relationships and kids out of the spotlight, one of his children has taken after him on the basketball court. Craig’s daughter Leslie attended Princeton University and played basketball for the Tigers.

In 2018, Leslie became the first woman from an Ivy League to be drafted into the WNBA in two decades, and the news surprised her and her entire family — except for one of her brothers.

“It was happy, excited, and surprised all at once,” Craig told the outlet. “The only one that truly thought that Leslie was going to get drafted was her 8-year-old brother. I am so proud of her.”

Leslie played for the New York Liberty and overseas in Germany and Sweden. She later became a coach, like her father, for Milwaukee’s Chapman Basketball Academy and the University School of Milwaukee, according to her LinkedIn. She then worked as an associate producer on the ESPN docuseries 37 Words and has since shifted her focus to finance.

He knew that Barack was a good match for Michelle

Since they were young, Michelle and Craig have remained close, and his presence has left a lasting impact on her.

“For a girl to have strong men in her life, like I had, a father who loved me, a brother who adored me and cared for me, [it] made me stronger,” Michelle said on Good Morning America in April 2022.

After their father died in 1991, Craig served as a father figure to Michelle, even walking her down the aisle at her wedding to former President Barack Obama.

According to the former first lady’s memoir Becoming, when she began dating Barack, she asked Craig to invite him to play basketball. Craig explained to the New York Post that their dad always said basketball was a good way to judge someone’s character, so he obliged.

The two hit it off after shooting hoops together, thanks to Barack’s playing style.

“I realized he wasn’t selfish, he wasn’t greedy. He showed character on the court,” Craig said. “He called fouls and gave up fouls. You have to trust the guys you’re playing with in pickup, they’ll make the right call. He did all of that.”

He continued, “I was able to get back to her and say, ‘He seems like a pretty good guy.’ The best thing about it, I told her, is he didn’t just pass me the ball because he was dating my sister.”

He launched a podcast with Michelle

In the years since Michelle was first thrust into the public eye, she has involved Craig in different chapters of life, from having him introduce her at the Democratic National Convention in 2008 to the personal anecdotes in her written work.

Now, Michelle and Craig are collaborating on their joint podcast show titled IMO With Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson. While announcing the project, the siblings revealed that they wanted to encourage open lines of communication in an ever-changing world.

“My brother Craig and I launched the IMO podcast to create a space for people to come as they are, ask honest questions, give their opinions, and have thoughtful conversations about life,” she said in a statement.

Michelle continued, “There is no single way to deal with the challenges we may be facing — whether it’s family, faith, or our personal relationships — but taking the time to open up and talk about these issues can provide hope.”