Mitchell Robinson goes from social media posts to contributing in the post
New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson defends Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Mitchell Robinson spent the better part of the last week in a self-created bit of controversy, complaining about his role on social media, backtracking on social media and avoiding discussing it.
But when he got on the court Saturday afternoon against the Nuggets for the Knicks’ first game since the win over Portland on Tuesday that had set him off, Robinson let his actions speak louder than his words — even his social media words.
After griping that he was just on the floor for cardio and uninvolved in the Knicks’ offense against the Trail Blazers, Robinson grabbed an offensive rebound just over two minutes into the game, and rather than go back up with it, he kicked it out to Quentin Grimes for an open three-point field goal.
In the second quarter, he grabbed another offensive rebound and leaped as if he were going to shoot — but instead flicked a pass to a cutting Obi Toppin for a reverse layup.
And after playing his game and not factoring much in the offense, Robinson delivered the bucket that put the game out of reach for the Knicks. Jalen Brunson raced up the floor, and as the defense converged on him, he floated a lob near the rim that Robinson slammed through.
“It felt great,” he said. “To be honest, that was my first time beating them with everyone on the court. It was amazing. Especially coming from Jalen, watching him run all silly and stuff.”
“Yeah, that was pretty cool,” Brunson said. “Pretty nice.”
Robinson scored eight points, shooting 3-for-4 and hitting both free throws. But mostly what he did was play the role that he is required to for the Knicks to succeed, grabbing nine rebounds (seven offensive) and combining with Isaiah Hartenstein to at least make the game difficult for two-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
There were no complaints and no indication that his occasional unhappiness with being the dirty-work player would linger.
“Mitch has been terrific all season,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Anyone can have a bad day. If you have a bad day, bounce back, have a great day. Don’t put anything in the way of the team. So I think he understands that. His teammates, they respect him and they appreciate him. We know all the dirty work that he does for the team. It’s a big part. He’s got a huge role for our team. Go out and play, next play, don’t worry about what happened. Next play. No one’s perfect.”
Asked directly about the Snapchat post that started the trouble, Robinson said, “Let me alone. I’m not answering. It’s the past, bro. I’m moving forward.”
Robinson mostly jokes with the media, so no one took offense. Much more important, it seemed as though his teammates were fine with him after the social media posts.
“Yeah, we’re all brothers, so we kind of even joked about it on the plane a little bit,” Immanuel Quickley said. “Mitch, he’s a great guy off the floor. Obviously, I think everybody knows that. He’s like a character. He can be funny and outgoing a little bit. So we understand who Mitch is and we told him, any time we can help you get the ball a little bit more, we’re going to try to do that. So we don’t take it too much. We want everybody on the team to be happy and try to eat as well as winning.”
Notes & quotes: The Knicks (42-30) are 2 1⁄2 games behind the fourth-place Cavaliers, 2 1⁄2 games ahead of the sixth-place Nets and 3 1⁄2 games ahead of the seventh-place Heat.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
