Mitchell Robinson said he has been going through “the perfect storm” the past few weeks and he “just snapped” in his first comments after the Knicks center complained about his recent usage in a post on social media.
After the Knicks’ 123-107 win at the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night, Robinson posted on Snapchat, “Tired asf of just being out there for cardio fam like I want to play basketball to really just wasting my time and energy,” he wrote, ending the message with a face palm emoji.
He wrote, “Disappearing for a while,” in a second post.
On Friday, he responded to his Snapchat by commenting on an Instagram post by Knicks Fan TV about his original message. The first comment, which came during the early hours of the morning, was the following:
“Yo it’s come real asf for the past few weeks I’ve been going through the perfect storm as I call it after the game against Portland I just snapped like I got a baby on the way I got family issues I just got to figure a way to get back under control when my mind was free I was good after I had 3 bad games I just started thinking about all the stuff I had going on and kept it going I’ll figure it out tho I’ll be fine my bad should’ ve handled it differently and didn’t want no bad blood just gotta find myself.”
About six hours later, Robinson posted a second comment on the post:
“See most of y’all wanna say I’m being childish or petty or whatever but let me put this in the air now I can be selfish shoot 80 shots and not play defense but that’s not me though I give up my body for this sh-t y’all say im injury prone all my injuries came from another play on the defensive side let me not play defense like I know I can and not play hard I’ll never hurt again but I love this sh-t too much to not risk getting hurt I do think about getting injured or whatever I just jump in the fire and whatever happens happen f-ck it and play ball if we are being real about it so despite the fact that most of y’all t say need to play better I play the way they want me to have been doing for 5 years now.”
Robinson played 21 minutes in Wednesday’s win over Portland, finishing with two points on 1-of-2 from the floor (0-for-2 from the free-throw line), with four rebounds, one steal and one block. Reserve center Isaiah Hartensteinwho saw his minutes increase during Robinson’s stretch on the sideline due to a thumb injury, played 27 minutes off the bench.
Robinson, 24, is averaging 28.4 minutes per game in March, down slightly from his averages of 29.3, 29.6 and 29.2 in February, January, and December, respectively.
The Knicks did not make Robinson available to reporters after practice on Friday, the first media availability since his Snapchat post.
Robinson, in his fifth season with the Knicks, is averaging 7.5 points and 9.1 rebounds in 27.3 minutes per game and has started 48 of the 49 games he’s played this season. Robinson has posted a 9.5 usage percentage, the lowest of his career, down from 11.4 a year ago.