Mitchell Robinson took to Instagram Friday to explain his recent public frustration regarding his role with the Knicks, writing that he was “going through the perfect storm” and snapped following the Blazers game on Tuesday.
“I got a baby on the way, I got family issues, I just got to figure [out] a way to get back under control when my mind was free,” Robinson wrote. “I was good after I had three bad games I just started thinking about all the stuff I had going on and kept 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.”
Robinson also addressed criticism about the perception that he is injury-prone, saying he “give[s] up by body for this s—t” and gets injured as a result of playing hard.
Robinson has played just 49 games this season and dealt with a fractured thumb in mid-January.
“Let me not play defense like I know I can and not play this hard, I’ll never hurt again,” Robinson wrote, “but I love this s—t to (sic) much not to risk getting hurt … I just jump in the fire and whatever happens happen, f—k it and play ball if we being real about it, so despite the fact that most of y’all say [I] need to play better, I play the way they want me to, been doing for five years now.”
Robinson, who was not made available to reporters on Friday, wrote in a Snapchat story on Tuesday that he was, “Tired asf of just being out there for cardio fam, like I want to play basketball to (sic) really just wasting my time and energy.”
“We’re all still together,” Isaiah Hartenstein said. “It’s not like he’s coming into practice and bitching, He comes up there and he’s always interactive, he’s always been a good teammate around us. He’s entitled to get frustrated, but he’s a great teammate.”
Asked if it was disappointing to see Robinson publicly complain about playing time, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said, “Nah, because he’s been fine.
“There’s gonna be some frustrations over the course of a season, but he’s played very well. So just concentrate, sometimes frustration can creep in. You gotta fix it and move forward. That’s it.”
Hartenstein, Robinson’s backup at center, played a hair more than Robinson over a four-game West Coast trip, and Thibodeau admitted that Robinson hasn’t had the best few games.
“No one’s playing great for 82 games,” Thibodeau said. “You have to be able to deal with that, so if you’re not playing great, find something that you’re doing well, help the team win.”