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Josh Hart spent five years going at it with Mitchell Robinson in practice. Now, they’re about to do it in a real game, on opposing teams.
Friday night against the Celtics in Boston will be the first time the Knicks face Robinson since he left in free agency.
He signed a three-year, $47.4 million deal — a number the Knicks couldn’t come close to matching under the edict from owner James Dolan to stay under the second apron — to be a new addition to Boston’s starting lineup.
“It’s gonna be the same thing,” Hart said after Knicks practice Thursday. “We’re still gonna be battling for rebounds.”
Hart, who knows the Celtics like to have their center guard the opposing team’s worst shooter — a treatment he’s become accustomed to — is particularly excited for one facet of the matchup.
“They crossmatch a lot, so I’m sure he’ll be guarding me,” Hart said. “When I make a couple, I’m gonna let him know.”
Jokes aside, it will be a special moment for the Knicks to see Robinson, who had been the longest-tenured Knick on their championship roster, having spent the first eight years of his career with the organization.
“It’s bittersweet,” Karl-Anthony Towns said Thursday, “because you love Mitch. We’ve done so much historical things together here. To not see him in a Knicks jersey anymore, obviously, for all of us, we’re a family unit. You guys are around us every day; you know how much we care about each other, each other’s families, and to not be able to have him with us on this journey after that amazing journey we went through is obviously bittersweet. But it’s gonna be amazing to be able to see our brother, to hug him, be able to show him some love and to obviously compete playing basketball, like we love to do.”
Robinson’s impact extended off the court for the Knicks. He was one of the biggest personalities in the locker room.
“It’s definitely different [without him],” Hart said. “Obviously, that’s someone who’s had a big presence here, big presence in the locker room. It’s different. No one else listens to country [music] but me, so that’s tough in the weight room. The lack of his presence is obviously felt a little bit. That’s why it’s a new team.”
For his own part, Robinson did not exactly wax poetic about facing the Knicks.
“It doesn’t matter that I’m playing my former team,” Robinson said. “It’s more so trying to bounce back from what happened two nights ago. At the end of the day, it’s basketball; it’s a business. You gotta play the team just like you play any other team.”
Robinson struggled in the Celtics’ season-opening loss to the Pistons on Tuesday, recording four points and three rebounds in 18 minutes.
“I played like ass,” Robinson said. “It’s kind of just straightforward.”
He was too fed up with his performance to watch the Knicks’ championship ceremony.
“I was still stuck in my head from last game,” Robinson said. “I’m proud of those guys, obviously; I was a part of it. I just didn’t really want to watch it.”
Robinson is expected to receive his ring, accompanied by a tribute video, when he returns to MSG for the Knicks-Celtics game on March 14.
The Knicks certainly know better than anyone else what to expect from Robinson, with his offensive rebounding prowess and ability to guard all positions on the court. The same goes, of course, for his brutal free-throw shooting, which became a recurring storyline in recent years. Opposing teams, particularly in the playoffs, often utilized Hack-a-Mitch to exploit his weakness.
Will the Knicks now flip the script and use it on him?
“Maybe,” head coach Mike Brown said. “I think that’s more, just me personally, I’ve always leaned more to do that come playoff time or later in the [regular] season where you’re really trying to game plan and get certain games. Right now, I want to see if we can defend these guys with what we do staple-wise, with what our foundation is.”
It will be weird for Knicks fans to root against Robinson after all the ups and, for most of the beginning of his career, downs he went through with the team.
“At the end of the day,” Brown said, “we want to kick his ass like he probably wants to kick ours.”