“…What made the benching all the more conspicuous is that three days earlier Robinson scored 22 fourth-quarter points against the Magic at the Garden. Orlando had no answer for Robinson…until D’Antoni gave the Magic one.
“It is a coach’s decision,” Robinson said. “He knows what he is doing. I’ve had plenty of DNP’s before in my career so it is nothing new.”
The benching was Robinson’s first since Dec. 17, 2007, when Isiah Thomas had had enough. D’Antoni, who according to sources was against the Knicks re-signing Robinson over the summer, has been critical of his behavior in recent weeks. Robinson drew the ire of his coach last month when he shot at the Nets‘ basket as time expired in the first quarter.
On Tuesday, D’Antoni was upset when Robinson was called for an away-from-the-ball foul on the Suns’ Goran Dragic that was borderline dirty. Asked if those plays factored into the decision, D’Antoni said: “I’m not going to sit here and explain everything. Why didn’t I play Darko (Milicic) today? You didn’t ask me about that. Why didn’t I play Marcus Landry the last game?
“We can go through the whole line. I don’t think I’m going to sit here and explain it. It’s just something…. We’re trying to build a winning group.”
Robinson’s coaches in New York – from Larry Brown to Thomas and now D’Antoni – have all wondered if Robinson sees himself as anything other than a circus act. He has won two slam dunk contests, and no teams offered him a contract when he became a free agent last summer.
“It could be a lot of things, who knows?” Robinson said when asked if he knows the reason when he was benched. “Only God knows…”
Nate also aired out some frustration towards our buddy Alex Kennedy of hoopsworld.
The key point made by Frank is that this is now the third coach who has been affected by Nate’s antics, making the guard the common denominator. What I don’t understand is that the guy got ZERO offers from anyone in the league this summer. People can talk about the economy all they want, but Nate would have been a relative bargain. I mean there was a market for Brandon Bass and Jarrett Jack. Why don’t these guys just suck it up and play hard for another contract?
Heri,
Greetings.
so your so right about Coach D and of course about Rubio.
that’s why i always read your postings. do you think there’s a chance that Coach D will not be here next year?
cheers.
So WHAT IF.. July 1 comes around and Lebron stays home, Bosh goes somewhere else, Wade goes to Chicago and we end up with Joe Johnson as our max player cause MDA has a boner for him from PHX days?
we cool with that?
Biggie i wouldn’t be happy with a Joe Johnson as our max player/big chip. As a number 2 yes, but anything less than Lebron would be a let down of major proportations. That’s when fans will ask for Miike and Donnies head.
That Hoopsworld article is great. They have thrown the players to the Wolves and no one should feel sorry for D’Antoni. He knew what he was getting into and his coaching has been abysmal. The proof is in the inconsistency in preparation and some of the silly rotation decisions he makes which make it clear he is not trying as hard as he can to win. Disgusting.
Nate was the only sign of life against the Magic, scoring 17 in the fourth quarter a few days ago. What is he doing that is so wrong? Is he doing something wrong in practice we haven’t heard about? I’m not getting it. So, now MD’s excuse is that Toney’s good play in Orlando is what kept Nate on the bench? But I thought Nate did something wrong, so it can’t be Douglas’ play? Now, MD realizes Douglas’ play? Didn’t Douglas score 21, 23, 15 before being benched? Notice how he is doing the same thing to Nate as he did to Marbury. But then again everyone thinks Marbury was the bad guy. Of course Nate does stuff that people don’t agree with, but is he cutting out on practice? Critizing management? Doing harmful things to the team? No.
Where is Duhon in this whole thing? He is the reason for this mess. MD is acting like Duhon is doing something so great that Douglas and Robinson needs to be benched. I’m not comprehending. See everyone wants to talk about the bad job Walsh is doing, but Walsh gave some pieces to work with. How about MD using those pieces like a Landry, Milicic, Hill and Douglas, mix them into the rotation and see if there is a difference, if not, management can go from there? That’s the only option they have because they’re not winning. See these mouth bloggers like Isola and Berman don’t ask MD the real questions about the youngs, but instead drift off into other topics.
One last thing, the Knicks veterans are the ones getting blown by these other teams and do get yelled at by MD, but when rookies are in the game, playing their hearts out, MD is going biserk on them instead of doing that to the veterans a two quarters ago when they were losing by fifteen. I hope he is doing that to the rookies because he knows that they are the future and he trying to instill a winning mentally with that core, because if not you’ve got to ask how he truly feels about his young players.
*Blowned out. Pause. lol