Mitchell Robinson has heard every joke about his free throws, and he is officially done pretending it doesn’t get to him. The Knicks center pushed back at his critics this week in the kind of unfiltered response you rarely get from a player who knows the numbers are ugly.
The numbers are ugly. Robinson shot in the 50s from the line last season and hit stretches where he could not string two makes together in an entire month. Opponents have been comfortable hacking him in late-game situations for years, and he has become one of the reasons Tom Thibodeau’s rotations get funky in the fourth quarter.
His response, in short, was that people can worry about his free throws when he stops giving the Knicks the rebounding, rim protection, and toughness that made them a top-four team in the East. He isn’t wrong about the value he provides. He also isn’t wrong that this is the one hole in his game everyone will keep pointing at until he closes it.
There is a version of this where you appreciate the honesty. Robinson didn’t hide behind PR speak. He acknowledged the criticism, gave his answer, and moved on. That is a lot more than most players offer when a weakness turns into a running punchline.
There is also a version where you wonder if this is the wrong hill to die on. The Knicks are legitimate title contenders. Playoff series turn on possessions where the other team fouls your worst free throw shooter on purpose. It is not a hypothetical. It happened to New York multiple times last spring and it cost them.
The frustrating part is that Robinson has quietly put in work. Sources around the team say he spends real time on free throws in the offseason. The mechanics look different in warmups. Then the whistle blows in an actual game and his form tightens up and the ball clangs off the front rim. Whatever the block is, it is more mental than physical at this point.
The Knicks are not going to bench him for it. He is too valuable everywhere else on the floor. Karl-Anthony Towns cannot guard the biggest fives in the league. Robinson can. That reality does not change because he shoots 55 percent from the stripe.
Still, if he wants the critics to move on, there is exactly one way to make it happen. Shoot 70 percent for a month. The conversation dies overnight. Until then, this cycle repeats every couple of weeks and Robinson gets to keep giving these frustrated answers.
Give him credit for engaging with it head-on. Then remind him that the only real response is on the court, in the fourth quarter of a game that matters, with the crowd holding its breath and the ball leaving his hand.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
