Best of the Knicks on WFAN: Farewell, Mitchell Robinson

**Boomer Esiason** (0:00)
NBA, NHL, free agency, frenzy going on. The Knicks lose Mitchell Robinson to the Boston Celtics. And I just encourage everybody to be adults about this and to really think about it.
The Knicks have decided they don't want to tempt that second apron. They don't want to operate in it at all.
They have given us a championship. You have to trust the owner and the general manager. And Mitchell Robinson was not going to get the contract from the Knicks that the Celtics gave him. Yeah, it's the Celtics. Yeah, we don't like the Celtics. This is a guy who had an opportunity to cash in, was going to take the best offer regardless of the team and did. It doesn't mean he dislikes the Knicks. Doesn't mean that he wants to go and beat the Knicks now. Doesn't mean that he had a bad time here. He loved it here. We know that. He was a second round pick. He was the longest tenured Knick. But circumstances because of the way the NBA has its salary cap and its rules dictated the fact that the Knicks weren't going to keep him with the salaries they already had on the books and it just wasn't going to work. So I feel really good for him. Would I feel differently if the Knicks had not won the championship? Probably. But he was a big part of it. The most important offensive rebound in the history of the Knicks organization goes to Mitchell Robinson. He will be remembered fondly forever.

**Evan Roberts** (1:20)
I thought that would go to OG. Ananobe.

**Boomer Esiason** (1:23)
Well, it was just a rebound.
Mitchell Robinson was just a rebound. OG. Ananobe was a tip in.

**Evan Roberts** (1:31)
That's a rebound. Isn't that a rebound tip in?

**Boomer Esiason** (1:34)
I don't know. Silly thing to bring up right now. So I'm happy for him and I'm really happy that he got his money.
I am not going to begrudge him for that and the Knicks will be able to pivot. They'll figure out a way to replace whatever he has and remember you're losing defense, you're losing offensive rebounding, rebounded period, but you're not losing any offense and you're also losing the worst free throw shooter in the history of professional basketball.

**Evan Roberts** (2:01)
So I guess Carl Anthony Towns is not taking a discount after all. I mean, this is the thing. These guys have one chance or some of these guys have one or two chances to go, take a bite of that apple and that's exactly what Mitchell Robinson is doing here.
I begrudge him, not at all, not at all. By the way, he put out a great social media post thanking the New York Knicks, thanking the fans, he loved it here. Once a Knick, always a Knick, but he's going to be a competitor and it's unfortunate that he went to Boston. But we're going to see a lot of them and he's going to try to have an impact on a game and hopefully for himself, he can actually stay healthy and play a lot of games and he'll have an impact. What will be interesting to see whether or not the Knicks employ the Hackamitch. That will be interesting.

**Boomer Esiason** (2:50)
They may and we've seen it work sometimes, we've seen it not work and the Celtics are just in a weird place right now. And I don't think that, I mean Mitchell Robinson didn't make this decision because he was like, man, I really like what the Celtics are building right now and they're going to trade Jalen Brown for Paul George.

**Evan Roberts** (3:07)
It's money in turn.

**Boomer Esiason** (3:09)
His agent said this is the best deal that you have and you're going to take it and he's like, great.

**Evan Roberts** (3:15)
I think I also think that Boston traded Jalen Brown just because of the contract.

**Boomer Esiason** (3:20)
Well, also he's been a pain in the ass. There's no two ways about it. Like he has been, he's been very vocal. He's been doing his live stream stuff. He's getting in media fights with Stephen A Smith. And who knows what's going on behind the scenes if he's doing all that publicly with the organization and yes, the contract is a huge part of it. I mean, they would deal with that stuff a little bit more if he had a more manageable contract.
But it just this is the Brad Stevens has done a really nice job there obviously, but this was handled so poorly. And once you get into that level where everybody knows that you have to get rid of a guy, then you're going to end up making a trade where you lose on paper. Now who knows how it will work out, but on paper, this is a loss across the board for the Boston Celtics. And I'm not necessarily afraid of the Sixers now that they got Jalen Brown, they're certainly better with Jalen Brown, but I don't know if it's going to work with Maxey and Brown and Edgecombe and Joel Embiid where he's there still and being such a presence that he is.