“…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…”