Mitchell Robinson broke his right pinkie finger and had surgery on his right hand before the Knicks opened the NBA Finals. The backup center did not participate in Friday’s practice, and the team was left waiting to see whether he can play in Game 1 on Wednesday night.
The timing matters because the Knicks are trying to carry a rare surge into the league’s final round after an 11-game playoff winning streak, with a chance to end a title drought that has lasted since 1973. Robinson has been a vital part of that run, and his absence would thin a front line that the Knicks have leaned on for months.
Coach Mike Brown said the injury did not happen in practice or in a game, adding, “It was not at practice yesterday, and it wasn’t in the game,” without saying what caused it. Asked about playing with a broken pinkie, he shrugged it off as a matter of individual tolerance: “Different strokes for different folks,” he said. “That’s hard to generalize for an entire population.”
That is the part the Knicks have not explained. Brown made clear he felt he handled the subject well, saying, “I feel like I’m pretty good at that,” but the team has still not disclosed what Robinson was doing when the finger was broken. Until that gap is filled, the most immediate basketball question is also the simplest one: whether Robinson is available for Game 1, and if not, how much of the Knicks’ interior edge disappears with him.
