Crying in basketball
Ex-Knick Robinson: Coach Brown bullied me to tears
Most of his former Knicks teammates have positive memories of Nate Robinson, the diminutive point guard who spent five seasons with the team until departing for the Celtics.
But it seems Robinson doesn’t view his time with the Knicks through the same rose-colored lenses, as he opened up to Bleacher Report about the abuse he suffered at the hands of coach Larry Brown.
Brown coached the Knicks through their disastrous, 23-59 season in 2005-06, during which Robinson alleges Brown called his point guard “the little sh–t” daily, including in front of his teammates.
Robinson, 34, even recalled one episode in which he stumbled into Brown’s office crying, asking for the abuse to stop, only for his coach to call him the same name again in front of his teammates and revealed to them Robinson had been crying earlier.
Brown claimed ignorance of the alleged interactions.
“I don’t have any recollection,” he told Bleacher Report. “I don’t, I don’t know … I don’t know what I called him, to be honest with you. If I did that, shame on me. I would feel terrible about that. That’s not who I am, but I don’t want to dispute Nate.”
Robinson said he was treated for depression during his time in the league, and questioned whether he should’ve played football instead.
Robinson, who averaged 11 points per game in his career, last appeared in the NBA with the Pelicans in 2015.