Hyde: Robinson steps up in win
Robinson, the pride of New Castle, N.H., steps up in Game 2
Bam Adebayo fouls Pacers’ Malcolm Brogdon (7) during the first half on Thursday. Miami defeated the Pacers 109-100 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
There’s no sports bar in New Castle, N.H., to measure the pulse of Duncan Robinson-mania on Thursday afternoon. No bar at all where he grew up, actually. There’s also no bank, gas station, no supermarket, not even an ATM machine to get some spending money, considering there’s no where to really spend much. Nor is there mayor to be the the prideful voice of the city.
It’s a town, actually.
A dot in reality.
“There’s more people on a New York block than there are here,’’ said David Latchaw, principal of the elementary school Robinson attended in New Castle.
You want to know how crazy the local folk got as Robinson tied a Miami Heat playoff record by mak
ing 7 of 8 3-point shots as the Heat went up 2-0 in their series against Indiana? If tiny New Castle became New Duncan for the afternoon as the Heat coasted a 109-100 win?
“I know he’s from here — is he playing?” says the operator at the town hall. “I’m not really a sports fan, and I don’t hear anyone talking about it.”
It all underlines how Robinson remains the oddest success story in the NBA, the kid from an island that measures eight-tenths of a square mile, has about 600 people living on it and — get this — doesn’t have a full-sized basketball court.
There’s a basket at Maude H. Trefethen School where he could have shot. He came back and talked there a while back. His father taught there, too. Latchaw gushed over the impact Robinson had on the elementaryschool kids — all 40 of them at the school. Robinson had four to six students in classes growing up .
“He was the most wholesome, down-to-earth, generally good person you’d ever meet,’’ Latchaw said. “I can’t’ tell you enough about how he went out of his way to talk to the kids here. You could tell he has an affinity for the area and, believe me, the kids having a NBA player come here and talk to them like he did.”
You hear all the time about players rising above disadvantages in life. Robinson rose above advantages, which can be just as tough in making the NBA. The median home on New Castle is $938,000. He had to leave the island to play sports, just as everyone does.
He came up the hard way to his first playoff series, too: New Castle to Division III Williams College to Michigan to undrafted to the Heat’s development program — to finishing fifth in the league this season with a 44.3% shooting on 3-pointers.
That’s the background to Thursday, tying Damon Jones and Mike Miller for making seven 3-point shots in a playoff game. The Heat set a team record with 18 3-pointers in Thursday’s game. That’s who they are, how they win — what the
NBA game really has become.
“We believe in those kind of stories,’’ Spoelstra said of Robinson’s background. “We’ve had a lot of guys come through here on the similar path. This started with Pat [Riley]. He’s always believed in the player development program, giving guys a chance going back to his Knicks guys with [John] Starks and [Anthony] Mason who had to come up a different way.
“Duncan is incredibly persistent. He’s got a lot of grit to him. He’s created a lot of opportunities for himself with his commitment and his daily desire to get better.”
Robinson made his first four shots and kept going through three quarters, when he was effectively taken out of the game due to the normal course of player rotations.
“We’re all happy for Duncan, he did what he’s done all year,’’ Jimmy Butler said.
Robinson said nothing felt that much different than a regular-season game, though, “obviously when the first couple shots go the confidence starts to build.”
His thought went to when he misses those first shots. “I feel I’ve got to play through those, to still be aggressive and still have the same mindset.”
If Thursday is an indicator of his playoff run, he might become the most famous native of New Castle.
There are several dotcom entrepreneurs in the running. The leader is the inventor who made a fortune off the spiral pineapple cutter. Robinson will need to shoot lights-out to pass him.