Lucas Boland-Imagn Images
New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson (23) reacts after scoring during the first half against the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden
Mitchell Robinson may not have played a massive role in the run that ended with the Knicks winning a championship, but he was still a valuable contributor who earned the right to call himself an NBA champion. He opted to sign with the Celtics after securing a ring, but that’s not stopping him from reminding fans in Boston who was responsible for bringing their season to an end in 2025.
The Knicks knew they were taking a bit of a gamble when they used the 36th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft to select Mitchell Robinson.
The big man had committed to play at Western Kentucky the previous season, but he literally disappeared from his dorm room in the middle of the night shortly after arriving on campus and decided to bet on himself by independently training for the draft instead of playing college basketball.
The bet mostly paid off, as Robinson has turned into a very serviceable center during the eight years he’s spent in the league. His offensive numbers may not turn any heads at first glance, and while he’s primarily come off the bench over the past few years, he has an ability to have a major impact on the floor thanks to his defensive prowess in the paint and penchant for tracking down rebounds (especially those of the offensive variety).
He does have one very notable Achilles’ heel in the form of his atrocious performance at the free-throw line: the 28-year-old had a .408 shooting percentage from the charity stripe last season, which helped drag his career number down to .508.
The Celtics tried to exploit that shortcoming when they faced off against the Knicks in the playoffs in 2025, and Robinson was more than happy to remind one fan of his new team which side prevailed after they decided to dig up the past.
Mitchell Robinson dunked on a fan of his new team after they invoked the playoff series between the Knicks and the Celtics in 2025
The Celtics and the Knicks met in the second round of the playoffs in 2025, and it was immediately evident that Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla was worried about Robinson based on the “Hack-A-Mitch” strategy he deployed in the hopes he’d keep bricking free throws to the point where Tom Thibodeau couldn’t afford to keep him in the game.
However, it wasn’t enough to get the job done, as the Knicks pulled out to a 2-0 lead in the series and never let their opponent even things up en route to winning in six games. Robinson made 14 of the 31 free throws he attempted (including a 6-for-6 performance in Game 5), and Mazzulla will no longer have to worry about meeting him in the playoffs after the Celtics signed him to a three-year deal worth $47.4 million.
On Thursday, the team called attention to the new addition with an Instagram post that featured him in his new duds.
One fan decided to hop into the comments to mock Robinson over his previous shortcomings at the free-throw line, and the target of that jab was more than happy to remind them who won the series when everything was said and done.
Boom roasted.