Key Points
- Robinson said his pre-Finals right-hand fracture came from banging his hand on his truck.
- He acted in frustration after learning his youngest brother was in a serious car crash.
- He had surgery, then played every game of the Knicks' title run over the Spurs.
- Robinson has since agreed to a three-year, $47.4 million deal with the Celtics.
Mitchell Robinson has explained the hand injury that clouded his availability for the NBA Finals, and it had nothing to do with a basketball play. In a post, the center wrote that after the Knicks swept Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals, he returned home to New York and learned his youngest brother had been in a wreck. When he FaceTimed him — brother in a neck brace, unresponsive — he feared the worst. "In a moment of frustration, I banged my hand on my truck."
"As the eldest sibling, I felt a deep sense of concern, and I immediately went into panic mode," Robinson wrote. "I thought he was deceased… I broke down in tears, feeling like a failure for not being able to protect my siblings. Being 910 miles away, I felt helpless." The outburst fractured the fifth metacarpal in his right hand — the injury that had put his Finals status in doubt — and he had surgery to repair it during the break before the series.
He played anyway. Robinson suited up for every game as the Knicks beat the Spurs in five to win their first title since 1973. "After consulting with doctors, I was able to gain the confidence in myself to go in and get the job done and WE DID 2026 NBA CHAMPS," he wrote. Days later, he agreed to a three-year, $47.4 million deal with the Celtics, closing his Knicks chapter on a championship.
The reveal reframes a story that ran for weeks as a durability question. "Before judging someone, it is essential to understand their circumstances, which may not be publicly known," Robinson wrote. "Life is unpredictable, and it is how we respond to challenges that truly matters." The box-score version of a player rarely carries the part that actually hurt — here, a brother in a neck brace and a big man 910 miles away who could do nothing about it.
Source: ESPN and Bleacher Report.
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