Mitchell Robinson has gone from a rookie project who was headed for G-League action to starting center. One of the more reserved rookies in the NBA and famous for his one-sentence answers to the media, the 20-year-old “Cajun Kid” is letting his hair down and now doing shows.
Robinson will appear in a future episode of MSG Network’s “Unfiltered” series and talked about the best advice from Anthony Davis. Davis and Robinson both live in the New Orleans area and, as previously reported, the Pelicans superstar attended a couple of his summer workouts.
“Me and Anthony Davis have the same trainer [Marcell Scott],” Robinson said in excerpts obtained by The Post. “So that was kind of easy for me to get in contact with him. One day he brought me in to work out. The advice he gave me was just run the floor. Most big men don’t like running as much. If you’re the first man down the court, you can get the ball easier.”
That was underscored Monday in Robinson’s second start, when he delivered a “SportsCenter” highlight, intercepting an entry feed to the Nets’ Jarrett Allen. The 7-footer seized the ball and the night as he galloped downcourt and skied for a right-handed dunk in quite the aerial show. He was 5-of-5 for 11 points.
On the show, Robinson, who worked this week with volunteering Rasheed Wallace, revealed he didn’t start really playing basketball until he was a teenager. Robinson hopped around during his childhood, being raised in Pensacola before moving to Louisiana, where he attended Chalmette High.
“I started playing in ninth grade, so I was 14 or 15,” Robinson said. “And I just started getting more into it. The game just started coming to me. I started playing every day. Getting better. And I just fell in love with it.”
For now, Robinson, the Knicks’ second-round pick and last remnant of the Carmelo Anthony trade, is starting ahead of Enes Kanter in David Fizdale’s current vision of “not hunting for victories.”
Robinson’s unorthodox path to the NBA included dropping out of Western Kentucky before his freshman year after taking a summer course. He decided he was better off training for the draft instead of going to college.
“My journey to the NBA wasn’t that hard as people thought it was,” Robinson said. “Sitting out and not playing, that part was kind of hard. But I was just getting it in every day with my trainers and getting better and better each day.”
Robinson, whose best trait is as a shotblocker and altering shot attempts, dealt with ankle sprains in preseason and the season opener, leading Fizdale to say he would have to play more in the G-League when it starts this weekend. That plan is shelved.