Uncategorized, Zach Smart

Nate’s 41-Point Outburst, Hughes’ Benching Exposes D’Antoni’s Woes

By Zach Smart

Is it really “nothing personal?”

Mike D’Antoni claims Nate Robinson’s permanent perch in the D’Antoni
Doghouse during a 14-game span in December was not personal. The
decision to ditch Robinson in the doghouse, to bury him on the bench
while players who’ve done considerably less for the organization ate up
all his minutes, was solely based on D’Antoni trying to refine,
regulate and unravel a winning formula in New York. D’Antoni was simply
going with what works, living by the old cliche “if it ain’t broke,
don’t fix it.”

It still seemed like Nate was being punished for a crime he never
committed. Robinson’s exile was akin some headcase high school player
who stopped going to class suddenly falling out of favor with a
discipline-demanding head coach. In this case, D’Antoni treated the
veteran like a kid with a dicey past who was lucky to get a second
chance.

Nate hadn’t smelt the hardwood since the very beginning of December. He
was relegated to a pure benchwarming role nobody envisioned for the
5-foot-8 sparkplug, waterbug, energy-bleeding guard.

It was at the beggining of last month when D’Antoni had an epiphany.
His self-actualization told him the Knicks without Nate are great.

D’Antoni felt it was time to put his ol’ country-fool foot down. He
chewed Nate out in New Jersey in an angered, redfaced mano y mano
encounter with the little go-go guard.

Robinson knowingly shot the ball on the wrong basket against the Nets,
albeit the shot came after the buzzer sounded. Nonetheless, it made
D’Antoni’s blood boil.

It was certainly a portent of things to come.

Whether it was personal or not (the Knicks’ record without Robinson in
the lineup would indicate they’re the better team without No.2 on the
floor, and D’Antoni seemed to buy into that notion big time), none of
that mattered leading into New Year’s Night.

Nate erupted with a mammoth 41-point slaying, an epic performance which
willed the Knicks to a 112-108 overtime win over Atlanta. He scorched
the nets at a whopping 18-for-24 clip, murking the Hawks from beyond
the arc in the first half and zig-zagging through traffic, threading
the Atlanta D in the second. It was as exhilarating a return
performance anyone could have asked for.

Robinson’s odds-defying performance against the Hawks also etched his
name in record book lure. The lil fella became the first player to come
off the bench and record 40 points and eight assists since “Pistol”
Pete Maravich in 1973.

D’Antoni, you made a mistake dude.

The grumpy game general finally realized it was time to rip the
straightcoat off Nate’s back and utilize the pint-sized, pugnacious
guard’s scoring gifts, along with his supreme spurtability.

Robinson had no idea he was going to play that night, though his
coach
indicated it through the New York media circus. Is that not a sign of
poor coach-toplayer communication? A coach tells the media but doesn’t
divulge aspects at the core of his gameplan to his own player? Let’s
not forget folks, this is the same Rhodes Scholar who spent a year
preaching his vaunted “seven seconds or less” transition game when it
turns out the Knicks are better in half-court sets.

Robinson even thought that D’Antoni, he of the thick southern drawl,
called “Dave” when he in reality he called “Nate” when ushering him
into the ball game. He was thrust into the action without a single hint
he would play. It the end, it didn’t matter.

Despite having not seen any burn in a month, the kid who’s spent his
summers hooping at West Fourth St. in New York City and Rumbrook Park
in Westchester County, N.Y., looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. No
rust evident.

The Knicks, after receiving a spark from Robinson on New Year’s Night,
may have turned a corner.

They beat, battered, blasted, bludgeoned and blew out a half-baked
Pacers team decimated by a spate of injuries, 132-89, last night.

Donnie Walsh would stick by D’Antoni’s decision to doghouse Nate prior
to unleashing him for New Year’s career night.

Nate is infused with a score-in-clusters, shoot until you miss,
heat-check style. He’s an instant energy guy, a high-motor guard who
engineers head-spinning runs and is ready to score the rock as soon as
he falls out of bed in the morning.

A kid who can light up the scoreboard and score buckets by the bundles
when he has the green light has no place pinned on the pine.

Now, yet another sideshow of the D’Antoni era has emerged. D’Antoni,
who was accused of lying to Stephon Marbury about his role with the
team and running him out of town (a move that few were objected to),
was recently ripped by Knicks guard Larry Hughes, who will likely get
his turn to embed bench splinters in his behind.

Hughes, similar to that high school kid who the confrontational coach
wants to make an example out of, was benched for the entire blowout of
the Pacers last night. He was the only Knick who did not suit up, even
with seldom-used rookies Jordan Hill and Marcus Landry playing a
combined 21 minutes. Hughes was outspoken about his unhappines.

Hughes said that D’Antoni’s method of benching Nate for him and then
abruptly switching it up and benching him for Nate was “not a good way
to play the season.”

“I mean, going back and forth. This is my second or third time now,
it’s getting old.”

At least this time D’Antoni, who screamed obscenities at fans who
chanted “put in Marbury!” during his first-ever game as the Knicks head
coach, isn’t benching the player due to a personal grudge.