The Knicks’ long-awaited, mad-dash to the NBA Finals just hit its first speed bump.
Mitchell Robinson, the Knicks’ defensive anchor and backup center helping fuel New York’s 11-game playoff winning streak, has suffered a broken right pinky finger and has no timetable for a return, a league source told The Daily News on Thursday. The Athletic first reported the injury.
The severity of the fracture remains unclear. So does the timeline.
What is clear: this is the first legitimate punch to the gut for a Knicks team that has bulldozed its way to the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.
As of Thursday’s practice at the team’s Tarrytown training facility, the Knicks were still awaiting the winner of the Western Conference Finals between the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, led by Victor Wembanyama. Now they may have to prepare for either matchup without the longest-tenured Knick on the roster.
Robinson appeared in 60 regular-season games this year, his most since the 2021-22 season, while operating under a strict load-management program that routinely held him out of back-to-backs. He averaged 5.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in Year 1 under head coach Mike Brown.
His value, however, has never been properly measured by counting stats.
Robinson is New York’s rim protector and glass-cleaner, a vertical spacing threat and emotional enforcer all-in-one. Brown has deployed him both as the lone center and alongside Karl-Anthony Towns in the Knicks’ increasingly effective dual-big lineups. In the playoffs, Robinson averaged 5.3 points and 5.5 rebounds while anchoring one of the league’s most dominant postseason defenses despite becoming a frequent target of intentional fouling schemes due to his 30% free-throw shooting.
Now the Knicks must prepare contingency plans.
Next up on the depth chart is second-year center Ariel Hukporti, the 58th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Hukporti wasn’t a regular fixture in Brown’s rotation during the regular season and has mostly played in blowout situations throughout the postseason. He recorded two points, five rebounds, an assist and a steal in eight minutes during New York’s 37-point closeout win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Earlier in the postseason, he posted five points, nine rebounds and two blocks in Game 1 of the Knicks’ second-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers, another blowout.
Brown has also experimented with smaller lineups featuring OG Anunoby at center for brief stretches. And the Knicks have already grown accustomed to navigating compromised center minutes, whether because of Towns foul trouble or Robinson’s availability limitations.
There is precedent for NBA players competing through broken fingers.
Kobe Bryant famously played through a fractured right index finger during the Lakers’ 2010 championship run, adjusting both his shooting form and the way he taped the injury. A more relevant example may be Gordon Hayward, who suffered an avulsion fracture in his right pinky during a 2020 preseason game with the Charlotte Hornets and returned in time for opening night after missing just over a week.
Whether Robinson can follow a similar path remains unknown. Game 1 of the NBA Finals is scheduled to tipoff at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center on June 3 at 8:30 p.m.
