The New York Knicks are blatantly lying about some of the injuries on their team. Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson missed the opener, yet Mike Brown and the Knicks continue to insist that neither of them is injured.
“Josh Hart tweaked his back,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on The Hoop Collective. "He tweaked his back so badly, he was in so much pain, that he heaved the ball in the stands and got ejected. And the Knicks were like, ‘Oh, no, no. He’s not out of the game because of the back injury, he’s out of the game because he got ejected.’ Well, he’s barely been seen since. He has not practiced, and we know how important he is. And then, there’s this weird situation with Mitchell Robinson. So, Mike Brown is on the record repeatedly over the last week, that even though Mitchell Robinson is missing games and missing practices, that he is not injured, and that this is going to be a maintenance situation.”
Something isn’t right.
Why are the Knicks hiding injuries?
Obviously, hiding injuries can come with some level of competitive advantage. If opponents don’t know what players are playing on any given night, the Knicks could spring a surprise on them.
But that’s also very against the rules. Teams are required to share legitimate injury diagnoses with the league. If Hart and Robinson are actually hurt, then the Knicks are consistently breaking league rules by hiding it.
In the case of Hart, he played in the Knicks’ first preseason game but hurt his back. Hart exited the game and did not return. In fact, he hasn’t been back on the floor for New York since then.
But at the time, the Knicks claimed that Hart was only out of the game because he got ejected. Since then, he’s been placed on the injury report due to a back issue, but it was still an odd situation.
As for Robinson, the Knicks are claiming that his absence in the opener was due to load management, but how is that possible?
How can a player be load managing in the very first game of the season? At that point, he’s clearly just entering the season injured, right? Otherwise, he would at least wait until a few games in to load manage.
The whole injury situation in New York is very, very weird, and the NBA might have to step in and take a look sooner rather than later.