Elfrid Payton looked up as he dribbled toward the half-court line and saw Mitchell Robinson heading to the basket unimpeded.
Payton flipped the ball toward the hoop, and the Garden crowd gasped and then roared as Robinson caught it with his back to the hoop and slammed in a reverse alley-oop dunk in the first quarter of Sunday’s win over the Pistons.
“He’s somebody that makes plays like that all the time,” Payton said after the game. “I was just trying to put it on the money as much as possible. He made an amazing play to spin around and dunk it backwards.
“My biggest fear is somebody going under him. That’s my biggest fear because he jumps so high. Once I see his man ease up a little bit I don’t think nobody can jump with him. Nothing he does surprises me anymore.”
Meanwhile, the second-year center’s overall game continues to move forward. Robinson finished Sunday’s game with 14 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in 27 minutes off the bench. The 2018 second-round pick sank 5 of 6 shots from the floor to improve his NBA-leading field-goal percentage to 73.6 percent, still on pace to break Wilt Chamberlain’s single-season record of 72.7 percent in 1972-73.
Asked about Robinson’s upside, Payton added: “It’s huge. He has a lot of potential. I think he’s going to be great. Still raw. He dominates games. He’s still raw and he dominates games, segments of games. I think he’s going to be very good, great, if he continues.”
James Dolan feuded with Spike Lee and other fans last week, but former Knicks center Tyson Chandler, now with Houston, said he has “nothing but respect” for the Knicks owner since he was granted use of Dolan’s private plane to tend to his ailing mother, who had Stage 4 cancer, in Los Angeles throughout the 2013-14 season.
“He stepped up and it took a lot of weight off of me, honestly. So I’m very appreciative for him in that moment, the way he stepped up,” Chandler told SNY. “People have their opinions … I hear everything about him, but that has nothing to do with me. If somebody comes to me and asks me, I say he’s a great dude. He looked out for me in a time of need. So that’s the kind of stuff people don’t hear about. They just hear the other s–t.”
The Knicks have gone 16-26 since interim coach Mike Miller took over for fired David Fizdale in December. Payton believes Miller “has definitely given himself a chance” for a future NBA coaching job, in New York or elsewhere.
“I wish the best for him because he really loves this game. He has good knowledge of this game. Even if it’s not here, I know he’s going to be successful,” Payton said.
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