Ben Stiller has spent years in his courtside seat at Madison Square Garden, and this week the actor sounded a lot like the New York Knicks fans up in the rafters.
Mitchell Robinson has agreed to leave the reigning champions for the Boston Celtics, signing a three-year, $47.4 million deal as free agency opened on Tuesday. It ends an eight-year run in New York and pulls a key piece out of the title-winning frontcourt.
The reaction from Knicks supporters was instant and largely grim, with many stunned that a championship favorite had signed on with the team’s oldest rival.
Stiller is right there with them.
What Ben Stiller said about Mitchell Robinson leaving the Knicks
Stiller took to X once the move broke, and his reaction was short and to the point.
Reacting to Shams Charania’s breaking news, he simply wrote: “Oh man.”
That exit had been coming for months. Owner James Dolan made clear he wanted the Knicks under the second apron, the league’s toughest spending limit, which left New York’s hands tied.
Boston had room the Knicks did not. The Celtics used a salary exception worth about $15 million a year to bring him in — a number the champions were never going to match.
There is an extra sting for New York. No team leaned on the “Hack-a-Mitch” fouling tactic harder than Boston last season. Now Robinson anchors their frontcourt.
The Landry Shamet call that shaped the New York Knicks’ offseason
New York re-signed Landry Shamet on a four-year, $24 million deal, along with Jose Alvarado and Mohamed Diawara. Under Dolan’s spending line, those moves left next to nothing for a center of Robinson’s level.
It was never a clean either-or. Shamet brings shooting and bench scoring. Robinson brings rim protection and elite rebounding. But replacing that second skill set on a budget is the far harder job.
But the apron, not the Shamet signing, forced Robinson out. New York now has to shop in the bargain bin for a backup five.
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