Nate Robinson should send the NBA Players Association a thank you note at some point on Wednesday. If not for a provision that teams can't rescind qualifying offers to restricted free agents after July 23rd without player approval, there's a pretty good chance he'd be without many job prospects.
Robinson was arrested on Tuesday night for driving with a suspended license, something that the Knicks would have frowned upon but probably ignored if it was left at that. The fact that his license has been suspended five times in the last 14 months and that he takes a lax approach to taking care of his tickets, however, would probably earn him a strong rebuke. It still wouldn't affect his future employment all that much, though, and would quickly be forgotten.
What isn't so easily forgettable is the way Robinson chose to respond to his run-in with the police on Tuesday night. He fired up his Twitter account and sent some jokey tweets into the ether.
quot;Cops pulled me over cuz my windows were 2 dark (but my windows were down) lol how funny is that," "I am still pulled over and its been 35 min they have me sit in my truck like i dnt have s#*+2 do lol"
On the scale of things a person can do wrong, especially if its limited to professional athletes, Robinson comes in at the low end. Now there are probably employers who would justifiably balk at employing adults who use "lol," but that's not what the Knicks will have a problem with. It is that their guard, a player who has never shown a shred of maturity on the basketball court, is apparently incapable of taking anything seriously.
His representatives obviously agree, since the posts were deleted and replaced with mea culpas written in English recognizable to those who recall the world before text messaging. That's damage control 101, but the Internet and NBA general managers each have long memories.
Robinson's not a bad guy, but if he wants to stay in New York he needs to be coming up with reasons why the Knicks should keep him. The cons outweighed the pros before Tuesday night, and now there doesn't seem to be much chance he'll swing things back around to his favor.
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Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
