While making a play on the ball in the third quarter Monday night after the Raptors' Kyle Lowry secured the rebound, Knicks rookie Mitchell Robinson wound up falling on Lowry's ankle. Lowry left the game and didn't return, and wasn't happy about it after.
"I think it was a little bit dirty," Lowry said, according to TSN's Josh Lewenberg. "He grabbed me, pulled me down. He's a young kid so I don't know if he did it on purpose or not, but I think he'll learn his lesson next time and be a little bit more careful."
Robinson responded on Twitter:
"If you really think I tried to hurt him you wrong and need to look again. I was falling. I mean I apologize for falling on him but I didn't mean to."
During the play, Robinson chased after Lowry and appeared to trip, landing on Lowry and causing the injury:
Kyle Lowry is down and heading to the locker room after Robinson lands on his right ankle pic.twitter.com/DQwQzlyDKp
- The Render (@TheRenderNBA) March 19, 2019
"It's like a clip in football. Robinson is out of control right there," Walt Frazier said during the broadcast on MSG.
Lowry's teammate, Marc Gasol, called the play an "accident," but Raptors fans still took to Robinson's Instagram account to post vitriol-filled comments -- eventually leading Robinson to make his account private.
According to Reddit poster wmetcalf74, one of the comments told Robinson to 'go back to kenya.'
Robinson was born in Louisiana.
The 20-year-old Robinson, whose shot-blocking prowess has earned him the nickname "Block Ness Monster," is averaging 6.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks in 55 games (12 starts) this season, while averaging a shade under 19 minutes per game.