Stephen A. LOSES IT over Mitchell Robinson's injury 😡🗣️ 'YOU BETTER PLAY!' | First Take

The Knicks, our own Shams Sharani, reporting this morning that center Mitchell Robinson has undergone surgery on a broken right pinky finger, but plans, excuse me, to play in Game 1 while wearing a brace on his hand.Game 1 of the NBA Finals is Wednesday night.Stephen A., how concerning is the Mitchell Robinson injury?

The damn highlights off the screen.Let me tell you something.Let me tell you something, man.Oh!Oh!I'm glad, I'm so glad Wendy and you too Joe Fort Barca, you like to laugh at me, but you and Wendy and J Will, I'm so glad y 'all didn't see me last night when the news first came down.

My man DJ Clue texted me. I didn't even know.I didn't even know that the damn pinky injury happened until he told me.He texted me. I said, what you talking about?He said, Mitchell Robinson got a broken pinky.I said, what?What?

What have we been saying?We said four games in 23 days.That is what the New York Knicks would have played by the time the final started.So we thinking they sitting home and pretty.Who's the one person that could get hurt during the off time?I don't want to hear that this happened during the game.

I don't want to hear it.I don't want to hear it.I don't want to hear it, Jay.We found out right now.It's the off week.They supposed to be chilling.

You supposed to be getting the treatment.You supposed to be in a cold plunge.You supposed to be in the hyperbaric chambers.You're supposed to be in the saunas and everything.You supposed to be getting yourself rested.And ready and this damn Mitchell Robinson with a pinky.

Let me tell you something.Let me tell you something right now.I'm talking to Mitchell Robinson y 'all.I'm talking to you better play in this damn series.You better play in this.This is the finals.

I don't want to hear about no damn pinky.I don't want to hear that.What did they say?Ronnie Lott did former NFL Hall of Famer, former safety for the San Francisco boy, the pinky.He had him cut it off.He had him cut it off.

He said, damn it, cut it off.Do what you got to do.Let me tell y 'all something right now.I'm not going to get, I'm not going to get that drastic.I'm not going to get that drastic.Okay.

But I, Let me tell you something, Jay.Jay, he ain't no shooter.He ain't no shooter.First of all, he averaged eight points a game.You don't make him a shooter.Hold it.

Hold it.He has eight points a game.On top of it all, he shoots about 50 % for the feet though.He ain't no damn shooter.He's there to rebound, to fade, be a big body, give you a six -five.Let me tell you something.

Mitchell Robinson, you better play this damn series.I swear, if this man, seven feet, 245 to 250 pounds, if this brother misses games because of a pinky, I'm a lose it.I don't want to hear it.I don't give a damn what rap that bad boy up splinter it.I don't give a damn what you got to do.It's the finals.

It's the finals.I don't want to hear nothing.Choose my double negative.I don't give a damn.You better play that.Oh my God.

I can't believe this.This is unbelievable.The next we waited all of these years.All of these years, knowing we need all our bodies.And not only does an injury come to a big man when you either got Hardenstein and Chet Holgren and those Rough Riders and OKC, or you got Wimpy Yama and these brothers coming, and you telling me that our big man is hampered because of a pinky?A pinky?

Yo, you know what?Y 'all talk about it.I need a break.I need a break.I'll be right back.I just can't.

You better play.That's all I'm going to say.All right, Jay, I'm curious.

Make sure to get some water, man. I need to cool him down.Look, the forehead perspiring.Look at it.

Take a dip out back there, maybe for a moment or so.Jay, are you as concerned?

Where's Cameron at, though?Because Cam was saying, didn't he say something always happens to the Knicks?Didn't he say that?I'm going to wait for Cam to come back on the show next week.I don't want to do that to you.I don't want to do that to you.

Is the series over, Jay?opinion, as well?He seems to be… No, he's not saying the series is over.He wants, he wants Mitchell to play.Here's going to be the challenge because I think Mitchell Robinson is going to play.Mitchell Robinson is a tough guy.

How much of a concern is a pinky finger?

Well, the thing, if it's on your shooting hand, number one, like the Hacker Robinson thing is a real thing that teams implement.And I know sometimes people at home think this is I just on the back of my head while I'm talking good -looking head.Yeah.Okay pause.Anyway, I think that the the the hand is such an interesting thing because of the fact that if they foul you you put them on the free -throw line.I know that's a strategy they use before but Wendy here's something that happens throughout the course of the game.

If it's the right hand Things that you get around the rim, lobs around the rim, getting, grabbing rebounds, like those things become different when you have a brace on your hand.Is this a soft brace?Is it a hard brace?If it's surgery, what kind of brace is it?You can all implement it.It's such a feel game.

You know, the difference between a Ronnie Lott is, you know, when you run around, you can crack somebody.Maybe you get an interception or something happens.You pick a ball out of the air.It's different than using your fingers, the majority of a game, to grab rebounds, to catch passes.And you're just not a screener.You have to be a threat.

All of a sudden, if you're not a threat, or if I'm breaking down on you, it makes you a one -dimensional team with a guy like Karl Anthony Towns that we know at times is prone to foul trouble.Now look, if you're playing against OKC, Stéphanie, Like, or if you're playing against Wimby, either you're going against an alien or you're going against a team that has Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren and guys that know how to get people like Cat into foul trouble, what makes you over -reliant upon a person like Mitchell Robinson, who then has an injury.That's where it factors in.

Possible the broken finger could actually improve the free -throw shooting.

Well, it ain't going to make it worse.This is real talk.Now, Stephen A., you got to, you got to calm down.The playoff, the final round,is going to last 18 days.That's how long it can go.

18 days.You got five days before that.You got to get in the right mindset for the Knicks to be in the finals.You can't blow your whole stack before we even get started.You got to calm down.That's number one.

We got good news and bad news with this injury.Number one, the bad news is this needed surgery.This is a complex injury.This is not an avulsion fracture.This is not a buddy tape fracture.He already had surgery.

For all we know, he had surgery yesterday.He might have had surgery two days ago, for all we know.That means it's a complex break.So that's not good news.

Wendy, you're making it worse on him.

The good news, though, is that - You're making it worse on him, Wendy.No, okay.Stephen A. You got to moderate yourself, man.You're not going to make it.You're not going to make it.You got to make it.

You got to prepare yourself for 18 days.All right.The good news is that if you're picking one player left in the whole playoffs to have a hand injury, you're picking Mitchell Robinson.because he is an energy player who plays with his body and his hands.I'd much rather have him deal with a hand injury than the foot that's been bothering him that they've been protecting on.If it was a foot injury, I would say Nick's fancy to stay up at night.

This will definitely impact him because if he had surgery and he has hardware in there, He's just good.It's going to be really, really wrapped up and it could diminish him a little bit.And also the Knicks are not that deep at big man.They have great depth on the perimeter.They have not their third center in the playoffs is OG and Anobi.That's who they've used most of the time and they're going to need size against whomever they play.

So I and the other thing is it's going to feel better in games four or five when you get down the line.So It's not great, but I have to calm down.Take it easy.I have to calm down.

You've given me no reason to calm down.All you did was say Stephen A, you got to calm down.and then proceed to give me a litany of reasons why I should be worried.This is unbelievable.I mean, you're supposed to be my boys.You're supposed to be my boys.

This is unbelievable.I can't believe that what we're talking about right now.Let me tell you something right now.I'm gonna remind everybody that damn you That damn Jay Williams, you Joe Fortbaugh, Mr. Vegas, looking to laugh at me at every turn.That damn Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont, Texas, trying to act like he a New Yorker.That damn Michael Wilburn, that Chicago dude, you understand, that invades New York weekly these days just to laugh at us.

I mean, this is the kind of stuff that we're talking about.It's been 27 years, 27 years since we've been there.It's been 32 years since we legitimately had a shot at a championship.It's been 52 since we've won a championship.And we get there to the finals.And before a game is played, before a game is played, our big man, knowing that we got big men to deal with, messes up his pinky.

You've got to be kidding me, man. I mean, this is unbelievable.I cannot believe we're having this discussion.But Mitchell Robson, I don't give a damn.Listen.I don't mean to sound this way.God bless you.

I mean, I'm a God -fearing individual.I love the Lord.I appreciate the Lord for all that he has blessed me with.But he hasn't blessed me with a championship for the New York Knicks.Let me tell you something, Mr. Robinson.I don't give a damn if it was the wrist, the hand, or whatever.

You better play in these finals.You better play in these finals.You understand what I'm saying?I want to see you sitting on the sideline in street clothes, not for one day, and with a pinkie.I don't give a damn what you got to do.It's soft, casual.

I don't give a damn what it is.You better be out on that damn court.You better be out of that damn court.And that's all I'm going to say.That's all I'm going to say.This cannot be happening to the Knicks right now.

It just cannot.happening.

And like the beautiful Miami backdrop followed by the Lord, can I please have an MBH?