With the New York Knicks preparing for the 2025-26 season, hoping to contend for an NBA championship after a disappointing finish in the playoffs last season, one player has faced backlash for recent social media posts. As the Knicks make additions like with Malcolm Brogdon, the player that has been in headlines recently has been veteran big man Mitchell Robinson for commenting on the death of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk.
On the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon, Kirk was shot during an event where he spoke to the attendees about various political topics. He would later be pronounced dead, sparking major reactions on social media, one from Robinson, who took to Instagram and replied to a photo of Kirk's wife and children, saying, “I feel bad for his family.”
Why that sparked some outrage is that, besides Kirk sharing his support for current President Donald Trump, his views regarding race, gender, religion, and others have fallen in line under extremist and hateful values to certain people. Robinson would react to the reaction he would get and mention how, despite not being “into the political field,” he does not understand how others could be “offended” by another's “opinions or beliefs.”
“I'm never the type to get into the political field,” Robinson wrote, via New York Basketball on X, formerly Twitter. “But I just don't get how people get so sensitive and offended about someone else's opinion or beliefs like I respect your mindset and beliefs but it's not gone change what I believe and stand for you don't have to like me you can unfollow, unfriend me whatever you have to do to never see what I do or say I could care less about what you do or think of me!”
Knicks center Mitchell Robinson on criticism of his Charlie Kirk sympathy: “You can unfollow…I dont care if you black, white, green, have stripes like a damn zebra, even like the same gender I respect you either way!…No kid should have to grow up without their father or mother” pic.twitter.com/68IbVZpG1R
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) September 11, 2025
Knicks' Mitchell Robinson on Charlie Kirk's death
With the Knicks hoping for a historic season to start the 2025-26 slate, Robinson will no doubt serve as a key rotational piece to their front court. Robinson would continue about the reaction he got from the post about Kirk's death and say that, as a parent himself, he wouldn't want any child to live a life without a father or mother.
“I don't care if you black, white, green, or have stripes like a damn zebra or even like the same gender, I respect you either way!” Robinson said. “As a father myself, no kid should have to grow up without their father or mother at the end of the day!…..I don't do the things I do for attention or clout…Again, I could care less what people think of me…the ones that know me already know what I stand for!”
As Robinson looks ahead to the season, New York kicks off play on Oct. 22 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
