Which Nate Are We Talking to Now?

You might have seen footage of it by now: On Wednesday night during the Knicks’ game against the Cavs in Cleveland, NY guard and OCC favorite Nate Robinson had a breakaway dunk with the Knicks leading by five in the second quarter when for some unknown reason he decided to throw himself an alley-oop bounce pass off the floor for a dunk attempt.

The problem (aside from the fact that he bricked the dunk) was that he traveled just before bouncing the ball.

Needless to say, this chapped Isiah Thomas’ ass just a smidge. “I don’t think we’ll see that again,” said Thomas to the NY Post. “I think he understands how I feel about that.”

Though there’s no question it was a remarkably stupid thing to do, I, for one, have a hard time getting angry at Nate about it, in large part because I’m something of a Nate Robinson apologist. (And for being a Nate Robinson apologist I will not apologize.)

Seriously, how can you not find this guy entertaining to the point that it overshadows most of his questionable behavior, virtually all of which surfaces because he’s trying too hard to entertain?

Consider his comment explaining his dunk attempt against the Cavs:

“I won’t try it again unless we’re up 20 points. That’s spontaneous Nate. Spur of the moment.”

So let me get this straight – there are multiple Nate personalities? This is too much. I wonder: Was it Spontaneous Nate who was wrestling naked with Malik Rose in the locker room last season when Malik refused to pay up on a football wager?

Or was that Naked Wrassling Gambler Nate?

In any case, I think we all owe Nate Robinson a small thank you in light of this recent development. Now, whenever one of us does something questionable, in the aftermath of said event we can explain away our behavior by saying, “That was [Insert Adjective and Name].” (Adding another phrase afterwards as Nate Robinson did with “Spur of the moment” is optional.)

So, if Jed goes on an armed robbery binge after huffing a whole bunch of gasoline one day, he can at least apologize by saying, “That’s Gas Huffing Jed. Likes to rob banks.”

And how can you possibly be mad at him?

It’s like some kind of slightly innocent, self-effacing, fun-loving multiple personality disorder. Which, come to think of it, might be what Nate Robinson actually has.

I wonder who would win a foot race between Spontaneous Nate and Gas Huffing Jed…