Duncan Robinson grew up in New England rooting for the Boston Celtics, but he openly took great pleasure in ending his hometown team’s season on Monday night. The Miami Heat guard says he had a good reason for that.
Robinson made a layup with 6:08 left in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to put the Heat up 94-73. As he ran back up the floor, he put his hand to his ear as if to tell the fans at TD Garden, “I can’t hear you.”
Apparently, it was personal for Robinson, who was born in Maine and grew up in New Hampshire. During an appearance on “The Old Man & The Three” podcast this week, Robinson explained how he somehow ended up in a massive group text chat with all Celtics fans after Boston won Game 6 to even the series at 3-3. Robinson said he has not changed his phone number since high school, so one of his old friends probably included him.
“It was a massive group chat. So after we lose Game 6, my phone is blowing up from all these random New England numbers,” Robinson explained. They’re like, ‘Get f—ed! Celts in 7!’ They’re sending memes of the Curt Schilling bloody sock and it’s just all these random numbers, like 70 texts.
“So then I start thinking and creating all these scenarios in my head and I’m like, if I get the chance and I go into the Garden, I’m gonna do something. I didn’t know know what it was gonna be. Honestly, it was probably a little underwhelming, but you would be shocked at how many people that really bothered.”
Robinson joked that he probably should have had more than 10 points if he wanted to taunt the home fans, but he simply could not resist after the group text fiasco.
If you ask us, Robinson earned the right to brag. He scored 43 fourth-quarter points during the Eastern Conference Finals. Robinson had 22 points in 24 minutes in Miami’s Game 3 win. It had to have been bittersweet to do that against the team he grew up watching.
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