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By Nelson Espinal
Contributing Sports Reporter
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The New York Knicks open up their 2025-26 season against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, though two key players may miss the first game of the year.
Center Mitchell Robinson and guard Josh Hart did not practice on Monday, and coach Mike Brown could not confirm their status for the game, per Zach Braziller of The New York Post.
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Hart missed the last four preseason games with back spasms, and Robinson did not play the previous two games as the Knicks try to manage his workload to keep him healthy for the playoffs.
“Everything we’re doing with him is about managing his workload, which we’ll do the whole year,” Brown said about Robinson regarding his injury status.
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Robinson is no stranger to injuries during his career, suffering from several different ailments all over his body, which have derailed multiple seasons.
Brown claimed before the Knicks' last preseason game that Robinson would have played if it were a regular-season game, making his unwillingness to confirm Robinson's status for Wednesday all the more confusing.
“I’ve been in different situations where you sit a guy, you manage his workload and he does certain things, whether it’s sometimes shooting free throws, sometimes it’s watching, sometimes it’s walking through this, walking through that,” Brown added on Robinson.
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“I’ve been with a lot of guys that have done that throughout the course of my career, starting back in the early 2000s with the Spurs. We had a couple of older guys on the team, so to me it’s not odd, but I’m not saying it’s a bad question.”
Regarding Hart, Brown said that the former Villanova guard is progressing, though his status for Wednesday remains unclear. Hart is one of the toughest players in the league, and if there is a chance that he can play, it will be hard to stop him from doing so.
That said, the Knicks are under no pressure to rush either player back since the focus is on the playoffs rather than regular-season success.
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