Jeff Teague recalls toughest rookie moment as New York Knicks star scored 41 bench points, ‘best performance I’ve ever seen’

Some rookies appear to slot in easily like Memphis Grizzlies star Jaylen Wells, but Teague who went on to have a stellar 12-year NBA career explained one of his toughest early assignments.

Teague faced tough Knicks test

It certainly won’t be one of his fondest New Year’s Day memories but Teague recalls the moment when New York Knicks star Nate Robinson scored 41 points off the bench against his Hawks side.

Teague was playing in his rookie season and was making a steady start, he had not banked on coming up against a fired-up Robinson, who was making his return after a series of disagreements saw him removed from the Knicks rotation for 14 games.

Robinson wasted no time showing the Knicks what they had been missing as he dropped 41 bench points as well as scoring 21 of the team’s final 25 points, which included outscoring the Hawks by himself in overtime.

Teague recalls the ‘crazy’ moment Robinson was subbed in, saying: “He missed his first couple of shots, everybody cheers him as he comes in as he hasn’t played in a month. He comes in and starts going crazy.

“I always sub in randomly, I get subbed in and my coach says ‘Go on rook stop him’, I’m like ‘What’. He hit me with a pull-back pull-up jumper hit. I come back out, and for the rest of the game he having this magical moment. It was probably the best performance I’ve ever seen when I was in the NBA.”

Despite his struggles against Robinson Teague did go on to win an NBA Championship, something that Robinson could not achieve.

Robinson’s career failed to live up to magic moment

Despite Teague naming Robinson’s performance against the Hawks as the ‘best performance’ he had ever seen while playing in the NBA, the rest of his career failed to get going.

Robinson played for no fewer than eight different teams during his 10-year NBA career with his longest stint coming with the Knicks between 2005-2010.

Arguably his most productive season came for the Chicago Bulls in 2012 where he averaged 13.1 points, 2.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists.

The 5ft 9′ point guard finished his career NBA career in 2015 with the New Orleans Pelicans with just three NBA Slam Dunk Contest championships to his name.

He would go on to play basketball across the world including in Israel and Venezuela where he won a championship in 2017, he was also named the Grand Final MVP.

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