After being bought out of the last year of his contract by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Nate Robinson landed with the Golden State Warriors. The 5-9 guard, playing for his fourth team in seven seasons, is finally a significant contributor again, averaging 11 points and five assists in 26 minutes, his best statistical season since 2008-09 with the New York Knicks.
Robinson talked with USA TODAY’s J. Michael Falgoust:
Are you always the team prankster?
When we have timeouts, water breaks, it’s good to crack a laugh because you don’t know what teammates are having a bad day. You got to pick their spirits up. For me to always be positive, I try to have that energy bounce off to them in the best positive light.
Being small by basketball standards, you have taken joy in challenging and dominating big guys?
I just love to succeed. I love to be the best. I love to win at everything. As a kid, going against the big guys and playing a big man’s game, it was fun to embarrass them and be better at their sport. I’ve played three sports my whole life. I never played just one sport, and there’s so many guys in the NBA who have only played basketball. I started playing basketball only when I was a sophomore in college. That’s the only time I wasn’t playing three sports. I made it pretty far. I did pretty good.
