I don't know why, but sometimes I find little anecdotes like this more amusing than actual analysis:Nate Robinson had seen enough, and he wanted out - away from the chaos, the congestion and the cameras. His locker stall, squeezed between those of Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph, was prime territory for reporters staking out the Knicks' burly big men. The nightly swarm had become intolerable.That's from the New York Times in an article that goes on to analyze whether the on-court pairing of Randolph and Curry will ever mesh. It's a legitimate question, but I'm more curious in the circumstances surrounding NateRob's locker swap. Did money exchange hands? Or bartering, say, in exchange for immunity from any more rookie hazing? Or was the switch an example of rookie hazing in itself?
Last week, Robinson got his wish, migrating to the other side of the room, in a locker swap with the rookie Wilson Chandler.
I've been in NBA locker rooms after games, and I've been in the often difficult/impossible position of trying to maneuver my way into a scrum of reporters surrounding a star player without overtly invading the space of another's player's adjacent locker. There's etiquette involved: if you're not going to care enough about a player to ask what he thinks about the game, the least you can do is give him room to put on his (free) socks. And while the pint-sized Robinson doesn't take up much physical space, I'm guessing getting stepped on and then ignored was too much for his ego to handle.
