Video: Nate Robinson Shoots at Wrong Basket, Mike D'Antoni Blows a Gasket

A pretty interesting situation played out today in a game between the New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets, making an otherwise disgraceful contest very much amusing, if only for a few brief seconds. 

With 0.5 seconds remaining in the first quarter, the Knicks were inbounding the ball in their back court with a 28-24 advantage. 

Nate Robinson—the same player who was once called for a traveling violation while trying to bounce an alley-oop to himself—caught the inbound pass and fired a shot at the Nets basket.

Robinson sunk the three-pointer.

He did launch the 30-footer after the buzzer sounded, sparing the Knicks of one of the most embarrassing plays in NBA history, but Robinson clearly was just messing around and knew what he was doing. 

He didn't accidentally shoot at the wrong hoop, and the action was in no way going to harm the Knicks during the game.

But when Robinson headed towards the bench, Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni absolutely freaked out on the two-time Slam Dunk champion and motioned towards the clock to point out how potentially dangerous that shot could have been had it left his hands before the buzzer. 

D'Antoni was so riled up about Robinson's actions that the coach benched him for all but three minutes for the rest of the game. 

The Knicks went on to win the game, 98-91, and after the game D'Antoni changed his tone.

He insisted that he was merely giving Nate some rest.

"Nate's great. We don't have any problems," said D'Antoni. 

It could be the case, considering Robinson is just coming back from an ankle injury, but the more likely scenario is that D'Antoni realized he might have gotten a little too animated about the shot.

In a case like that, Robinson was ill-advised to take the shot, yet still, D'Antoni didn't need to freak out like a school-girl and berate Robinson between periods. 

I must say, however, that when I first saw the footage I thought he had shot the ball before the buzzer sounded, so I can understand the initial reaction from D'Antoni. 

The coach did the smart thing by downplaying the situation, and this will go down as another round of hilarious antics in the career of Robinson. 

Then again, maybe Robinson just felt bad for the winless Nets and was trying to throw them a bone.