Mitchell Robinson (ankle sprain) hoping to return to action by Jan. 4

I swear to you, this article isn’t going to be about Enes Kanter. The loquacious veteran has been the subject of roughly 10,000 articles over the past few days, including one Sunday afternoon from Marc Berman of The New York Post.

Buried in another “What will the Knicks do about Kanter?” piece, however, was an important piece of information concerning rookie center Mitchell Robinson, who is working his way back from an ankle sprain.

Per Berman:

[The Knicks’] prized second-round pick, rookie Mitchell Robinson, told The Post he hasn’t given up returning by the Jan. 4 Lakers game, though it’s more likely he won’t return until the final two games of the trip to Portland and Golden State.

“Hopefully the last two games or before I’ll be playing,” Robinson told The Post. “I would like to play [against the Lakers]. I don’t like sitting down. I just want to play.”

Remember Big Mitch? He had this crazy thing he used to do, where he’d slap the opponent’s shot with his hand and send it back the other way. I think they used to call it a “shot block.” You can see quite a few of them in this video.

Robinson has been out for seven games and the Knicks have lost all seven while barely competing. I know he doesn’t play that many minutes — 17.2 per game, on average — but they really miss that crazy shot-blocking baby giraffe. Get well soon, Mitch.