Knicks Player Invited High School Coach to Live With Him After Wife's Death

New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson played just two seasons for Butch Stockton, but they formed a close connection that lasted long after they helped take Chalmette High School in Louisiana to its first state semifinal in 32 years.

Now, in 2023, they are even closer, both figuratively and literally: Stockton is living with Robinson in New York City.

On Thursday evening, the Knicks took on the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden and claimed a 118-112 victory. At one point, the MSG broadcast broke away from the action for an interview with Stockton, who revealed his simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking reason for living with Robinson.

"First of all, my wife passed away in September," Stockton told MSG's Rebecca Haarlow. "When my wife was in the hospital, Mitchell came each day to visit her. He became very close to myself and my wife, and after her funeral, Mitchell told everyone he was going to bring me to New York with him. He said, 'Coach, there's no reason for you to stay down here in Louisiana anymore. You come to New York with me and enjoy yourself, get your mind back straight, because you know how much you loved your wife, how much I loved your wife."

How did Robinson and Stockton meet?

The relationship between Robinson and Stockton started with a chance phone call. In 2019, Stockton told the MSG Network that when he was coaching at Chalmette, he got a call about a tall kid walking in the neighborhood. Robinson's mother had moved to the area, and Stockton tracked her down to pitch her on Chalmette as a place for her son.

At the time, Robinson was relatively new to basketball: He started in eighth grade after a massive growth spurt turned him from 6-foot-2 into a 7-footer.

As Robinson mulled joining Stockton's team, the coach made him two promises: He would graduate from high school, and he would qualify to play basketball at the college level.

"Mitch thought that was great," Stockton told MSG.

It was quickly apparent that Robinson had enormous potential. Beyond just height, he was fast and bouncy. Stockton was impressed that he could shoot and handle the ball a little bit at his height, and he liked the rising junior's work ethic.

"I told him, 'You've got a chance to make it at the next level,'" Stockton said.

Ironically, Robinson didn't really make it at the next level. A five-star recruit after his final season at Chalmette, he committed to Western Kentucky, which had hired his godfather as an assistant coach. When his godfather abruptly resigned, Robinson initially planned to stick with the program, but he cleaned out his dorm room and left campus two weeks after arrival. He later announced he planned to enter the NBA Draft, where the Knicks grabbed him with the 38th pick.

Now in his sixth season (and in the second year of a four-year deal worth $60 million), it's clear Stockton was right that Robinson had a chance to make it. He just skipped the level Stockton thought he might reach.

Stockton was inducted into the Louisiana High School Basketball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame in 2019, four years before becoming roommates with a Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

"It has been a great situation, to be honest with you," Stockton told Haarlow on Thursday.