Mitchell Robinson on the Knicks never making him an offer: “They didn’t want me? Yeah. That’s what it felt like”

Mitchell Robinson stopped by the New York Knicks’ locker room to see his old friends before Friday night’s game at TD Garden, and he has made his peace with how his time in New York ended: the Knicks never made him an offer before he signed with the Boston Celtics in July. The Athletic’s Fred Katz reported on Robinson’s return to face his former team.

Robinson was the longest-tenured player on last season’s championship roster and a popular figure in the locker room, and he had been one of the league’s best backup centers. But the Knicks had no way to keep him without crossing into second-apron territory, a line owner James Dolan has called “suicidal,” so when Boston came calling in free agency there was nothing on the table from New York.

“They didn’t want me?” Robinson said. “Yeah. That’s what it felt like. … I was like, cool. There wasn’t bad blood behind it. Man, fresh start.”

Robinson said he heard his name in trade rumors enough times over the years that he is not surprised he will not spend his whole career in New York. The Celtics offered him a starting job and are glad to have an elite rebounder and rim protector. “The only thing that was kind of different was going to the rivals,” he said. “But you know me, man. I like to troll. Nobody was happy with that move. But I was.”

Boston plans to be careful with his workload early, but Katz wrote that the team does not believe his minutes have to be limited as much as they were last season, and the medical staff hopes to have him ready for about 25 minutes per game by the playoffs.

Robinson, who signed a three-year, $47.4 million deal with the Celtics in July, graded his own debut as “playing trash” after the season-opening loss in Detroit. His visit Friday came before Boston’s 107-103 win over the Knicks, which dropped New York to 0-2.