Perhaps no other player will benefit more from the firing of Larry Brown more than Nate Robinson.

There was no other player that Brown and Isiah Thomas viewed differently than Robinson.

"I know Nate's workout dazzled them," Robinson's college coach, Lorenzo Romar said of the Knicks. "At that point, it was my understanding Isiah said, 'We've got to get him.'

"You don't put a tuxedo on Nate. It's like putting a tuxedo on someone at the beach. You feel like you just can't do anything. With Nate, you've got to get him out of the tuxedo and put him in some shorts and flip-flops and just let him enjoy the beach within certain parameters. If not, he gets frustrated."