Probably not, but there’s no harm in trying (and it’s not like he’s gonna be a starting point guard in the NBA, either). N8’s diplomacy skills were callled upon Sunday afternoon at MSG when Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv head coach Pini Gershon refused to leave the court after being hit with a pair of technical fouls during the fourth quarter of an exhibition loss to the Knicks. Newsday’s Alan Hahn described the scene thusly ;
Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, who is the founder of the game’s charity, the Migdal Orh orphanage, and spent halftime leading the crowd of 14,602 in singing Hebrew songs, stepped onto the floor and spoke with the coach and the officials.
Grossman said he tried to convince the referees to forgive Gershon, a legendary coach in European basketball known for having a hot temper, and allow him to stay on the bench.
“I said to , ‘This is not a regular game, this is a game for the children and the children are watching and I don’t want the children to see a picture of a fight. I wanted the children to see a picture of peace’,” Grossman said. “The kids are watching and it’s very important that they see he is forgiven . . . But he said this is the law. And you must leave. What can I do? I tried. I tried to make peace.”
During the bizarre 10 minute delay, Nate Robinson wandered over to the opponent’s bench and eventually was arm-in-arm with Gershon.
“I was asking him, ‘What’s the outcome gonna be? Are we either going to play or are we going home?'” said Robinson, who had 20 points. “Of course he wanted to play, so it turned out for the best.”