Back in November, Mitchell Robinson showed the world what he’s capable of.

Robinson, the rookie Knicks center, absorbed contact under the basket from Orlando’s Melvin Frazier and flopped to the court, hoping for a foul that was never called. Instead, the Magic passed the ball around a few times, finding a wide-open Jerian Grant in the corner, 22 feet from a supine Robinson.

In three seconds that defied reasonable expectation, Robinson got to his feet, raced toward the corner and leapt into the air. He fully extended his lanky 7-foot-1 frame and swatted the 3-point attempt out of midair so matter-of-factly that Grant pulled his hands toward his body, looking almost sorry that he had attempted the shot.

The block was Robinson’s eighth of the game, setting a Knicks rookie record (which he stretched to nine blocks by the end of the night). But beyond the block’s impact in the moment, the play illustrated the 20-year-old’s approach to this season. The perception may be that the Knicks are tanking in hopes of drafting Duke’s Zion Williamson, but for Robinson, any shot an opponent takes is a chance for him to get a block — and he is not going to be cheated out of any of them, even if the shooter is beyond the 3-point line. As a result, a mostly irrelevant team has become must-watch television.