Julius Randle dropped “blood, sweat and tears” for the Knicks before being shocked by the trade to the Timberwolves, but the power forward has already felt a “breath of fresh air” from his new franchise.
“It’s super important, you want to be somewhere where you feel wanted,” Randle said. “And I feel wanted here. I feel like everybody has really embraced me.”
Randle, who spent five roller-coaster seasons with the Knicks, developed into the franchise’s greatest player since Carmelo Anthony. Karl-Anthony Towns appeared in the New York Knicks’ parking lot Monday morning, just long enough to be photographed from behind and from a distance, before quickly vanishing like some 7-foot apparition—at once in the Knicks’ midst but not quite part of their reality.
The stunning trade sending the longtime Minnesota Timberwolves star to New York, reportedly consummated on Friday, remained unofficial as the Knicks settled in for their traditional media day interviews on Monday, which made for a sometimes awkward few hours of various Knicks figures dancing around arcane NBA regulations.
“Good try,” head coach Tom Thibodeau—evading a question about his presumptive new starting center—said seven minutes after Towns was spotted outside.
“Who’s Karl?” Jalen Brunson, the Knicks’ star guard, said, deadpan. “I don’t know who that is.”
“We got KAT?” Josh Hart, the Knicks’ resident court jester, said with a wry grin as he turned toward a nearby PR person. “Oh, wow.” It was a scene ripe for jokes—and to skeptics, maybe even a little “same old Knicks” mockery
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