Coming into the season, it was clear that New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns would be the talk of the NBA, and not necessarily for reasons that folks around Madison Square Garden would much appreciate. Towns can become a free agent this summer, but does not want to–he had hoped to sign an extension with the team and was willing to take less than max value to make it work. He had brief and contentious contract talks with the Knicks, though, before the team bizarrely put out a statement saying the talks were ending.
Despite all that, the contract issues have lingered, have continued to be an issue–but Towns has just been doing an admirable job of tuning them out and focusing on playing. The Knicks have rebounded from an 0-3 start to win four of their last five games, and Towns has been a driving force. He is averaging 19.9 points and 13.6 rebounds (that would be a career high), while shooting 57.3% from the field and 42.9% from the 3-point line.
Towns has been effective defensively, too, and despite taking only 16 shots in his past two games, he has a plus-47 in the box score plus/minus.
Karl-Anthony Towns: ‘Here to Lead the Knicks’
Towns said he has shifted his focus to helping Jalen Brunson lead the Knicks and has long since put the contract talk behind him.
Said Towns (via the New York Post): “Me and Jalen [Brunson] are here to lead the team. I want to do my part as best as I possibly can. I can’t allow outside distractions and ego to get in the way,” Towns said. “We won last year because we put our egos to the side and we did what’s best for this city, best for this team, this organization, and we sacrificed, and I’m always going to be willing to sacrifice for my brothers and this family that we’ve built here.”
He added that, with Mitchell Robinson gone in free agency, he has sought to take up the slack in rebounding.
Said Towns: “I just always want to impact winning, and I always try to get every rebound possible for our team so we don’t give up any second-chance points or we give ourselves more chances at second-chance points on offense,” he said. “Obviously, with [Mitchell Robinson] gone, I had to pick up the effort, especially the rebounding effort. When you have one of the greatest offensive rebounders the NBA has ever seen in Mitchell Robinson, it’s a team effort. I just want to do my part to help with rebounding.”
Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns Making Statement Despite ‘Distractions’