Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo owed debt of gratitude from Knicks
Timberwolves' Julius Randle and Donte Divincenzo will be back at the Garden on Friday. Credit: Getty Images
How good is your memory?
Do you remember the time before Leon Rose was named as Knicks president, before Tom Thibodeau became the coach and before players actually wanted to play at Madison Square Garden? Do you remember what it was like before Julius Randle took the offer that so many had passed on?
Do you remember just nine months ago when Donte DiVincenzo felt the floor shake at Madison Square Garden after he hit a game-winning three-point field goal in the playoff win over Philadelphia? Or do you focus on just three months ago when he appeared back at the Garden for a preseason game as an opponent and found himself needing to be separated from Knicks assistant Rick Brunson after the game.
It’s important how you remember things. It’s important for how you appreciate what the Knicks are now, that you know the gripes about the depth of the bench or whether a starter played 34 or 36 minutes would have been an inconsequential debate just a few years ago when fans — and Knicks executives — were wishing someone would save them from the years of dysfunction and defeats.
It is important to know what you remember. If you remember what was wrong and what went right, it will help gauge what is next. And it will provide a hint of what DiVincenzo and Randle will await them when they arrive at Madison Square Garden for Friday night’s meeting between the Knicks and Timberwolves.
Will you remember that Randle arrived when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard and so many others, would not even sit down for a meeting with the Knicks? Will you remember that DiVincenzo signed on to join his friends and former Villanova teammates and accepted a bench role until he became a key starter, in one season showing the toughness and fire that marked the run to the Eastern Conference semifinals last season, that he fought to the final buzzer in Game 7 against Indiana when nearly every other player had been lost to injury?
They were dealt away for Karl-Anthony Towns just ahead of training camp and the Knicks certainly have no regrets, not with Towns averaging 25.4 points and 13.9 rebounds and the team boasting a 27-15 record. But that doesn’t mean that the two, who never wanted to go away, should be treated as anything but what they were: Players who helped make the Knicks what they are now.
DiVincenzo will not suit up for the game, already ruled out with a sprained big toe after scoring 28 points Wednesday. Randle sat out the preseason game at MSG but attacked the meeting with the Knicks in Minnesota last month when he left the arena without a word for his former teammates or staff after the loss.
“I don’t know how the crowd is going to react to them,” Jalen Brunson said..
“I don’t think there’s anything but cheers and ovation and anything like that,” Josh Hart said of the first regular-season game back at Madison Square Garden for the duo. “Obviously Ju, he was here like five years, helped turn the franchise around. Tae was only here one year, but he gave everything he could for the team and the city. So I don’t think there’s any other option.”
There are, of course, other options and maybe some of the 19,812 fans in attendance will choose them. They may remember Randle feuding with fans during down times. They will think of DiVincenzo having to be pushed away from Rick Brunson — even if the two are like family and settled their issues the next day. They pay their money, they can make their choices.
The greetings from the game operations crew came in preseason, a video tribute that isn’t expected to be repeated Friday. So whatever the reaction, the game will go on. Randle may not last long in Minnesota, his contract up at the end of the year for a team trying to balance the salary cap. DiVincenzo has, as he did in New York, moved into a starting role, and the team has begun to play better for it. Averaging 11 points per game, he has jumped to 17.5 per game on 42.1% shooting from three in the last six since joining the starting lineup in place of Mike Conley.
And the Knicks are crossing their fingers hoping that Towns is healthy. He suffered a sprained right thumb with a bone chip Monday against Detroit, an injury that sidelined him Wednesday in Philadelphia. League sources have indicated that the bone chip is not serious enough to sideline him — and the 43 minutes he played Monday despite suffering the injury in the first quarter back that up — and that the swelling from the sprain is the issue.
The latest round of fan voting for the All-Star Game arrived Thursday afternoon with Towns ahead of all of the Knicks and in line to be a starter next month. So no regrets from the fans for the deal, same as the Knicks have no regrets. Just fond memories of what was and hopes of what can be because of it.
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Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.