If Draymond Green is using fighting words, Karl-Anthony Towns and Knicks aren't biting
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns argues an official's call with referee Robert Hussey during the second half of an NBA game against the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday. Credit: AP/Randall Benton
SAN FRANCISCO
What do you believe has been keeping the Knicks up at night as they ready to face Golden State on Saturday evening?
Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler playing the part of schoolyard bullies, trying to get in the head of Karl-Anthony Towns?
Or that Stephen Curry scored only 11 points Thursday night and that a nationally televised game against the Knicks might be one in which he decides to make up for that nine-shot night?
If you believe the Knicks, they give little credence to the words of Green, who started a firestorm on his podcast after Golden State visited the Garden just before the Knicks embarked on this five-game, 12-night road trip.
The Knicks had lost to Golden State without Towns, who already was in Los Angeles to attend the funeral of a close family friend, and Green speculated that Towns was ducking Butler.
“Some would say he didn’t play because Jimmy was in the building,” Green said on the podcast. “I don’t know . . . They say KAT didn’t play because Jimmy came into town, and you know him and Jimmy had the infamous practice in Minnesota . . . I don’t know what was hurt. I didn’t look that deep into it to figure out what his injury was or nothing like that, but [stuff] like that be happening, bro. That’s the history of the league.”
Days later, when he was informed that Towns was at a funeral, Green offered a half-hearted mea culpa, not even an apology.
“That’s unfortunate, I’m sorry to hear that. That sucks,” Green said. “But my comments that I made were, you know, ‘people, what I heard was this.’ That’s what I heard. So I do send my well wishes to him and his family.
“It’s inevitable, we all experience death in one way or another, and we’ll all experience it in the same way one day. So it’s unfortunate, you never wish that on anybody, but ‘The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis’ must go on.”
Ignoring the debatable part that the show must go on — pretty sure we’d all get by without it — the words were out of line, the first ones and the attempt to shift the blame to some faceless, nameless source. But Towns and the Knicks seem content to ignore the show and Green.
“Nah, I’m not worried about that,” Towns said. “I’m worried about winning. I’m worried about playing tomorrow. I’m not worried about that.”
So he doesn’t expect it to spill over into this rematch?
“No,” Towns insisted. “I worry about the Knicks.”
Coach Tom Thibodeau dismissed it as “it’s just chatter.”
The Knicks may have their own issues to handle, even if Mikal Bridges delivered one of his best games — including the game-winning buzzer-beater in overtime Wednesday in Portland — hours after he and Thibodeau offered differing opinions and stories on the never-ending minutes debates.
And they are still adjusting to life without Jalen Brunson, who has missed the last three games after spraining an ankle at the start of this trip and could be lost for most of the regular season.
Still, it’s worth wondering how the Knicks will respond to Green and Butler. The reality is that Butler has missed more games scheduled against Towns since they parted ways. In Towns’ last game against a team with Butler, he put up 44 points as the Knicks beat the Heat before Butler forced his way out of Miami.
The Knicks didn’t put forth any college-type response when Trae Young was miming rolling dice at Madison Square Garden as he and the Hawks knocked the Knicks out of the NBA Cup. So don’t expect any hard fouls directed at Green. But also don’t expect anyone to play frightened of Butler despite whatever the next episode of Green’s podcast may claim.
Towns is soft-spoken, and one league source said that is the type of player that Green attempts to troll or bully — noting that Green didn’t exactly run to Curry’s defense when the Pistons' hard-nosed Isaiah Stewart shoved Curry away from the Detroit bench last week. But Towns’ performances certainly would show he isn’t intimidated.
“I don’t know,” Josh Hart said when asked if it could spill over to this game. “For me, I don’t think so. I think KAT handled it the right way. For me, I have my own podcast and all that stuff. Whenever I’m wrong about something, I’ll sit there and say I was. For me, I wish he kind of did that, just apologized. You don’t got to be embarrassed or feel like apologizing when you’re wrong isn’t manly. I wish he did. Now that’s in the past and we’re moving on.”
That seems about right. Worry about Curry, not Green.
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.
