Karl-Anthony Towns won't let past with Heat's Jimmy Butler haunt his future with Knicks
Jimmy Butler, left, and Karl-Anthony Towns celebrate in the final seconds as the Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Denver Nuggets in overtime in an NBA game on April 11, 2018, in Minneapolis. Credit: AP/Jim Mone
MIAMI — It’s been nearly a decade since all of the craziness drove them apart, but for the first time since their breakup in Minnesota, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jimmy Butler and Tom Thibodeau were all gathered back together on the same court as the Knicks and Miami Heat faced off at Kaseya Center Wednesday night.
They were once the promising core of a Timberwolves team that was rising in the NBA, Thibodeau serving as coach and team president as he gathered Butler, the hard-nosed player he helped develop in Chicago and helped turn Towns into a young All-Star. And just as soon as it seemed on the rise it imploded. Butler was unhappy with his contract situation, demanded a trade and tormented Towns until his departure. Thibodeau was fired just months after Butler was traded, and Towns remained in Minnesota until the Knicks swung the trade for him just before the start of training camp last month.
Now, Towns and Thibodeau face Butler in what already has been one of the NBA’s most long-running and heated rivalries.
“I don’t think he gets fired up for matchups,” Butler’s Heat teammate Bam Adebayo said. “I think if they start it, that’s when it starts. Or he’ll feel like — he’ll see something, and he just digs.
“Listen, I just think it’s just in a game, he’ll see body language, something small and just goes with it.”
Sometimes it’s a teammate being slighted — like when Chris Paul threw a ball aggressively off Duncan Robinson while playing in the bubble three years ago and Butler took it upon himself to run over Paul.
In Minnesota there are stories about practice sessions with Butler joining with the least heralded players on the team and demanding to get the assignment defending Towns — and attacking him relentlessly.
Towns, asked about the reunion after the Knicks' morning shootaround Wednesday, put it in the past.
“My motivation is to win games, to win basketball games,” Towns said. “So that’s all I’m really worried about. Trying to get one in the left column. We’ve gone loss, win, loss, so trying to make it a win tonight.
“I’m here in New York. That’s all I’m thinking about right now. I’m a Knick. You’re bringing up Minnesota. I’m not a Timberwolf anymore. I’m a Knick. That’s all I’m worried about. My time as a Knick.”
Towns and Thibodeau’s parting was marked by a long period of tension, but Towns put an end to that years ago when he approached Thibodeau and started a conversation between them that certainly eased the reunion in New York now.
“I mean, that was years and years ago,” Towns said of his relationship with Thibodeau. “We are totally different men. So it’s cool to be in this spot in our lives together.”
But asked if that ever happened with Butler, Towns dismissed the question.
It doesn't take a lot to add to the rivalry between the Knicks and Heat — two teams that have fought through playoff series, including actually fighting on the court in 1997.
“I think they’re still trying to improve,” Adebayo said of the Knicks' remade roster with Towns and Mikal Bridges. “I think they’re set on that stage of getting over that hump, trying to get to the promised land just like we are.
“I thought they was going to be the Nova Knicks until they got rid of Donte [DiVincenzo]. I mean, they’re still the Nova Knicks, they still got three of them on the team. You know they’re trying to get to the promised land like I said, when you see moves like that you understand they don’t want to be booted in the conference finals or the second round anymore. They’re trying to get to the finals.”
For the Knicks, it was another early test of how that will all work. Already in the first three games the Knicks have faced two unbeaten teams in Boston and Cleveland as well as the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season, the Indiana Pacers. Now, it was the Heat to start a four-game road trip.
“It’s good for us,” Towns said. “Play the best of the best. You play the game of basketball, especially in the NBA, to play the best players in the world. Last year is a totally different year than this year. Everyone’s started at 0-0. It doesn’t matter where you finished last year. It’s about where you’re going to finish this year. So for us, you get to play some really good teams, and really get to test yourselves and where you’re at.”
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.
