Karl-Anthony Towns had every reason to wade into a political minefield Sunday. Instead, he calmly walked around it and back to the only thing that actually matters to the Knicks. The fans.
President Donald Trump is set to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday at Madison Square Garden after Knicks owner James Dolan personally invited him. The decision drew immediate concern that having the President in the building would only ramp up an already chaotic atmosphere.
So a reporter asked Towns, a New York native, what he thought about Trump being there for the first home Finals game in the city since 1999. Towns refused to go there.
“I mean, we’ve got to be desperate for these fans,” Towns said. “The fans have earned the right, deserve the right to see Finals basketball be played here at Madison Square Garden. For this to be the first game in a long time that they’ve seen Finals basketball, it’s up to us to bring it. Give them something to cheer for, give them something to get loud for, and also to give them something to believe in.”
“We’ve talked about the word hope. Hope has been brought back to the city. We’ve revitalized that word. But the word success hasn’t been seen in this city in a long time. So, we have to continue to fight to bring that word back to fruition.”
That is media training at its finest. Towns took a question designed to put him in the news cycle as a political voice and redirected it to a Knicks-only message. The internet noticed.
“Handled well. This is a great example of bridging in media training spokespeople,” posted Lori Rubinson of WFAN. “You bridge to another topic. No one forces you to answer the question exactly as asked. With all the positive mojo around the Knicks, no reason for the players to dip into politics.”
That is exactly the play. The Knicks are two wins away from their first title since 1973. There is no upside, none, for any Knicks player to step into a political conversation right now. Towns is smart enough to know that and gave one of the cleanest sidesteps the league has seen all season.
Towns is not the first Knick to dodge a Trump question this week. Multiple reporters pressed Knicks stars on the subject and they all declined the bait. Mitchell Robinson is reportedly looking forward to meeting the President. That is his right too.
The Knicks have the city. They have the moment. They have a 2-0 lead over the Spurs. Anything that distracts from that storyline is a problem. Towns chose to be part of the solution.
His on-court value to this team has been obvious all postseason. His off-court value just showed up too. There is a reason the Knicks brought him in last offseason. Sunday’s press conference is part of it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
