Karl-Anthony Towns just gave every athlete a media training clinic for free.
President Donald Trump is expected to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on Monday night after receiving an invitation from longtime Knicks owner James Dolan. The first Finals game in New York since 1999 was already going to be a chaotic atmosphere. Adding the sitting president to the front-row pile makes it a circus.
So when a reporter asked Towns what he thought about Trump’s attendance, the Knicks star had two choices. He could take the bait and start a culture-war story that would consume the next 48 hours of NBA coverage. Or he could bridge the question back to the actual basketball game and let everybody move on.
He picked option two. Beautifully.
“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 bring it. Give them something to cheer for, give them something to get loud for, and also to give them something to believe in.”
Then he kept going. “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 what a professional looks like on a microphone. Towns acknowledged the moment, refocused on the fans, and turned a political landmine into a love letter to New York. The reporters did not get the story they were fishing for. The Knicks did not get a distraction. KAT did not have to defend any opinion he did not feel like sharing.
Fans noticed. Lori Rubinson of WFAN called it a great example of bridging in media training spokespeople. Other observers pointed out that OG Anunoby had dodged a similar question earlier in the weekend with the same kind of composure. Several called it the perfect answer from a guy who has not always been considered great with the media.
That last point matters. Towns has had his rough media moments over the years. In Minnesota, he sometimes seemed defensive or thin-skinned with reporters. In his first season with the Knicks, he occasionally got snippy. This version of KAT, the one playing on the biggest stage of his career, has been smoother and more present in every press setting.
Part of that is winning. It is easier to be quotable when your team is up 2-0 in the Finals. Part of it is experience. He is 30 years old now, in his 11th season, a six-time All-Star, and he has obviously been through enough media cycles to know which questions to fight and which questions to redirect.
The Trump question was not a fight worth having. There is no answer Towns could have given that would not have alienated some portion of the Knicks fan base. Anti-Trump answers get him roasted on conservative talk radio. Pro-Trump answers get him roasted on social media. The best answer was no answer at all, dressed up as a passionate answer about something else.
One Knicks teammate apparently has a different read on the visit. Mitchell Robinson reportedly said he was excited about Trump being in the building. That is fine, that is Robinson’s right, and frankly, that response will also be a story for about a day. The difference is that Robinson opened a door. Towns closed one.
The actual basketball game tips off Monday at 8:30 PM ET. Trump may be courtside. Spike Lee will be courtside. The crowd will be deafening. The Knicks will try to take a 3-0 lead in a Finals nobody outside the five boroughs gave them a chance to reach four months ago.
And if you ask Towns about any of it, you already know what kind of answer you are going to get.
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.
