Steve Popper: Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns putting on happy face despite contract dispute
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns against the Minnesota Timberwolves during a preseason game at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 12, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
In the fourth quarter Thursday night, with his work done, having played 28 minutes in the final preseason game, Karl-Anthony Towns got the call from Mike Brown to exit. Brown sent Andre Drummond to the scorer’s table and Towns waved him off, desperately trying to remain in the game.
And that was about as far as Towns would go to defy or disrupt anything the Knicks are attempting to do this season in their efforts to repeat as champions. It wasn’t a contract dispute, but simply even in a meaningless preseason game where statistics will be forgotten, trying to finish off a number.
Told afterwards that Towns had accumulated 13 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists, needing just one more for a triple-double, Brown smiled and said, “Oh, that's why he wanted to stay in the game. I didn't know that, because he was waving me off. You know, KAT is such a nice guy. I was gonna wave back.”
Maybe that was an icebreaker for the Knicks' season, easing the tension that has pervaded training camp as the uncertainty of contract extensions for some of the most important players — none more pressing or vital than Towns, who can walk away as a free agent at season’s end if the two sides can’t find a way to keep him in place.
Towns has openly expressed his frustration with the contract talks — eligible for a four-year, $276 million extension and stating that he would take a discounted deal to help keep the roster together, but not pleased with the four-year, $200 million deal that reportedly had been offered by the team in the summer. The Knicks seemed to throw gasoline on the smoldering tension by putting out a statement last week that contract talks were being put off until later in the season.
But Towns has given no hint that the stalemate would change his approach.
Thursday’s game, the Knicks' only win of the preseason and as close to a dress rehearsal as Brown would put on the court head of Tuesday night’s banner-raising season-opener against the 76ers, looked very much like the Knicks' strategies and style that were on display in the epic postseason run. Towns was orchestrating much of the offense from the perimeter, piling up six assists in eight minutes, finding cutters and open shooters, setting screens for Jalen Brunson, and showing off his rare skillset.
“Yeah, you know, we'll do that a lot more at the beginning of the season this time around,” Brown said. “But we tried to mix up in the preseason. We didn't really game plan against these guys. We just executed stuff that we thought might work, but we didn't necessarily walk through it and say, Hey, this is why we're gonna do this, look to do this, look to do that.’ We just say, ‘Hey, we're gonna do this action, and these are our reads out of it. Go find the best read.’
And our guys did a nice job with it. I like to make it hard in the preseason, you know, ‘Hey, if they take this way, go to the counter.’ You know, we don't need the game plan. If they take that away, go to a different counter. So it's kind of what we did.”
The Knicks had worked on it all through last season, showing it in brief glimpses, but when they fell behind Atlanta in the opening round of the playoffs with the Hawks working to make things difficult for Brunson, Towns pushed for it and the Knicks responded — winning 13 straight postseason games and Towns posted a pair of triple-doubles in the run.
Whether it was playing unselfishly on the floor or laughing about waving off Brown as he stood in the postgame locker room, Towns didn’t give a hint that the contract uncertainty would change anything.
“We’re all humans, but what I do say is true — my only philosophy since we won, and the only thing I’ve had in my mind, is about ‘how do we win another one?’ ” he said in the wake of the Knicks' statement. “So for me, it’s the same focus that I came in this season with. It’s the same focus I’m going to go right into game one with: How do we keep the trophy in New York past just this one summer?”
Towns talked about how Brown has handled it, understanding that it’s not just x’s and o’s that occupy the minds of players. But it was all smiles Thursday as the Knicks readied for their rings and the start of the season.
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.
