Steve Popper: Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns feel weight of not having extensions with Knicks
Karl-Anthony Towns of the Knicks answers questions during a press conference at first day of training camp on Monday, September 28, 2026 in Tarrytown. Credit: Dawn McCormick
GREENBURGH, N.Y. — It hasn’t been difficult to see the Knicks' summer of celebration, from the appearances on every stage and screen all the way to the Serengeti, where Karl-Anthony Towns saw just how far the franchise’s accomplishment in winning its first NBA championship in 53 years had reached.
“Me and my wife, for our honeymoon, went to East Africa,” Towns said. “We went to Nairobi, we went to Kenya, we went to Tanzania, and it was crazy just seeing — we’d be out in the Serengeti and there were people on the cars, in the open cars, in the wild, going, ‘Knicks in five!’ That’s pretty crazy actually.”
It has been crazy and the party went on all the way into the early morning hours Sunday when much of the team celebrated at the Saturday Night Live afterparty. And the party will go on again October 20 when Madison Square Garden hosts the ring ceremony on the court. But Monday, as they gathered for the start of training camp, there was the reality creeping in that the mantra the team vocalized last year, it’s 0-0, is true. And underneath all of the parties, there are obstacles for the team to overcome if they want to be the first NBA team in nine years to repeat as champions.
Both Towns and Josh Hart did little to hide their desire to remain in New York and sign contract extensions, but also didn’t hide their frustration that those deals haven’t happened yet. The Knicks won’t just enter the season as the hunted, a tough task in itself, but need to resolve the potential distractions that loom in their own locker room.
“I think in this situation, there is no comfortability to be had,” Towns said. “So that’s probably the best answer to that.”
When the question was posed to Hart, he began to answer and the lights went out at the Knicks training facility and alarms sounded, an ominous sign, even if it was just a power outage that hit the area. In the dark, Hart still sat and answered.
“You always want to get it done, kind of as soon as possible, obviously, because you don’t want that trickling into the season,” he said. “Because whenever there’s uncertainty, there’s going to be a lot of questions. There’s going to be a lot of rumors. At a human level, sometimes that can wear people down and it can affect how you go out and handle business on a day-to-day basis, just some of that uncertainty.
". . . But for me, as long as I wear this jersey, I’m going to play as hard as I can for my guys and this city and hopefully we can figure that out. But we know it’s a business and we know if some of these things aren’t figured out by February, it might be a different conversation. …
“I would hope that that stuff gets done. At the end of the day, we’re humans and I think what sometimes gets lost is that we are people, that we all have lives and things that we have to deal with and fix.
"I wish I could sit there and say it wouldn’t have any weight or any bearing, but you never know. Some people can handle it great and some people can really struggle with it and that can kill their performance. I hope it gets done, but we’ll see."
Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan made it clear this summer that he wasn’t going to let the payroll go into the second apron of the collective bargaining agreement and the Knicks managed to keep nearly the entire core intact, losing only Mitchell Robinson. Now, it’s not a backup center, but two of the key pieces to the team’s success who are on the clock, and how the franchise navigates that might be as much of an issue as the rebuilt Philadelphia 76ers or the arrival of Giannis Antetokounmpo in Miami.
“We try to talk about everything,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “We don't want to leave any elephants in the room. But you know, that's something that Leon [Rose] and his group, they've been really good at. . . . And so I had a lot of faith in them and, you know, the players and the agents, whoever's involved.”
Brown brushed off questions about whether the team was ready to push the payroll into that prohibitive level to keep this group together, leaving it to the front office. And Jalen Brunson was confident that the maturity of the group would hold it together in the meantime.
“Yeah, I feel like guys should be able to do that," Brunson said. "I think we're all professionals in that way. But, I mean,” he said pausing for a long time before adding, I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait and see. See how we approach this. But I have the utmost faith in these guys.
“The first couple of weeks or whatever of the season is going to show us who we are and where we are. No matter what we're doing, whether we're playing great, playing bad, how are you going to be able to learn? And so, I mean, we'll find a way. We'll hold each other accountable, just like we did last year, and then, we'll be better.”
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.
