Knicks Stars Play Coy on Karl-Anthony Towns Trade

The New York Knicks were unable to speak about the reported Karl-Anthony Towns trade in their first statements of the 2024-25 season.

Nov 20, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) looks to pass the ball over New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) in the first half at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images / Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

The KAT's out of the bag, but the New York Knicks are still keeping it tied up.

Glimpses of Karl-Anthony Towns arriving at the Knicks' Tarrytown practice facility more or less confirms New York's reported deal with his former employers, the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the deal is still not official as of Monday. That placed a perplexing aura upon the Knicks' media day activities, which were staged at Tarrytown amidst the buzz.

Towns' literal and figurative arrival, however, is news to the Knicks' most prominent faces, who played coy when asked about the trade on Monday.

"Who's Karl?" point guard Jalen Brunson asked in video from SNY. "Don't know who that is. Don't know who that is."

"We got KAT?" forward Josh Hart added (h/t SNY). "Oh, wow! That's great."

Even head coach Tom Thibodeau broke out of his stoic shell to offer humorous levity to the situation, remarking only "Good try!" (h/t SNY) when asked about his prior experience with Towns during their shared time in Minneapolis.

As it stands, the pieces for the Towns trade appear to be in their proper places: Towns is in Tarrytown while Julius Randle, one of the Knicks top exports, bid farewell to New York in an Instagram post on Sunday. Both New York and Minnesota continue to work toward salary balancing and a third team will likely get involved so the Knicks can send out as much, or more, money than they're set to take on with Towns.

Towns' impending arrival adds a new level of excitement ... if not intensity ... to this upcoming Knicks season, one already fueled by championship dreams. Hart did what he could to appease the metropolitan masses by remarking that Towns would indeed be beneficial to a Finals cause ... unofficially, of course.

"I think someone like that, with his high character, would fit well (in New York)," Hart said, struggling to stifle laughter (h/t SNY). "We're extremely confident in what we have, officially and unofficially. We're ready to get started."

The Knicks tip off preseason play on Sunday evening in Charlotte (5 p.m. ET, MSG).

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