Julius Randle isn’t trying to rewrite the Knicks’ championship story as his own.
New York just claimed its first title in 53 years, and Randle, now with the Timberwolves after his 2024 trade, made it clear he has no bitterness about watching his old team finish the job without him. In a conversation with Edu Maragoni, Randle praised what the organization built and said the moment was well earned after years of difficult work.
“Ah, no, I appreciate that,” said Randle. “What the organization accomplished is great.
Been a long time coming. Took a lot of hard years, a lot of different players, to build it up to what it was.
It’s amazing. Definitely look forward to creating that in Brooklyn.”
Randle’s own path to this point has been full of its own twists. He entered the league as the No. 7 pick in 2014 and started his career with the Lakers, where he was seen as a possible future star. That promise hit an early snag when he broke his leg in his rookie debut, a setback that took years to fully shake.
Even so, he eventually climbed into All-Star territory. His first All-Star season came in 2021, when he averaged 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.3 blocks per game while shooting 45.6% from the field.
The stretch from 2019 to 2024 was the peak of Randle’s career in a lot of ways, but it also brought plenty of turbulence. He was a central figure for the Knicks, yet things didn’t always go smoothly with fans and staff, and that eventually helped push him out in the massive three-team deal that sent him to Minnesota.
Two years after he left, the Knicks were back on top. Their title run not only restored the franchise’s place in the spotlight, it also brought in Karl-Anthony Towns in the trade, and Towns has played a major role in their recent success.
Still, Randle’s place in the larger Knicks rise is likely to be debated more than celebrated. Some fans already see his departure as the moment the championship window truly opened, and with the title now in hand, that theory is impossible to disprove.
Randle, though, isn’t interested in taking shots or settling scores. He’s simply happy to see the Knicks matter again after so much frustration, and at 31, his attention is on his next chapter with the Nets and the chance to chase the kind of finish in Brooklyn that he never reached in New York.
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