Julius Randle was hoping to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a win over the New York Knicks in Thursday night’s “revenge game.” Unfortunately for the All-Star forward, it didn’t take long for his plan to go south.
The Knicks dismantled the Timberwolves by a final score of 133-107. Karl-Anthony Towns led the charge with 32 points and 20 rebounds. He was part of the blockbuster trade that sent Randle to Minnesota. Speaking of Randle, he scored 24 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field. It was clear from tipoff that he wanted to be the focal point of the offense for the T-Wolves. After all, he took more shots than Anthony Edwards.
After the Knicks defeated the Timberwolves on Thursday night, Randle did something that infuriated New York’s fan base. He refused to shake hands with any of his former teammates.
“Julius Randle went straight to the locker room after the Timberwolves loss,” Knicks reporter Stefan Bondy said. “No shaking of hands or pleasantries with former teammates.”
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Knicks fans put Randle on blast.
“This is literally why I was searching Ju’s name on Twitter. Thank you for confirming dude is salty. And he tried to take control of the game from the first minute rendering Ant useless. Do not miss him,” one fan said.
Another fan tweeted, “Trash.”
“Coward SOFT just one more Soft often injured player to go before our team will feel complete,” a Knicks fan commented.
“Good he can take his terrible body language with him,” another Knicks fan wrote.
Suffice to say, Knicks fans aren’t missing Randle this season. Besides, they have a clear upgrade in Towns, who is averaging 25.0 points and 14.2 rebounds per game.
The Knicks are currently 17-10, whereas the Timberwolves are 14-12. Even though Minnesota’s record isn’t abysmal, it’s pretty evident that things aren’t going as well as the team had hoped.
“We don’t have [expletive] on offense,” Edwards said after Thursday’s game. “We don’t have no identity. We know I’m gonna shoot a bunch of shots, we know [Julius Randle] gonna shoot a bunch of shots, and that’s all we know.”
It certainly looks like Randle and the Timberwolves have some soul-searching to do.
Related: Anthony Edwards Trashed His Own Team After Embarrassing Loss