Feb 27, 2021; New York, New York, USA; Julius Randle #30 of the New York Knicks celebrates after drawing the foul late in the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports
Julius Randle has made it clear he wants to play with the New York Knicks for a long time.
The New York Knicks have not been to the playoffs since 2013. They are now on pace to break that drought in 2021 and the play of Julius Randle is a key reason why the Knicks are back.
Randle signed with the team in the summer of 2019 and fans were likely upset at the franchise missing out on bigger stars in free agency. Questions swirled about if Randle was worth the money and he has proven he may even be underpaid this season.
The forward is averaging over 23 points per game and rarely takes a rest when the Knicks are in action. He is becoming a real star in New York City and fans are going to love to hear what he had to say about his future in town.
Julius Randle wants to remain with the Knicks
Randle signed a three-year deal in 2019 and the Knicks proceeded to miss out on qualifying for the bubble last summer. But fortunes are different now and it didn’t take the Knicks signing a superstar. All it took was building up a culture from within.
The All-Star also took to The Players’ Tribune to write about his excitement about being in New York and how things have turned around.
“More than any team I’ve ever been on, with this year’s Knicks, it feels like we have a collective purpose,” Randle writes in the piece. “And I think that’s also one of the things that Thibs has been great at bringing to the table. This idea of how we can have our goals as individuals, and then our goals as a team…. and if we have the right mindset, there’s no reason those goals can’t feed into each other.
Getting Tom Thibodeau in as head coach is another huge reason why the Knicks are turning things around. The team was able to land a coach with plenty of experience and who had actually wins under his belt. His voice is going to carry plenty of weight in a locker room led by a young star like Randle. Adding Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson to the mix helps get his message across as well.
Randle finishes his message to Knicks fans with a quote that serves as his commitment to turn this ship around.
“I’m damn proud to be a Knick.”