{"id":13485,"date":"2022-01-28T23:40:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T23:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/2022\/01\/28\/julius-randle-reiterates-his-knicks-commitment\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T23:40:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T23:40:40","slug":"julius-randle-reiterates-his-knicks-commitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/julius-randle-reiterates-his-knicks-commitment\/","title":{"rendered":"Julius Randle reiterates his Knicks commitment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>We will find out soon enough if the feeling is mutual, but Julius Randle remains committed to the Knicks.<\/p>\n<p>The slumping All-Star forward said Friday in Milwaukee that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t change\u201d his decision to sign a contract extension worth up to $117 million with the Knicks last summer \u2014 even despite his declining numbers, the team\u2019s losing record and his recent spat with fans and the media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI still want to be a part of it. I still want to see this thing through. I still want to be a part of helping trying to bring a championship to the Knicks,\u201d Randle told reporters. \u201cSo, I\u2019m not going to be happy and be all about it when things are good and just because it\u2019s not necessarily going the way I want it to or the team wants it to run and hide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m still behind this. I\u2019m still sticking it through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Randle was voted to the All-NBA second team last season after fronting the Knicks \u2013 alongside first-year head coach Tom Thibodeau \u2014 to the franchise\u2019s first postseason berth since 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Following a poor performance in a five-game elimination by the Hawks in the first round of the playoffs, however, the 27-year-old Randle and the team clearly have regressed this season.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption>Julius Randle could be a goner at the NBA Trade Deadline.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Robert Sabo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>They enter Friday\u2019s game against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the defending champion Bucks outside the 10 playoff positions in the Eastern Conference with a 23-26 record, including five losses in the past six games.<\/p>\n<p>Randle\u2019s scoring average has dipped from a career-best 24.1 points per game in 2020-21 to 18.7, while his 3-point shooting percentage has plummeted from 41.1 percent to 30.7 this season.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been hard, but like my man J. Cole says, there\u2019s beauty in the struggle,\u201d Randle said, referring to the popular rapper\/singer. \u201cIt\u2019s a struggle. We\u2019re trying to figure it out. But this is really where you find out what people are about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is when you find out about the character of the guys on your team, so I\u2019m excited about [it]. We still got a lot of games to play, so I\u2019m excited to see how we push forward and push past it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Randle also admittedly didn\u2019t handle well the criticism he has heard from fans at Madison Square Garden and via social media this season. He was fined $25,000 by the NBA for explaining a thumbs-down gesture to the fans at one home game as telling them to \u201cshut the f\u2013k up,\u201d and the team later was fined the same amount for preventing him from speaking to the media following games. A Knicks fan also alleged on WFAN that Randle had him booted from FTX Arena in Miami on Wednesday for heckling him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSame thing, man. I\u2019m going to stick to my guns. I\u2019m going to stick to who I am as a person,\u201d Randle said. \u201cThat\u2019s coming in, working every day, trying to be an infectious leader with my spirit and my energy and just try to be positive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thibodeau has continued to support Randle through his struggles, even as third-year wing RJ Barrett has begun to take on more of the leadership burden this year, especially since veteran guard Derrick Rose underwent ankle surgery in December.<\/p>\n<p>With the Feb. 10 trade deadline looming, Thibodeau said after Wednesday\u2019s blowout loss in Miami that he believes Randle \u201cwill get back to\u201d being the player he was last year and \u201cour team has to get back to that,\u201d as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefinitely. We got the team. We got the talent. We got the coach, support. So, we definitely can do it,\u201d Randle said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to take everything day by day. Understand it\u2019s a process and understand things don\u2019t happen overnight. And as long as we\u2019re creating and building the right habits every day, we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We will find out soon enough if the feeling is mutual, but Julius Randle remains committed to the Knicks. The slumping All-Star forward said Friday in Milwaukee that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t change\u201d his decision to sign a contract extension worth up to $117 million with the Knicks last summer \u2014 even despite his declining numbers, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[2441,507,215,409,2440],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13487,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13485\/revisions\/13487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}