The New York Knicks won the championship in June, their first since 1973, and three months later they are locked in a staring contest with one of the men who delivered it.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on September 23 that extension talks between the Knicks and Karl-Anthony Towns have stagnated. At media day on Monday, Towns made no effort to pretend otherwise.
The gap here is enormous
Towns is eligible for a four-year extension worth more than $272 million, which lands around $68 million per season. New York has reportedly been offering somewhere in the $45 to $50 million range annually.
Those are not two sides haggling over a rounding error. They are nearly $20 million a year apart on what the same player is worth, which is less a negotiation than a philosophical disagreement.
Towns has one guaranteed season left plus a $61 million player option for 2027-28. If nothing is signed by June 30, he can walk into unrestricted free agency.
“I’ve made it known I want to play here,” Towns said Monday. “I would like to get one done, of course. Get it done so I can step on the court and feel as comfortable as possible.” Asked about negotiating once games begin, he was sharper: “There’s no comfortability to be had.”
This is a James Dolan problem
The constraint is not a scouting disagreement about Towns’ defense. Dolan has committed to keeping the Knicks below the $222 million second apron, and he has described crossing that line as something you would have to be out of your mind to do.
That mandate reportedly blindsided his own front office, and it already cost New York backup center Mitchell Robinson, who signed with Boston. Josh Hart sits in the same holding pattern, with one guaranteed year, a $22.4 million team option for 2027-28 and eligibility for an extension worth up to four years and $132 million.
Hart’s media day answer was the polite version of an unhappy thought. “You always want to get it done, kind of as soon as possible, obviously, because you don’t want that trickling into the season,” he said.
Pay him or trade him
Towns produces exactly what this roster is built around. He averaged 20.1 points and 11.9 rebounds last season on 50.1 percent shooting from the field and 36.8 percent from three, then went 55.1/45.6/90.9 during the title run. A center who stretches the floor at that rate is not replaceable at any price the Knicks would enjoy paying.
So the front office has two defensible paths. Get near the max and accept the tax bill that comes with defending a championship, or move him during this season for players and picks while his value sits at its absolute peak.
The indefensible path is the one they are currently walking, which is letting the standoff bleed into training camp while hoping a title-winning locker room absorbs the tension. Contention windows tend to close from the inside. New York is three months removed from a parade and already behaving like a team looking to save money on the part that worked.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.