The Knicks won the championship in June. Three months later, their starting center spent media day explaining that he still has no contract beyond next season.
Karl-Anthony Towns was polite, complimentary and clearly annoyed. “I’ve made it known that I want to play here,” he said. “I’ve been a fan since I was young. I would like to get one done, of course.”
Where the Talks Stand
Towns has two years left on the four-year, $220.4 million contract he originally signed in Minnesota, with the final season in 2027-28 carrying a $61 million player option. He is eligible right now for an extension worth roughly $276 million over four years.
New York does not want to pay that. Reporting through late September has the two sides stalled, with the Knicks pushing for a figure below the maximum. The unstated hope is that Towns follows the Jalen Brunson template and accepts less to keep the roster together.
No Comfortability to Be Had
Asked whether he would be willing to keep negotiating once games begin, Towns did not hide how he feels about it. “I think in this situation there’s no comfortability to be had,” he said.
That is a player telling his employer that an unresolved contract will follow him into every night of a title defense. It is also, functionally, a soft deadline.
The Awkward Part
Towns is 31, and this is the last major contract of his career. He just helped deliver New York its third championship and first since 1973, a five-game win over San Antonio, and he averaged 15.9 points and 10.6 rebounds across the playoff run.
Those numbers are also the Knicks’ argument. Towns was very good in the postseason rather than dominant, and New York’s defense has spent two Junes building schemes around his limitations in pick-and-roll coverage. Paying a 31-year-old big man $69 million a year is how a champion gets old and expensive at the same time.
Head coach Mike Brown framed the season around not losing ground, saying the Knicks “can’t afford to have any slippage.” An unsigned starting center in October qualifies as slippage.
How This Ends
Towns signs, but not for $276 million. My read is a four-year deal somewhere between $230 million and $250 million, closer to Brunson’s spirit of compromise than to his actual discount, and I think it gets done closer to the trade deadline than to opening night. Neither side has enough leverage to win outright, which usually produces a split.
The alternative is ugly for everyone. If Towns plays this season unsigned, he can decline the $61 million in 2027-28 and hit free agency at 32, and the Knicks would be replacing a starting center off a title team with nothing coming back. That is not a conversation this front office wants to have next July, and Towns knows it.
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.