Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns named a reserve for All-Star Game
New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns reacts after his three-point shot against the Brooklyn Nets in the first half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Knicks again will have two players in the All-Star Game.
Despite having one of the worst seasons of his career statistically, Karl-Anthony Towns was picked Sunday as a reserve for the Eastern Conference All-Star team, joining teammate Jalen Brunson, who was voted in as a starter.
Towns entered Sunday’s game against the Lakers averaging 20.0 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. All are down from last season, his first year as a Knick, and his 20.0 points are the least he has averaged since his rookie season in 2015-16.
“We should have, in my opinion, two or three guys, at least, on this All-Star team based on what our record is. Not only that, we were NBA Cup champions, so there are a lot of positives,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said Sunday before the reserves were announced.
“ . . . KAT, he’s leading us in rebounds, he’s second in scoring. I don’t know how many double-doubles he has, but that’s impactful when you’re talking about doing it in a winning situation.”
Towns joins Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, Atlanta’s Jalen Johnson, Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, Miami’s Norman Powell, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes and Detroit’s Jalen Duren as Eastern Conference reserves.
In the Western Conference, the Lakers’ LeBron James was named to his NBA-record 22nd All-Star Game. James has made three more All-Star teams than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is second in league history.
Also selected as a Western Conference reserve were Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Denver’s Jamal Murray, Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, Houston’s Kevin Durant, Phoenix’s Devin Booker and Portland’s Deni Avdija.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
