Steve Popper: Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns able to shut out trade rumors
The Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns dribbles the ball against the Bucks during the fourth quarter at Fiserv Forum on Feb. 27, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick McDermott
MILWAUKEE
If you thought spending three days in Milwaukee might bring up some odd feelings for Karl-Anthony Towns, an understandable assumption, he insisted you would be wrong.
Towns, who has had to hear rumors and chatter for months about trades and the possibility of spending the rest of his career in Milwaukee if the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade talk came to fruition, said none of it bothers him because he doesn’t listen to any of it.
He doesn’t care what any of the reporters write, what the talking heads on television opine about him and what the trolls on social media post.
Is that hard to imagine, to believe that he is unbothered by the critics?
“I don’t really hear the noise and stuff,” Towns said, relaxing off to the side of the court at Fiserv Forum this past week.
“I know people want to believe I do, and I really don’t and don’t care. I just focus on the present. I said it multiple times last year. I’ve said it again this year. It’s about staying in the present.
“For me, I continue to worry about what’s the task at hand. That’s being the best player I can be for my brothers and my teammates here in New York, continue to go out there and impact winning. I keep saying that all the time. I know you guys think it’s redundant, but it’s true. It’s how I approach the year, the season. Every game is about can I impact winning the most.”
It isn’t just the trade talk, although it would be understandable if it bothered him after the move from Minnesota to New York caught him by surprise (he said it was “a bump in the road” and would not change his approach to life).
The biggest question is how can he ignore the talk.
So we asked him.
“I continue to be myself regardless of what people say, what the noise is,” Towns said. “I’m going to work on my game, I’m going to continue to be who I am as a person. I’m going to approach life the way I approach it. It’s gotten me this far.
“It’s gotten me a beautiful fiancee, a great family that’s all healthy and happy. I mean, it’s done well. It doesn’t always need to just be about basketball. It’s gotten me well in life. It’s kept me centered. It’s kept me focused. It’s kept me engaged and motivated to continue to attack every day with the same competition and competitive spirit.
“I just live my life. Watch my movies. Watch my ‘House of Dragons.’ Watch ‘The Pitt.’ Watch my ‘Severance,’ ‘Pluribus.’ We get to it and just live life. Try to get outside. Touch grass. That’s what I do.”
Battle on the bench
Mo Diawara has been a find for the Knicks this season, seemingly growing by leaps and bounds that far exceed what might have been expected of a 20-year-old selected near the end of the second round of the NBA Draft about eight months ago.
But when Jeremy Sochan arrived just past the trade deadline, Diawara’s minutes suddenly became hit or miss, with Mike Brown testing combinations to see how the more experienced Sochan might help come playoff time.
On Friday, it was Diawara who got the call off the bench first, and he played 23 minutes compared to six garbage-time minutes for Sochan. And Brown said it might play out that way through the remainder of the season.
“Those guys are like ninth and 10th, 10th and ninth guy, however you want to call it,” Brown said. “I’ll make the call as we go along, but everybody has to make sure they keep themselves ready.”
Diawara said he hasn’t been hearing that from only the coach but from his teammates.
“Everybody. Everybody, for real,” he said. “The players. The staff. Everybody told me to stay ready. First year, I’m a rookie. So everything is not going to be great. So I just have to stay ready and wait until my name gets called.
“It can be tough sometimes. But at the end of the day, you just got to stay ready. That’s the game.”
While that may be the process now, Brown was quick to point out that Diawara might have a bigger role ahead.
“The biggest thing obviously between the two guys is Jeremy is in his fourth season and he’s a little bigger, he’s a little stronger and he knows the league a little bit better,” Brown said.
“But Mo is coming. And I say Mo is coming because everybody needs to understand that. Not just Jeremy. But everybody. Because Mo is coming.”
Anunoby returns to form
The Knicks got the complete package from OG Anunoby on Friday. He was named the defensive player of the game, scored 24 points and shot 8-for-10, including 5-for-7 from three-point range, in a 127-98 win over the Bucks. Since returning from a four-game absence after tearing off a toenail, he seemed to have lost his rhythm, shooting 34.7% overall and 16.0% (4-for-25) from outside the arc in four games before this breakout.
“It’s always good when you make shots,” Anunoby said. “You’d rather come back and go back to the same rhythm, but it takes time. The schedule and you have to figure it out.”
“It’s big,” Brown said. “And I said this before his toe injury, he was playing at an extremely high level. This is how he was playing to a certain degree. To see that, to feel it, all that other stuff was big.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
