Julius Randle heard it. How couldn’t he? Late in the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ win over Phoenix on Monday, with Randle at the free throw line completing a 28-point night, an M-V-P chant cascaded down from the rafters. For any player, it’s flattering. For Randle, who a year ago was hearing something a lot different, it meant more.
Said Randle, “It’s good to be on the good side of The Garden.”
Indeed. Randle’s 3 ½ years in New York have been wild, with the peaks and valleys of a Coney Island roller coaster. He was good in the COVID-halted 2019–20 season, his first in New York.