CHARLESTON, S.C. — It’s on days like these when it’s easy to reminisce about the way sports was once, and about the characters that used to occupy its spotlight. Karl-Anthony Towns is as accomplished an acquisition as the Knicks have made in years.
He is a four-time All-Star. He is a two-time All-NBA selection. He’s been rookie of the year. You probably have to go back to Carmelo Anthony — four All-Star nods, three all-NBAs in Denver — to find someone in their prime with a sparklier résumé on the day he landed as a Knick.
Once upon a time, Reggie Jackson arrived similarly credentialed, and on the first day he officially spoke as a Yankee, he was mostly bland during his opening remarks inside the Versailles Terrace Room of the Americana Hotel.
He did the press-conference-ish things you always do at formal gatherings: donned the hat for the first time, put on a jersey (No. 42 that day, later 44), smiled endlessly for the cameras. He did say of George Steinbrenner “he hustled me, man,” but that was as far as he drifted from his prepared remarks.
It was later, before a smaller group of writers, that Reggie dropped the first of dozens of Reggie-isms he would distribute across five years as a Yankee:
“I didn’t come to New York to be a star,” Jackson said. “I brought my star with me.”
Towns brings his star to New York, be certain of that. If he’s sometimes been a frustrating player to watch and a frustrating player to coach, it’s only because his talents are such that he’s graded on a curve that applies to only a dozen or so other players in the league. He didn’t come here — a Jersey kid coming home — to be a star. He already is.
And the thing that gives you hope this might be a homecoming that works out in the end is this: It wouldn’t ever have occurred to Towns to drop a Reggie-ism, even if he hadn’t been efficiently coached by the Knicks PR staff. By all accounts, just about all KAT-isms on their own are regularly polite, milquetoast and beige.
Which means he’ll fit in pretty well with these Knicks.
Beige is gold around here. The less said, the better. Tom Thibodeau already seemed happier than a railbird cashing a trifecta ticket talking about all the ways his offense can hum now that it includes a career 23-and-11 man who also shot 40.4 percent from 3 his last seven years.
When he reads KAT’s quotes from his getting-to-know-you press gathering, he’ll probably buy his dinners the rest of the Knicks’ stay here in South Carolina.
“Shocked, shocked,” Towns, inside McAlister Field House, said of learning he was being shipped from Minnesota to New York in exchange for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a pick. “The word flabbergasted comes to mind.”
The rest of his remarks were heavy with gratitude toward his ex-teammates with the Timberwolves and his excitement at joining new teammates with the Knicks, and a tempered happiness at returning to the area where it all began for him, in Piscataway and Metuchen.
If it would ever have occurred to him that there might soon be a candy bar named after him, he kept it to himself. He did share that he told Jalen Brunson, “Hi, I’m Karl,” in response to Brunson honoring the team’s comment blackout on media day Monday, when he’d playfully asked “Who’s Karl?”
He’ll fit here. The Knicks quote-machine quota will remain locked at one, with Josh Hart ever available to offer his insights on the life and times of Madison Square Garden, occasionally joined by Brunson on their podcast for some yuks. There will not be a procession of hopefuls lining up to volunteer back pages for us the next six months.
It’s how Thibodeau likes it.
Beige is boss around here.
What’s happening on and off the Garden court
Sign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.
Thank you
“You get a player of his stature, we’re excited about the team we have,” Thibodeau said. “You have a guy who can not only shoot the 3 but put the ball on the floor and play with his back to basket so he’s very hard to switch against.”
And at first blush, seems to mesh perfectly with the established personality of the team. Look, it’s different now. DiVincenzo and Randle talked Thursday for the first time as T-wolves, too, and neither of them expressed anything other than gratitude, as well, unless you want to read too deeply into Randle saying, “It’s super important, you want to be somewhere you feel wanted. And I feel wanted here.”
There was no need for an interpreter at The Citadel. After five minutes, it felt like Towns had been here five years. He’ll blend. And beige will be beautiful if it translates into the brand of basketball the Knicks seem capable of delivering at their ceiling.
