"That beef is long gone" - NBA insider believes Tom Thibodeau squashed “friction” with Karl-Anthony Towns to land him on Knicks
After a stint in Minnesota, Karl-Anthony Towns and Tom Thibodeau are reuniting in New York, where the player-coach duo hopes to find success in the Eastern Conference. Although their time together on the Minnesota Timberwolves ended in controversy, NBA insider Shams Charania said this week that any beef between the two is long squashed.
Their first stint lasted for two and a half seasons, from 2016 until midway through the 2018-19 season when Thibodeau was let go following the departure of Jimmy Butler.
After Thibodeau's exit, Karl-Anthony Towns seemingly took some not-so-subtle shots at the former coach during an appearance on 830 WCCO, where he called the player development program a "slap in the face" to young players.
Despite the tension between the two sides, it sounds as though there's no longer any animosity between the two. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Charania explained:
"There was friction on the way out. When Tom Thibodeau got fired in Minnesota, there was friction between those. 1000% I think that beef is long gone. I think a lot of that was Karl-Anthony Towns was in the middle of a Jimmy Butler-Tom Thibodeau, it wasn't a cold war, but there was tension there. ...
"A lot of that was him getting caught in the middle of it. They've since gotten their relationship at a much better place. And trust me when I say this, Tom Thibodeau and that coaching staff, they wanted this trade. They wanted Karl-Anthony Towns in the fold."
Shams Charania reveals Tom Thibodeau and New York Knicks have been trying to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns for months
When news broke last week that the New York Knicks were trading Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for Karl-Anthony Towns, many members of the NBA community were left floored by the news.
Given that Towns and the Timberwolves were fresh off their best postseason finish in years, which saw them make it all the way to the Western Conference finals, and the Knicks made a second-round appearance despite injuries to Randle and Mitchell Robinson, many members of the NBA community were caught off guard.
According to Shams Charania, however, Tom Thibodeau and the New York Knicks had been trying to acquire Towns since the start of the offseason. As he explained, on draft night, the Knicks offered a Julius Randle-Mitchell Robinson package deal in exchange for Towns, however, the Timberwolves declined.
"This is something that the Knicks were quietly working on for months, since the start of the offseason, since draft night. ... They finally put Donte DiVincenzo in and that was still a no but at least there was a window open for them and then they put the first-round pick on Friday and they get this massive deal done.”
In addition to Towns and DiVincenzo, the Timberwolves also acquired a first-round pick from the Detroit Pistons. With the trade shaking up both the Eastern and Western Conference, it will be interesting to see how things play out for both teams in the coming months.