New York Knicks Mike Vaccaro Karl-Anthony Towns’ Knicks transformation has only one true comparable By Mike Vaccaro Published June 8, 2026, 7:34 p.m. ET Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns #32 reacts after scoring against the Spurs. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post He is the most fascinating Knick, Karl-Anthony Towns, and he has been from the first day he showed up in a swap for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. Jalen Brunson is the motor. Josh Hart is the heart. OG Anunoby is the force. Mikal Bridges is the soul.
Together they are one of the truly great examples of the whole being better than the sum of its parts, especially in the 45 days before Monday’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks wouldn’t be the Knicks without all of them.
But it’s KAT who is impossible to stop thinking about, because like a character on a well-written TV series he has continually evolved, reinvention after reinvention, to where there are a lot of folks who believe he was the leader in the clubhouse for Finals MVP after two games.
Moreover, if the Knicks wind up finishing this off, he becomes a shoo-in Hall of Famer to boot. Now there are those (raises hand) who think he’ll have a hell of a shot at Springfield even if the script flips on the Knicks.
