Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart extension talk turning Knicks vibes from immaculate to ominous

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Time and again on Monday morning, during a season-opening press conference at the New York Knicks’ practice facility, head coach Mike Brown emphasized how important it will be for his team to uphold the standard that led the team to the 2026 NBA championship.

As the Knicks open training camp and begin the process of defending their NBA title, Brown repeatedly said the team cannot afford any slippage — in their energy and focus, in their commitment to sacrifice and connectedness, in their willingness to hold one another accountable.

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“First and foremost, we have to be able to look in the mirror and make sure that we’re doing what we should be doing for everybody in the locker room — for ourselves and everybody else in that locker room,” Brown said. “If we do that, the Knicks faithful will be taken care of, as long as we take care of ourselves first.”

The biggest questions hanging over the Media Day session for a Knicks team seeking to defend a championship for the first time in 53 years, though, focused primarily on whether the team will take care of several of its core players, in the form of multi-year contract extensions.

Karl-Anthony Towns, the unicorn stretch-5 who played perhaps the best basketball of his life during New York’s run to a title, has one fully guaranteed season left on his contract, and holds a $61 million player option for the 2027-28 campaign. Josh Hart, whose boundless energy and hard-charging two-way work helped fuel the Knicks night after night, also has one fully guaranteed year left, plus a $22.4 million team option for 2027-28.

Karl-Anthony Towns addresses the media Monday in Tarrytown, New York.

(Caleb Bowlin via Getty Images)

Both are eligible for extensions of those contracts: up to four years and $272 million for Towns, and up to four years and $132 million for Hart. Both made clear Monday that they would very much like to secure those extensions, sooner rather than later.

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“I mean, I’ve made it known,” Towns said. “You know, I wanna play here. Been a fan since I was young, and so I would like to get one done, of course. That’s obvious,…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/karl-anthony-towns-josh-hart-extension-talk-turning-knicks-vibes-from-immaculate-to-ominous-215651874.html

Author : Dan Devine

Publish date : 2026-09-28 21:56:00

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