A one-off lottery for Lakers, Julius Randle hasn’t forgotten its roots, nor the ending.
With the Lakers facing the reviving Knicks in the Garden Monday, seeing the purple and gold still does something to Randle, who wore the colors for four seasons.
When asked on Sunday night after the Knicks’ victory over the Raptors if it was still extra special to face the Lakers, Randle said, “Always.”
In the era of the Knicks pandemic of Zoom interviews, reporters should not be asked follow-up questions and the session ended before he could explain.
But the message has been sent. Randle, the left wrecking ball of the Knicks, is still not over how it ended with the Lakers after his four-year rookie contract expired.
In January 2020, while facing the Lakers in Los Angeles, Randle admitted to having strange feelings about leaving the team as a free agent to sign with New Orleans in July 2018 when LeBron James came on board.
“It wasn’t the right situation,” Randle said fifteen months ago. ‘Do I wish it had turned out differently? I’m not going into what-if. It worked out how it should be done. I am happy where I am now. Everything in life happens for a reason. Life’s highs and lows happen for a reason. It made me the person I am today and I am thrilled to be a Knick. ”
He’s even more ecstatic now that he’s first become an All-Star, carrying the Knicks on his back in the playoff battle while the Garden fills up with ‘MV-P’ chants when he’s at the free-throw line.
Randle is a triple double threat every night – five in the season. He averages 22.8 points, 10.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists – the latter double last season.
In fact, as the main point out, Randle is now a poor man’s leftist LeBron – except a little healthier. Randle has played in 53 of the 54 games. James has completed 41 games due to his heavy hamstring load.
There are reports that the Lakers did not want to give Randle a long-term deal after James came on board, as they wanted to save space the following summer for Anthony Davis, also a Rich Paul client.
It worked when the Lakers used cap space to allow for a trade for Davis for last season and the Lakers won the 2020 NBA Championship in the Orlando bubble.
James and Davis weren’t at the Garden on Monday. Both have been injured for long periods and may be more than a week away from returning to defend their titles.
A recent report from SB Nation suggested that Randle didn’t want to play with James anyway, that he told the Lakers to let him become an unrestricted free agent once King James signed.
Perhaps that was his intention when he spoke to New York writers in Los Angeles in January 2020 before the Knicks faced the Lakers.
‘Am I surprised I wasn’t back here? It’s a business, mate. I’m not surprised by anything, ”Randle said. ‘If the situation was right, it would have been me. It was not the right situation. ”
Asked to explain, Randle said, “You have to ask [general manager] Rob Pelinka. That situation is a thing of the past. I don’t want to go into details about why and why not. I had a great experience in New Orleans and now I am here. And it’s a great experience here. It is over. ”
Randle spent four seasons with the Lakers and was there for Kobe Bryant’s final campaign. He was – like many others – devastated by his death.
Bryant was a big influence and it must also be gloomy for Randle that his mentor is no longer alive to finally see him emerge as a star.
Randle recently fondly reminisced about Bryant’s last game when he scored 60 points on 50 shot attempts. Tuesday is the five-year anniversary of that competition.
“He didn’t have to say it, it was spoken between us as players, he got every chance and we gave him the ball every time,” Randle said on JJ Redick’s podcast in February. ‘It started out difficult. You watched the game – he made two of the first 15 shots. We were concerned. But he flipped the switch, bro, and was one of the few times I saw the real Black Mamba come up all season. The guy went crazy. ”
At one point when Bryant came to Randle to bring it to the field, the current Knicks star said he would take the shot. Bryant replied, “What, do you want the arena to call you names?”