“The Julius Randle Riddle” continued amid the giddiness of the Knicks’ fourth straight victory Monday over the Bulls.
The video of Randle marching off the court after getting the final rebound and flinging it away without celebrating with his teammates struck another sour note with the fan base burnt by Randle’s “thumbs-down” gesture earlier in the season.
It was a rough night for Randle, who scored just five points, who sat much of the fourth quarter as Obi Toppin hit three 3-pointers in an electric run. Fans chanted “O-bi’’ when the young power forward was on the bench with Randle on the court struggling through a 1 of 9 shooting performance.
Randle still has a sore quad that he’s playing through, but his body language on the bench during timeouts looked distracted.
MSG Networks’ Alan Hahn and Wally Szczerbiak took exception on the postgame show.
“You just wish Julius would join the party, that he would enjoy it, too,” Hahn said. “He walks off the court and throws the basketball away. Celebrate with your team.”
Szczerbiak noted the Toppin-Randle phenomenon.
“When Randle went out of the lineup [last week], it gave Obi Toppin the opportunity to get the start,” Szczerbiak said. “You see how much his teammates are picking his play up and the energy he’s playing with. The crowd loves him. They want to see him out on the court. His team is playing with a lot of joy. It’s about playing with joy and picking up your teammates.”
Randle took three games off last week to rest his quad, saying Sunday he felt he was hurting the team. Fair enough.
But some people around the league feel he’s acting in a “James Harden type of way” that suggests he wants a new place of work next season. Randle has lost his strongest ally in assistant coach Kenny Payne, his former mentor at Kentucky who left this month to be the head coach at Louisville. Some NBA sources believe the Knicks will shop Randle for a package revolving around a center if they lose Mitchell Robinson.
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has walked on eggshells when discussing Randle and commended his 13 rebounds Monday.
“You can play well when you don’t shoot well,” Thibodeau said.
Then Thibodeau talked about some areas in which Randle doesn’t seem to be excelling.
“No one’s going to play well every game,” Thibodeau said. “But you can help a team with hustle, rebounding, take a charge, chase a ball down, set a great screen. Recognize Alec [Burks] is going good — I’m going to drive and search him out and find him.”
Randle, who barely touched the ball in the final minutes, was not made available for comment after the victory over the Bulls.
Randle is not listed on the injury report ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Hornets. The Knicks need to go 5-1 in their last six games to have any chance of catching the Hawks or Hornets for the play-in as they sat 4 ¹/₂ games out of the 10th and final spot entering Tuesday.
“If you can’t play, I still want you to give us what you can give us,” Thibodeau said. “Be on the bench, into the game, encourage, talk to the young guys. Talk about things you see.”
In the final minute of the Charlotte laugher last week, Randle left the bench, then stayed in the tunnel with a public relations staffer. But that’s nothing compared to his decision to no longer participate in the pregame starting lineup introductions for road games — choosing instead to stay in the back to warm up.
Sources contend a lack of leadership from Randle has hurt the club this season. One source said Randle sometimes dresses by himself in another area of the locker room.
When asked after the Monday night win why it took so long for the Knicks to win four straight, Thibodeau said cryptically, “We’ll have to take a deep dive after the season. I have some pretty good ideas why.”
The Knicks coach wouldn’t share them. But one person connected to the team recently described Randle’s behavior this season as “incorrigible.” The Post previously reported that Randle didn’t come into training camp in the same shape as last season when he became a first-time All-Star.
Randle has also had tiffs with referees, players and staged a media boycott midseason. He’s been fined multiple times by the NBA, including after altercations with the Suns’ Cam Johnson and Jazz’s Rudy Gobert.
Nobody can pinpoint the exact cause of Randle’s odd behavior but it’s not hard to imagine Randle feeling betrayed — perhaps rightly — by the fans turning on him early in the season after a slow start. There could be potential jealousy over RJ Barrett winning over the fans, too. The Garden has chanted Barrett’s name even during games when Randle is by far outperforming him.
Whatever it is, something’s not right.
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