NEW YORK — Julius Randle has been very charitable with his anger.
The Knicks forward was fined yet again Tuesday for “directing hostile language at a referee,” according the NBA, which docked Randle $40,000.
It was the fourth time the hot-tempered Randle was punished this season by the league, with fines totaling $130,000. The Knicks were fined $25,000 separately in January because Randle didn’t want to talk to the media.
Fines levied by the NBA are donated to anonymous charities.
The latest incident was bizarre. Randle, clearly frustrated at the end of a miserable performance in Sunday’s loss to the Jazz, shoved opposing center Rudy Gobert and left the court in a rage.
Strutting on his way out, Randle, who missed 15 of his 22 shots, gestured angrily at a referee as a security guard tried to usher him away. Randle’s miserable season has been defined not only by his faltering jumper (30.7% on 3-pointers), but also by his open hostility towards the opponent, the fans and the referees.
“You don’t want to repeat the same mistakes over and over,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “And I don’t want frustration to get in the way of — you’re human, there’s emotions involved in it. But we have to make sure we’re controlling our emotions.”
Perhaps related, Randle sat Tuesday’s game against the Hawks. He was officially ruled out with a sore right quad, which Thibodeau called a pain “that’s been there and hasn’t gone away. ..So we’re trying to clear that up.”
It set up Obi Toppin with a rare opportunity. Toppin, 24, the NBA’s Slam Dunk champion, started Tuesday at power forward after playing sparingly for two seasons as Randle’s backup.
Toppin entered the night averaging just 14.8 minutes in 61 games this season, demonstrating elite tendencies in transition but struggling on defense and shooting just 23.6% from beyond the arc.
“You don’t replace a guy like Julius individually, we have to do it collectively,” Thibodeau said. “So how do you do it collectively — it’s your team defense. Getting stops, rebounding the ball, push the ball up floor , rebound the ball. … When you have guys out, you’re margin of error is small.”
Randle has been extremely durable with the Knicks and entered Wednesday ranked 15th in the league in total minutes played. He led the NBA last season.
Toppin, meanwhile, hadn’t logged more than 20 minutes in a game since January. He started twice earlier in the season when Randle was out with COVID-19, but the Knicks were blown out by the Thunder and Raptors.
“Just play well when you’re on the floor. Have the team function well,” Thibodeau advised. “Play to your strengths, cover your weaknesses. This team (the Hawks) poses some different problems obviously with Trae (Young) and the things he does. So be locked into the appropriate help and you’re going to have to do more than one thing.”
