Let’s call it the KAT delimma.
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns wants to get paid.
Clarification: He wants to be paid much more. The 30-year-old Knicks center is beginning his 12th season in the NBA. According to Spotrac.com, a noted online platform providing data on player contracts and team salary caps, Towns has earned approximately $285,198,217 in his professional career.
He’ll add $57,078,728 this season, pushing his earnings to $342,276,945 going into next summer, when the six-time All-Star and 2026 NBA champion will have a $61,015,196 player option on the final year of a four-year $220,441,984 extension. The Piscataway, New Jersey, star signed the extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves in July 2022, and it took effect in the 2024-25 season. He was traded to the Knicks in October 2024.
(Note: I’m not rounding the numbers to add context that $441,984 alone is almost seven times more than the $65,052 annual median average salary of a full-time United States worker according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Towns is eligible for an aptly named supermax deal that could pay him $276 million over four years. He became eligible for the contract last August and will remain eligible to sign a deal until June 30, 2027. If the Knicks don’t come to an agreement with him by then, he could exercise the aforementioned player option for the 2027-28 season and become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2028.
The Knicks are reportedly offering Towns a four-year, $200 million extension which as of today, he seems to be rejecting.
“It don’t look good,” Towns said on Monday before the Knicks’ preseason opener against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“Simply put, I want to do something to keep the team together, work with the Knicks and also values me. … And none of those things are close to happening.”
Towns is represented by Jessica Holtz of Creative Artists Agency, where Knicks president Leon Rose co-headed the basketball division before James Dolan, CEO of Madison Square Garden Sports and MSG Entertainment, hired him in March 2020.
The KAT dilemma.
Signing Towns to a $276 supermax, which would carry an AAV (average annual value) of $69 million, or a deal significantly above that, could compromise Rose’s capacity to maintain and continue to build out a roster that can compete for a title over the life of Towns’ contract.
To be clear, KAT is a proven star and future Hall of Famer. He arguably had the best stretch of his career in the second half of last season and the postseason, during which Knicks head coach Mike Brown transformed the team’s offense, making Towns the hub. His defense also improved substantially, evolving into an empirical factor in the Knicks winning the championship.
However, he’s not a superstar. In fairness, only a handful of players are, whatever their salaries suggest.
A little over a week ago, when asked if a deal should be quickly reached between him and the Knicks, Towns succinctly responded to a reporter, “No sh*t Sherlock. I just won a championship. You’d think it was pretty easy. Unless you guys think I have something else to prove.”
Dolan is rightly adamant the Knicks will not enter the NBA’s punitive second apron salary cap.
The Knicks also have to pay Jalen Brunson, who the franchise has given every indication will deservedly be offered a four-year, $290 million extension in 2028. Brunson left $113 million on the table when he signed a four-year, $156.5 million extension in July 2024. It helped yield the Knicks’ first title in 53 years.
Will KAT make a similar sacrifice? The court of public opinion is now in session.
