Rock Bottom

Julius Randle getting in this poor laptop guy's face is about as sad as it gets

February 07, 2022

Entering Saturday night, the New York Knicks had dropped four of their last five and were set to begin a gauntlet of a West Coast road trip in L.A. against the Lakers. "Desperate" for a win was putting it lightly, and Knicks certainly began the night looking like a desperate team.

After one quarter the Knicks led 42-29, and their supposed star player Julius Randle was finally playing like it after looking like a pedestrian player for much of the month of January. At halftime, New York led by 15, on pace to steal a massive victory before heading to Utah, then Denver, then San Francisco to play the Warriors, and, finally, Portland. 

Then the Knicks did what the Knicks do best - crumble. LeBron James' Lakers stunned N.Y. with a 31-13 third quarter, which we assume is around the time a particularly testy moment on the Knicks bench was captured on camera. Mind you, Randle was having a great game, but he was not buying whatever this guy who was holding the laptop was selling. Watch as Randle slaps the laptop away from the guy, then appears to get in his face, a rock bottom moment if we've ever seen one:

The ultimate "maybe you should pick on somebody your own size moment." You just cannot be losing your temper on the poor Macbook guy who is just trying to help the team win in the only way he knows how - by showing Randle whatever he was clearly doing wrong. Clearly, it struck a nerve with Randle, who has been displaying some extremely thin-skinned tendencies as of late. First, he went full Francisco Lindor, giving fans at Madison Square Garden the thumbs down and saying he was telling them to "shut the f--- up":

Then, it was reported that Randle had "informally" requested a trade and that is name had been frequently popping up in trade talks. Randle was informed of this by the N.Y. Post's Marc Berman and the conversation immediately turned sour:

Now, he's getting testy with lowly laptop guys on the sideline. It's a tough scene all around, especially for a player who the fanbase fell in love with not too long ago, only for him to disappear in the playoffs and take a step backward in 2022. If there's any good to take from this, it's that he did go for 32 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists against the Lakers, a game the Knicks ultimately lost 122-115. The Knicks will need more of that from him on Monday night when they take on the Utah Jazz, one of the top four teams in the Western Conference. With the trade deadline on Thursday rapidly approaching, we could be witnessing Randle's final days as a Knick.