NEW YORK — Despite helping his team engineer a remarkable comeback from 25 points down against the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, star forward Julius Randle wasn’t happy.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Randle made a layup and, as he ran back to the other end of the court, gave the sellout crowd a thumbs down as they cheered his name.
When asked after the game what message he was trying to get across to the fans, Randle didn’t mince his words.
“Shut the f— up,” he said.
In response to a follow-up question about whether this was because of the boos the Knicks heard throughout the first two-plus quarters of Thursday’s win, when the Celtics thoroughly outplayed them, Randle said, “You saw that. You saw what was going on out there.”
Randle’s thumbs-down gesture was reminiscent of what then-New York Mets shortstop Javier Baez did this summer. After hitting a home run, Baez gave the crowd at Citi Field a pair of thumbs down, saying later it was in response to the fans’ treatment of him and his teammates throughout the season.
For Randle, the gesture was a continuation of comments he made the day before at the team’s practice facility when he was asked about the negativity that has surrounded his play this season.
“I really don’t give a f— what anybody has to say, to be honest,” Randle said. “I’m out there playing. Nobody knows the game out there better than I do, compared to what everybody has to say.
“So I really don’t give a s—. I just go out there and play.”
Last season was a charmed one for both Randle and the Knicks. He became an All-Star and All-NBA player for the first time and won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award en route to leading the Knicks to 41 wins and the fourth seed in the Eastern…
Source : espn
