Donte DiVincenzo added turmoil to an already turbulent situation when he started yelling toward the New York Knicks bench during Sunday’s preseason game.
“Can’t finish, right Thibs?” DiVincenzo yelled at Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau before taking a free throw after New York fouled him on a floater. “Can’t finish, right?”
Initially, people thought DiVincenzo was complaining about the Knicks trading him. After the game, DiVincenzo clarified that he was joking with Thibodeau about finishing his floater. However, he declined to comment on his interaction with Knicks assistant Rick Brunson.
DiVincenzo had a friendly interaction with Jalen Brunson, Rick’s son, but people had to separate him and Rick Brunson after the game.
“Just some words. I don’t fully know what was said. A lot of people there,” he said after the game. “But I really have no comment on the situation. We’re both grown men and can talk about it privately.”
Rarely does a preseason game offer much intrigue. However, the Minnesota Timberwolves were heading to Madison Square Garden two weeks after trading Karl-Anthony Towns in a package for Julius Randle.
Towns scored 16 points and 16 rebounds in 29 minutes against the Wolves. Chris Finch discussed how weird it was seeing Towns in a different uniform. Towns said he had “a lot of emotions” playing against the Wolves after spending nine seasons in Minnesota. Anthony Edwards demanded that they swap jerseys.
That part wrapped up nicely.
But DiVincenzo opened a Pandora’s box by barking at Thibodeau and Brunson. After joking with Thibodeau while shooting his free throw, he turned his attention to Rick Brunson. DiVincenzo twice yelled, “That’s what happens when they let you run the show!” at Brunson.
Rick Brunson confronted DiVincenzo after the game.
“Sucka s–t man,” Brunson reportedly said to Brunson after the game. “That was some sucka s–t.
“Im’a let you live, brother.”
DiVincenzo lit a wick on an already volatile situation. The Towns-Randle trade will forever tie Minnesota and New York’s fates together. Towns was happy in the Twin Cities, but they traded him to his hometown team instead of running things back this season.
Thibodeau coached Towns when he was the Timberwolves president and coach from 2016 to 2019. Rick Brunson was on his staff. Gersson Rosas succeeded Thibodeau as Minnesota’s team president from 2019 until 2021. Now he’s in New York’s front office and pushed for the Knicks to trade for Towns.
Familiarity breeds contempt, and a strange tension is building between the Wolves and Knicks. Strange because the Timberwolves are in the Western Conference, and the Knicks are in the East. Strange because New York is America’s largest TV market; Minneapolis-St. Paul is the 15th. Also, the Timberwolves and Knicks have underachieved for so long that it’s hard to form a rivalry with anybody.
The Timberwolves probably won’t build a bona fide rivalry with the Knicks, but both teams have improved recently. Minnesota is coming off a Western Conference Finals run and was spending more money than any other team until they traded Towns. The Knicks lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals last year.
Minnesota is likelier to build rivalries with Western Conference powers like the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Dallas Mavericks. Still, their preseason drama with the Knicks may set the tone for the season – or at least their first regular-season matchup in Minnesota on December 19.
DiVincenzo’s conflict with Brunson grabbed people’s attention, and the Wolves shouldn’t give them any reason to look away. Edwards is a bona fide star who Netflix profiled in a recent documentary. Tim Connelly made another risky trade to try and build off last year’s playoff run. Everyone loves Naz Reid.
After the game, a reporter asked DiVincenzo asked him, “If you were to knock down a three-point game-winner at the Garden, would you prefer to do it over Jalen, Mikal [Bridges], or Josh [Hart]?”
“I’d prefer to do it in front of Thibs,” DiVincenzo said with a smile.
He’ll get an opportunity to do so when the Wolves travel to MSG on January 17.