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“It’s like the backup quarterback, everyone thinks he should start till he starts”: Tom Thibodeau defends Julius Randle, dismisses talk of benching the 2021 NBA All-Star

Amulya Shekhar
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"It's like the backup quarterback, everyone thinks he should start till he starts": Tom Thibodeau defends Julius Randle, dismisses talk of benching 2021 NBA All-Star

You might’ve thought that Julius Randle is under a bit of fire from coach Tom Thibodeau. But the Knicks forward seems to have Thibs’ full backing.

NBA players need to have a short memory for bad spells on the field and for bad shots. There are too many games during the course of a regular season campaign to get too hung up with one game.

But at the same time, there were signs that Tom Thibodeau had lost faith in his Knicks starters. He did, after all, bench his All-Star for an entire 4th quarter – one in which the bench mob completed a comeback that was on the cards.

That game against the Detroit Pistons would definitely have been a really low point for Julius Randle. It would’ve served as a stark reminder to the former Laker that the NBA is an unforgiving business.

Randle has had one of the worst seasons by any All-Star from the 2020-21 season this year thus far. His shot looks way off, and he’s finding it harder than ever to distribute to his Knicks teammates.

In addition, his energy on the defensive end takes a real hit as soon as he misses a shot. Julius Randle looked in clear need of a reminder that he needs to pull his socks up. The win against Detroit should definitely have served a good role in that.

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Tom Thibodeau defends Julius Randle, dismisses talk of benching the 2021 NBA All-Star

Given that Tom Thibodeau believes his player’s learnt his lesson, it is stupid to expect him to call out his own star in a press conference. Coach Thibs is, after all, a model professional – especially when it comes to the media.

He found the perfect way to rebuke people rallying for Obi Toppin to start over Julius Randle.

Also Read – The girl who did my homework at Auburn was smart as hell! Charles Barkley perfectly responded to Twitter troll after he ranked Kyrie Irving as the 25th-best NBA player.

Judging from the reactions, it seems NBA Twitter nephews are finding it pretty hard to cope with this immaculate analogy.

About the author

Amulya Shekhar

Amulya Shekhar

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Amulya Shekhar is a sports junkie who thrives on the thrills and frills of live sports action across basketball, football (the American variant works too), parkour, adventure sports. He believes sports connect us to our best selves, and he hopes to help people experience sports more holistically.

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