Karl-Anthony Towns appears to be the most talked-about Knick at the moment, despite being far from the best in form. Experts across the league are weighing in on what he should and should not do, and Shaquille O’Neal recently did the same.
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Towns has been criticized for not being aggressive enough on the court, something Charles Barkley pointed out ahead of the Rockets vs. Knicks clash on Saturday. He wants the big man to use his frame and bully smaller defenders, something he avoids doing.
Chuck on KAT: “He don’t know how to play basketball. The matchup dictates whether you shoot 3s or you go post up. He’s a heckuva player but when they put a little guy on you, go in the post. He’s a great shooter. I ain’t letting no little dude guard me…take his little ass in… pic.twitter.com/6toyjq6uVb
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) February 22, 2026
The Knicks won against the Rockets, thanks to a miraculous third quarter comeback where Houston got outscored by 18. Towns scored 25 and had a pretty good game, but his interview with O’Neal was just painful to watch.
O’Neal did not mince words. He told Towns that if the Knicks were to win the NBA title, the world would be talking about his teammate Jalen Brunson and not him. “If you guys win the chip, they’ll talk about Brunson. You have to be dominant,” the Lakers legend stated on ESPN.
Towns appeared to not care much, replying, “They can talk about anybody as long as we get a ring that’s the most important thing.”
It was the perfect response on paper, and would have worked with a journalist, perhaps. But Shaq is no journalist. He further antagonized the man.
“No, you gotta play great. You’re apart of that 1-2 punch,” he asserted before Towns, once again insisted that he didn’t care about credit as long as the Knicks ended their five-decade championship drought. O’Neal, however, went on. “Nope. You gotta play great to get the credit,” he added.
This Shaq/KAT convo got REAL awkward:
Shaq: If you guys win the chip, they’ll talk about Brunson. You have to be dominant
KAT: They can talk about anybody as long as we get a ring thats the most important thing
Shaq: No, you gotta play great. You’re apart of that 1-2 punch… pic.twitter.com/W93T3s8WpY
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) February 22, 2026
The way legends like O’Neal are hell-bent on ‘waking’ Towns up shows that he has a lot of seemingly untapped potential. O’Neal knows how good he can be. Barkley knows how good he can be. It’s time for Towns to respond and show that New York isn’t just Brunson’s city. It’s his too.
