Randle’s Knick of Time: How Kobe Bryant Inspired His Move to New York

New York Knicks star Julius Randle is currently in the process of ramping up for a return from a shoulder injury he sustained in January. In Randle’s absence, along with the absence of recently acquired wing OG Anunoby from the Toronto Raptors, New York has managed to stay afloat relatively well, thanks primarily to the excellent play of star point guard Jalen Brunson.

It’s been a long road of rebuilding for the Knicks to get to their current status as a playoff contender in the Eastern Conference. When Randle first joined the organization back in 2019, New York was the NBA’s symbol of ineptitude, having just swung and missed in epic fashion on both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who instead opted to sign with the crosstown rival Brooklyn Nets.

Now, Randle is getting one hundred percent honest on what led him to choose New York in the first place following his stint with the New Orleans Pelicans.

“I wanted to win here. I felt like, this ain’t a shot at nobody but New York was looked at like a place that nobody wanted to come to,” said Randle, via Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart’s The Roommates Show podcast, presented by Playmaker (via KnicksMuse on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter)… I kinda felt like it was that Kobe spirit Mamba Mentality in me like ‘man, let me take on this challenge’… it’s easy to play for the money, but for me it was more about legacy… if I’m done playing, how do I want to look back at my career? Did I challenge myself? Did I push myself? And for me everything I wanted to envision happen is happening now. We’re still not there, but you know we on the way.”

Randle’s Kobe Bryant connection goes way back

Julius Randle first got to know the late Kobe Bryant when he became his teammate when he was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers back in 2014 out of Kentucky. Of course, Bryant was widely known for the “Black Mamba” persona he gave himself to channel his fierceness on the court, and it seems that this mentality transferred over to Randle and his own decision-making process during his free agency process back in 2019.

The results so far have been hard a mixed bag. Randle has garnered multiple All-Star and All-NBA selections during his tenure with the Knicks, but has also suffered through two of the worst statistical playoff performances in NBA history, first against the Atlanta Hawks in 2021, and then in 2023 vs the Miami Heat, both of which drew the ire of the Knicks’ notoriously impatient fanbase.

Randle is now hoping to make a return to the lineup before this upcoming postseason, where he will hope to exorcise some past playoff demons and lead the Knicks on a deep playoff run. In theory, the Knicks when healthy (which is quite the caveat) have the talent to beat anyone in the Eastern Conference not named the Boston Celtics.

The postseason is set to get underway in just under one month’s time.