{"id":753928,"date":"2026-06-06T10:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/753928\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T10:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:36:17","slug":"new-york-knicks-karl-anthony-towns-deserves-to-win-finals-mvp-claims-2-nba-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/753928\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Knicks\u2019 Karl-Anthony Towns Deserves to Win Finals MVP, Claims 2 NBA Legends"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks<\/a> secured a 105-104 Game 2 win over the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> on Friday, and Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>\u2018 two-way play is one of the reasons why his team is up 2-0 in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

Towns produced 21 points (team-high), 13 rebounds, and four assists on 8-for-12 shooting from the field in 34 minutes. After the game, the New York Knicks center received some Finals MVP endorsements from Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Charles Barkley.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s been criticized in Minnesota<\/a>,\u201d Barkley said on Inside the NBA.<\/a> \u201cHe\u2019s been criticized in New York<\/a>. The MVP of the Finals is going to be Karl-Anthony Towns. He has played two of the best games I\u2019ve ever seen a big man play. He was great in Game 1. He was great in Game 2. That man earned his flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s playing with pace. He\u2019s playing smart. He\u2019s playing inside. He\u2019s outside. He\u2019s controlling the offense with the pass sometimes. And listen, he is just playing unbelievable basketball right now. And I agree with you. If it ended today, he would definitely be the Most Valuable Player,\u201d O\u2019Neal continued.<\/p>\n

\"JunJun 5, 2026; San Antonio, Texas, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) and San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama<\/a> (1) look for the ball in the second half during game two of the 2026 NBA Finals at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn ImagesNew York Knicks News: Karl-Anthony Towns downplays big performances vs. San Antonio Spurs<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns has been invaluable to the New York Knicks this postseason due to his production and interior presence. Even if he\u2019s not getting all the recognition, the six-time All-Star doesn\u2019t mind because he is just happy to help his team win games.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor me, I\u2019m just happy to be finding ways to win,\u201d Towns told the New York Post.<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m just worried about the team result, which is winning. This team leans on each other. I think that\u2019s why we\u2019ve gotten here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we had the success we had during the regular season, even when things weren\u2019t going great because at the end of the day when things do get tough, and the trials and tribulations do present themselves, this team doesn\u2019t disband. They don\u2019t go away from each other. We lean into each other even more,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks secured a 105-104 Game 2 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2001,2002,563,307,6,1220,11,1136,191,474,1302,693],"class_list":["post-753928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-playoffs","tag-basketball","tag-charles-barkley","tag-inside-the-nba","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-minnesota","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-shaquille-oneal","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116702726521218311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}