All-Star Randle making his mom proud
NEW YORK — Julius Randle made his mother proud.
Carolyn Kyles made a surprise appearance on MSG’s Jumbotron to congratulate her All-Star son with a video message during Tuesday’s game against the Warriors. It was the poignant moment for Randle given the hardships of the last year, with Kyles isolating at home in Texas because diabetes puts her at high risk for COVD-related complications.
“Throughout the course of this past year, it’s definitely been tough on all of us. But my mother, she hasn’t been able to leave the house,” said Randle, who smiled during the game as he watched his mother send her message of support and pride. “We’ve been extra cautious with her. It’s been really tough on her because she hasn’t really left the house and gotten out. … So I know this was a special night for her as well. She’s been there every step of the way seeing all of the work I put in. It was amazing just to see how happy she was congratulating me.”
Randle, who is putting up career highs in points, assists and rebounds, became a deserving All-Star reserve on Tuesday, selected by the coaches and excited to mark something big off his to-do list.
“Everything that I signed up for, and goals that I wrote down when I decided to come here and play for the Knicks — it’s all happening,” Randle said. “It was definitely an amazing moment for me and my family. And it was definitely special for sure.”
Randle knew about his selection before it was official thanks to a text from his wife. But he was pleasantly shocked by his mother’s appearance on the MSG screen.
“Hi Julius! Surprise,” Kyles said. “I just wanted to say that I love you so much, and I’m so proud of the son and the teammate that you are. Continue to grind and work hard, putting forth great effort for your team. Just continue to work hard, and great things are going to happen for you. Love you.”
Randle, 26, will be a firsttime All-Star at the game in Chicago next month, and the first Knick selected since Kristaps Porzingis in 2018.
He always had a strong case but wasn’t a lock. Even in a weak Eastern Conference, several players could claim being snubbed, namely Miami’s duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, Atlanta’s Trae Young, Toronto’s Fred VanVleet, Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton, Philly’s Tobias Harris and Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis.
Randle received a $945,000 contract bonus for the selection, and the Knicks campaigned hard for their best player. Despite the PR push, Randle finished seventh in the fan voting among Eastern Conference frontcourt players. The players vote had him lower – eighth – behind Detroit’s Jerami Grant, Butler and Adebayo.
The media had the most respect for Randle, giving him a tie for fifth in its voting with Tatum. But Randle said a coach’s selection wouldn’t equate to validation from his peers.
“I think I get that validation howthey play me every night. With the double teams,” he said. “How they try to game plan. All that type of stuff. Obviously the All-Star nod would be amazing. Every player strives to do that, or whatever the case may be.”
Randle had put up big numbers the last two seasons, especially in 201819 with the Pelicans. But he was never considered for an All-Star spot until this awakening under Tom Thibodeau, with Randle taking the lead role on a team that has exceeded expectations.
He’s also played in every game and leads the NBA in minutes.
“Julius has been in the league for seven years. And we saw flashes from Julius in L.A. when he was there,” future Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade said on TNT. “But now you get a coach that really puts the ball in his hands, puts it in his sweet spot and allows him to become the player we knew he could be when he was drafted.”
The PGA Tour without Tiger Woods was always inevitable purely because of age. His shattered right leg from his SUV flipping down a hill on a sweeping road through coastal Los Angeles suburbs only brings that closer.
Golf wasn’t ready Wednesday to contemplate the future of its biggest star after the 10th and most complicated surgery on the 45-year-old Woods. There was more relief that he was alive.
“Listen, whenTiger wants to talk about golf, we’ll talk about golf,” Commissioner Jay Monahan said at the World Golf Championship in Florida. “When you’re going to overcome what he needs to overcome, I think the love of all of our players and everybody out here, it’s going to come forward in a big way and across the entire sporting world.
“I think he’ll feel that energy and I think that’s what we should all focus on.”
Can golf do without the player singularly responsible for its growth?
His watershed victory in the 1997 Masters sent media interest in golf soaring. More than just the first player of Black heritage in a green jacket, he won at a more prolific rate than anyone in history. The timing was impeccable, for the PGA Tour negotiated a TV contract that made prize money spike.
Woods won his first tournament as a 20-year-old in the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational, where the total purse was $1.65 million. At the World Golf Championship this week, first place alone is worth $1.82 million.
Woods made everyone rich.
What now?
The PGATour has been downthis road before.
Ten years ago, when Woods was still smarting from the sordid revelations of serial adultery and missed three months with more injuries, the PGA Tour negotiated a nine-year TVdeal with increased rights fees. There was no assurance Woods could get back to the top of his game.
Woods was playing a small schedule even when he was younger and healthier. He has never played more than 21 times in a year on the PGA Tour, which stages events in 46 weeks this season.
He also tends to return to the same courses. But when he plays, and there isn’t a pandemic, no one needs to study TV ratings to measure his impact. Fans often stand six and seven rows deep behind tees and greens to get a look. No other player attracts that kind of attention. The top 10 in the world combined don’t do that.
Woods doesn’t move the needle. Woods is the needle.
“It’s always great when he plays at a tournament or is out here because it gives that tournament an extra dimension that it usually doesn’t,” four-time major champion Rory McIlroy said. “Wewere all sort of heading towards that day that Tiger wasn’t going to be a part of the game.”
Woods had only one top-10 finish last year, and that was before the pandemic. Even after golf returned, he waited an additional month to get started. He played only seven times since July and never cracked the top 35. He remains one victory short of his 83rd victory, which would set a PGA Tour record, the one most reasonable for him to break. That was before the crash.
What the future holds for Woods and for the tour is not anything players were ready to embrace.
“At this stage, I think everyone should just be grateful that he’s here, that he’s alive, that his kids haven’t lost their dad,” McIlroy said. “That’s the most important thing. Golf is so far from the equation right now, it’s not even on the map.”