Carmelo Anthony Blames Jalen Brunson for Karl-Anthony Towns’ Contract Dispute With Knicks

Jalen Brunson's below-market extension was praised as a sacrifice when he signed it. Back in July 2024, Brunson agreed to a four-year, $156.5 million deal, leaving roughly $113 million on the table to keep the Knicks flexible enough to build a championship roster around him. That decision, framed at the time as the move of a true leader, is now being reexamined by one of the franchise's most outspoken alumni as the root cause of a very different contract standoff playing out this offseason.

Carmelo Anthony laid out the connection on a recent podcast appearance, pointing to Brunson's discount as the reason the Knicks' front office arrived at a lowball number for Karl-Anthony Towns, whose contract negotiations are now put on hold until later in the season.

"It's not that the Knicks don't want him or he don't want to be here. It's that other guy in that office that's crunching these numbers, because he's the best in the business, and he finally came back and said, 'This is the best we can do to stay out of that apron,'" Anthony said on Wednesday's episode of the "7PM in Brooklyn" podcast. "And that's what it was, and they offered it to KAT. KAT said, 'No, h*** no'. He probably said, 'Hell no, because I deserve to get paid', which is true."

Anthony didn't shy away from the fact that his read on Brunson's deal has drawn criticism before.

"Y'all got mad at me when I said that about Jalen Brunson, though," he said, acknowledging pushback from an earlier comment linking Brunson's contract to a broader pattern. "He set a bad precedent. Not that he shouldn't do it, and that's his situation. But he set the precedent, and now that precedent is being asked to the next person."

The argument echoes a broader criticism around the league: that stars taking team-friendly deals, however well-intentioned, can box in teammates who negotiate afterward.

Anthony's criticism wasn't limited to the money. He raised real concern about how details of the Towns negotiation became public in the first place.

"If KAT found out through Twitter, that was wrong," Anthony said. "And that needs to be addressed. Whoever put that out onto Twitter, that should be a conversation."

Towns has been candid about the stalled talks himself. He told reporters earlier this week that the sides are 'not close' and that none of his priorities, keeping the championship roster together while being fairly valued, have come close to being met.

Anthony closed his comments with cautious optimism rather than alarm. He said that he was glad the specifics had stopped circulating publicly and expressed hope that the front office and Towns could move past it as a normal part of team business.

"This is part of the business," he said. "We win, we cool, we great, but this is now business. We gotta take care of this."

For a Knicks team coming off its first title in 53 years, Anthony's comments reframe the Towns standoff not as an isolated contract dispute, but as a direct consequence of the same roster-building philosophy that helped deliver the championship in the first place.