On the day the league announced that Julius Randle was selected to be an All-Star, the New York Knicks surprised the forward with a heartwarming video.
During their game against the Golden State Warriors, the Knicks showed a clip of Randle's mom congratulating him on his achievement.
"I love you so much and I'm so proud of the son and teammate that you are."
Julius Randle's mom congratulated him on being a first time #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/vDhRSWtAft
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 24, 2021
The Knicks bruiser was selected as one of the reserves of the Eastern Conference player pool. He'll have to wait on either LeBron James or Kevin Durant to pick him up in the draft. This marks Randle's first time to be selected as an All-Star. He's the first Knicks player to be chosen as an All-Star since the 2017-18 season.
So far, Randle is averaging 23.2 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per hame — all of which are career-highs. More importantly, Randle has been guiding the Knicks to victories. They entered Tuesday's duel with the Warriors with a decent 15-16 record for seventh in the East.
In January, Randle's long-time trainer Tyler Relph shared how motivated the forward was in putting in the work during the extended offseason. He added that Randle was “mad” that the team missed out on the Orlando bubble.
“We had nothing but time,” Relph says, per Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post. “and he didn’t want to waste any of it. We had nine months. So I told him: ‘Let’s be an all-star. Let’s try to get you to be one of the best players in the league.’ We went back to what we used to do. Footwork, stuff to make sure he got to spots fast. Over and over. Every day.”
Safe to say that Randle and his trainer achieved their goal. the Knicks forward can now call himself an All-Star.
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