Julius Randle came under fire on Thursday and Friday for giving New York Knicks fans a thumb down and telling the press that was his way to say “shut the f*ck up.” Randle, during the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ 25-point comeback against the Boston Celtics on Thursday that was capped off with a game-winner by RJ Barrett, made a basket and did the gesture to the crowd at Madison Square Garden.
In the aftermath of the game, Randle was asked about the gesture, which he said was a way to express his frustrations over the fact that the hometown fans will boo the Knicks’ players. He came under fire from the Inside the NBA crew for his comments, as they more or less said this sort of thing happens in New York and that Randle shouldn’t be surprised that fans were upset at the time that they booed because the Knicks were losing.
One day later and Randle has issued up a statement on his Instagram account about the whole thing — while he did not explicitly say he was sorry, the All-Star forward told fans that “I should have handled things last night differently and expressed myself with more professionalism and more appropriate language in the heat of the moment.”
Randle’s next game in front of Knicks fans will be on Monday night when the team hosts the Spurs.