Donte DiVincenzo Shuts Down Rumors of Knicks Displeasure

Donte DiVincenzo said the tension between him self and the New York Knicks matches the jersey number he wore during his lone season in Manhattan: zero.

Set to visit Madison Square Garden as a visitor for the first time in over a year when the Minnesota Timberwolves come by for a preseason tilt, DiVincenzo set the record straight about his metropolitan departure to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. The shooter dismissed rumors of dissatisfaction with his New York role as “completely untrue.”

“There were no angry feelings, no mad feelings, nothing like that,” DiVincenzo told Bondy. “It was an initial, ‘Damn I got traded,’ and you move on to the next thing. It was all love.”

Along with Julius Randle, DiVincenzo was dealt to Minnesota as one of the headliners of the trade that acquired Karl-Anthony Towns. Thus partly ended the “‘Nova Knicks” era, which would’ve featured four former Villanova Wildcats (all of whom partook in the 2016 national championship run under Jay Wright) on the metropolitan roster.

Post-trade gossip claimed that DiVincenzo sought a way out after the Knicks acquired Bridges, as the move would likely move “The Big Ragu” back to the bench. DiVincenzo took over the Knicks’ primary shooting guard duties in December and set both a career-best in scoring (15.5 points a game) and the franchise’s single-season record for most three-pointers (283).

The Villanova alum said that conversations about his role on the 2024-25 Knicks was never discussed, thus giving him nothing to potentally be upset about. He even noted that it’s no guarantee that he’ll start in Minneapolis, as incumbents Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, and Jaden McDaniels may all take priority.

DiVincenzo, in fact, welcomed Bridges to the fold for reasons far beyond their Wildcat heritage.

“It was never a thing of, ‘Oh, we got Mikal, I’m [ticked] off.’ I was super excited,” DiVincenzo told Bondy. “Take the Villanova [stuff] out of it, I was super excited because we have a very good player coming back to the team.”

“You get OG [Anunoby] back, now you’re looking at, ‘Wow we’re going to be really good.’ There was never a conversation of my role was going to be diminished. There was never a role that my minutes would be diminished. It was the outside assumption and ran with it and it was untrue.”

DiVincenzo is now set to be part of a new title chase, one where the Timberwolves are looking to capitalize on last year’s long-awaited visit to the Western Conference Finals. He does, of course, maintain a strong friendship with his fellow former Cats, as they were part of a revamped GQ feature centered on a foursome that will not share a professional minute together, at least not any time soon.

“It’s not weird. We’re friends outside of basketball,” DiVincenzo said. “It’s not like we just became friends in basketball and that’s the only thing we have friendship-wise.”

“Those are my brothers. We could do the shoot, whether all of us play for four different teams or the same team. I think the timing of it was kind of funny. But that doesn’t change anything about the relationship or anything.”

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