Tensions Boil Over in Donte DiVincenzo Return Against Knicks

The New York Knicks endured Donte’s inferno on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.

Tensions boiled over at MSG’s weekend-closing reunion, as former Knicks shooter and current Minnesota Timberwolf Donte DiVincenzo had to be separated from a verbal exchange with New York assistant coach Rick Brunson at the end of a Sunday preseason game.

Sunday marked DiVincenzo’s first visit to MSG since he and Julius Randle were traded from the Knicks to the Timberwolves in the Karl-Anthony Towns blockbuster earlier this month. DiVincenzo scored 15 points and dished out seven in a 115-110 victory for the Knicks.

“I don’t know fully well what was said,” DiVincenzo said of the exchange, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “I really have no comment on the situation. I think we’ll both be men and talk about it privately.” 

Prior to the game, DiVincenzo told Bondy that he had no hard feelings toward the Knicks but Sunday’s exhibition featured several verbal extracurriculars. The final showdown with Brunson, the father of Knicks star and DiVincenzo’s close friend Jalen, capped off a feisty showing from “The Big Ragu,” who also sent in-game pleasantries to the Knicks’ bench during a first quarter free throw attempt.

Cameras and microphones from ESPN caught DiVincenzo remarking “That’s what happens when they let you run the show” in the general area of the Knicks bench. According to Chris Herring of ESPN, DiVincenzo had hinted it was an inside joke of sorts with head coach Tom Thibodeau.

Some on social media claimed that DiVincenzo was facetiously thanking Thibodeau for the trade but the Knicks’ single-season three-pointer leader denied that notion.

“I didn’t say thanks for the trade. It was about a finish, I was joking with Thibs about not being able to finish,” DiVincenzo said in Bondy’s report. “He was giving me a hard time. I didn’t say anything about the trade, and that was it.” 

Peacemakers on both sides eventually separated DiVincenzo and the elder Brunson before things got out of hand. Jalen Brunson was part of that group and cheekily remarked that “words of affirmation” were exchanged, per Bondy. DiVincenzo and Jalen Brunson have a lengthy friendship stemming from their shared tenures at Villanova University.

“My relationship with Jalen, that’s my brother and my best friend,” DiVincenzo said, per Herring. “That’s a separate relationship. I’ll talk about that privately, and figure everything out. But it is what it is.”

The Knicks and Timberwolves have two meetings scheduled this season, the first landing on Dec. 19 in Minneapolis. In the meantime, New York plays its penultimate preseason game against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).

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