The New York Knicks are set to begin the defense of their 2026 NBA Championship later this month. Unfortunately, the last few weeks of training camp and preseason have been riddled with questions about the futures of both Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart.
Towns and Hart, two players crucial to the Knicks championship season, are eligible for contract extensions with the franchise and are willing to take pay cuts in order to remain with the franchise. But both players have seen negotiations stall as James Dolan and the Knicks fear the dreaded second apron and the penalties associated with diving into that financial bracket.
On Friday morning, a Knicks spokesperson released a statement saying that New York will be halting all contract extension negotiations.
“As an organization, our entire focus is on preparing for the upcoming season and delivering another year for our fans to be proud of,” the Knicks said. “As a result, we will not be negotiating contract extensions until later in the season and will remain solely focused on preparing for the start of the season.”
Shortly after the news broke, Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart posted simple messages on Twitter, highlighted with orange and blue-colored heart emojis.
Always Love 🧡💙 pic.twitter.com/QfkQ8Ag1e3
— Karl-Anthony Towns (@KarlTowns) October 9, 2026
Article Continues BelowNY 🧡💙
— Josh Hart (@joshhart) October 9, 2026
The Knicks message came with added reporting from ESPN, with their NBA insider saying both sides are now clearly divided on extension talks.
“This is the Knicks attempting to eliminate the distractions and eliminate the growing cloud around the team that has come from the fact that there is no extension for Karl-Anthony Towns or Josh Hart yet and trying to bring the focus back to basketball,” Shams Charania said. “But now, officially, both sides are fully divided on this issue. Karl-Anthony Towns wants a contract extension. The Knicks have now stated and fully shut the door that there won't be an extension. I'm told the negotiations have been idle between the Knicks and Towns for a while now. Their latest offer for Towns was about four years and $200 million. That's $76 million less than his max. My understanding is KAT would be willing to take tens of millions of dollars less than that max number, but he feels that current offer is just extreme of a pay-cut to take.
“Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart, they've wanted the Knicks to come back to the table to negotiate a deal in good faith and try to get smoething done before the start of the season. The Knicks offers are where they're at, they have not moved recently, and the Knicks have wanted to stay out of the second apron as their owner James Dolan has directed. Karl-Anthony Towns has been willing to come up with arrangements that would allow them to stay under taht second apron. The Knicks are where they're at. Karl-Anthony Towns feels they're not even close to where he would be willing to take.”
Coming off an NBA Championship for one of the most storied franchises in NBA history that hasn't seen a title in 53 years, the Knicks are playing a very dangerous game.