More and more, there is one name I keep coming back to whenever the conversation centers around Julius Randle. These era-to-era comparisons aren’t always 100 percent accurate, and they aren’t always fair, and they are by nature inexact science. Still, one name keeps coming back to me.
Walt Bellamy.
Here is Pete Axthelm, in his masterpiece 1970 book “The City Game,” describing Bellamy, whom the Knicks acquired from the Baltimore Bullets on Nov. 2, 1965 — in exchange for Johnny Green, Johnny Egan, Jim Barnes and cash. Bellamy averaged 18.9 points and 13.3 rebounds in shooting 52.2 percent across 268 games as a Knick (and finished at No. 60 on The Post’s ranking of the top 75 Knicks of all time in 2021):
“Bellamy remained the most frustrating enigma in the sport … Bellamy would outplay Wilt Chamberlain one night, then wander trancelike through the next two games. To sophisticated Garden fans … the answer seemed obvious: trade Bellamy for a top forward. Accomplishing this, however, was not simple. Standout forwards were scarce on the trading market and whatever his flaws, Bellamy was still one of the game’s ranking big men. GM Eddie Donovan didn’t want to give him away without receiving real value.”
It’s a little eerie, right?
All these years later, you hear the same grumbling about Randle, who two years ago was selected to the All-NBA second team, who this year made third team, whose raw numbers as a Knick are more than comparable to Bellamy’s: 284 games, 22.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, 49.8 percent 2-point shooting (the only kind in Bellamy’s day).
The two men had this basic fact in common, too: If you watched the Knicks from a distance, it seems impossible to understand how there could be a complaint with either. Most nights Bellamy was — and Randle is — either the clear No. 1 or No. 2 player on a team that won more games than it lost.
But it’s watching up close, every night, with a personal investment in the team, that the viewpoint can shift. In Bellamy’s case, in Axthelm’s words: “He gradually slipped into moodiness and inconsistency. If anything his trade to New York seemed to make him more unpredictable.”
In Randle’s, it’s the fact that he too often lapses into defense indifference, is way too sloppy with the ball, and though he is a gifted passer, he’s still not terribly proficient finding the perfect spot out of double-teams, which he sees regularly.
There is a sizable — and vocal — contingent of Knicks fans who have seen enough of Randle, who believe — with some cause — that the team has maximized its ceiling with him as a foundational piece.
Tom Thibodeau remains a staunch Randle advocate — “Julius is still young,” the coach said in the aftermath of Friday’s Game 6 elimination in Miami, “he is just entering his prime” — but give Thibodeau a dash of truth serum in his morning coffee and he’s almost certain to tell you that his team, as is, is a shooter and a stud away from truly being an elite contender.
And that is probably where Randle has to come in.
Look, the notion that he needs to simply be exiled is ludicrous and farcical. Again, there are just 15 players every year, in a league of 450, who are accorded all-league honors, and you don’t win them in a lottery. Randle has been so honored twice as a Knick. You don’t just hand away a guy like that. And Leon Rose — like Eddie Donovan before him — isn’t going to part ways with Randle unless he can identify real value. And here’s another thing to consider: These aren’t always obvious decisions.
Donovan ultimately traded Bellamy for Dave DeBusschere, and what we know now with certainty after 55 years of hindsight is that it was the best trade in Knicks history, and just about one of the best trades in sports history. But that’s entirely because of what happened. It worked. It transformed the Knicks into champions. The proof flaps high above the Garden floor, two championship banners and one retired No. 22 jersey.
But the day the trade was announced?
Go back. Read the reactions. DeBusschere was a very good player. In the moment, only ardent supporters — like Donovan — believed it was a no-brainer. Twitter in 1968 would have melted down at the announcement. Bellamy, it is fair to report, had already assembled much of the résumé that would land him in the Hall of Fame; much of DeBusschere’s HOF work was still ahead of him. It was a definite risk on Donovan’s part.
The kind of risk Rose needs to face now. The Knicks can be a nice 45- to 50-win team with what they’ve got, a second-round team. But that’s not what the game is. The game is about the next level. Can the Knicks get there?
They still have all those draft picks. And they have Randle as an asset, too. This is where the GM has to believe his own convictions, identify the next brick of the foundation, and make a play.
It is good that much of the NBA appreciates Randle far more than New York does. Rose will be counting on that in the months ahead.
