Donte DiVincenzo denies rumors of discontent from the New York Knicks

Donte DiVincenzo said the tension between him and the New York Knicks corresponds to the jersey number he wore during his only season in Manhattan: zero.

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

“There were no angry feelings, no crazy feelings, nothing like that,” DiVincenzo told Bondy. “It was a start: 'Damn, I got traded,' and then it's on to the next thing. It was all love.”

Along with Julius Randle, DiVincenzo was traded to Minnesota as one of the headliners in the trade that acquired Karl-Anthony Towns. This partially ended the era of the “Nova Knicks”, in which four former Villanova Wildcats (all of whom took part in the 2016 national championship run under Jay Wright) were in the metropolitan squad.

Post-market rumors suggested that DiVincenzo was looking for a way out after the Knicks acquired Bridges, as the move would likely put “The Big Ragu” back on the bench. DiVincenzo took over the Knicks' primary shooting guard duties in December and set both a career-high in scoring (15.5 points per game) and the franchise record for most three-pointers in a season (283).

The Villanova graduate said talks about his role with the 2024-25 Knicks were never discussed, giving him no reason to be upset. He even pointed out that there's no guarantee he'll start in Minneapolis, as incumbents Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels could all take precedence.

In fact, DiVincenzo embraced Bridges for reasons that went far beyond her Wildcat heritage.

“It was never about, 'Oh, we have Mikal, I'm upset.' I was super excited,” DiVincenzo told Bondy. “Take the Villanova (stuff) out, I was super excited because we have a very good player coming back to the team.”

“You get OG (Anunoby) back, now you see, 'Wow, we're going to be really good.' There was never any conversation about my role being cut. It was the outside assumption, and it wasn't true.

DiVincenzo will now be part of a new title chase as the Timberwolves look to capitalize on their long-awaited trip to the Western Conference Finals last year. Of course, he maintains a close friendship with his former Cats colleagues, as they were part of a revamped GQ feature that focused on a foursome who won't be spending a professional minute together, at least not any time soon.

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

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

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