Heated exchange spices up DiVincenzo’s 1st game vs ex-team Knicks

NEW YORK – Donte DiVincenzo exchanged pleasantries with his former New York Knicks teammates before the tip-off of his first game back at the Madison Square Garden since the blockbuster trade that sent him and Julius Randle to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns.

But the pleasantries quickly changed into a light-hearted trash-talking once the game began. And it ended in a heated exchange with his former assistant coach Rick Brunson, who also happens to be the father of Knicks star and DiVincenzo’s close friend Jalen Brunson.

DiVincenzo and the elder Brunson were separated before things could have escalated.

The younger Brunson wrapped his arms around DiVincenzo to cool things down.

“I didn't see it,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said afterward, referring to the near altercation between his former player and his assistant coach. “It’s two competitive guys, so stuff like that does happen.”

It was an NBA preseason game like no other as the Knicks pulled off an emotional 115-110 comeback victory Sunday (Monday Manila time) that had a playoff atmosphere for the first three quarters and after the buzzer.

Both teams emptied their bench in the fourth quarter.

DiVincenzo scored nine of the Timberwolves’ first 15 points as if to show his former team they made a mistake in trading him.

While at the free throw line to complete a three-point play that gave Minnesota an early 15-11 lead, DiVincenzo began chirping at the Knicks bench.

“That’s what happens when they let you run the show,” DiVincenzo was caught by the television cameras telling toward the Knicks bench at the free throw line. “That’s what happens when they let you run the show.”

In Thibodeau fashion, the Knicks coach nonchalantly avoided getting drawn into the unnecessary drama.

“I don't pay any attention to that stuff,” Thibodeau said. “I think the important thing is to lock into what your job is and what you have to do. So don't get distracted. It doesn’t mean anything.”

DiVincenzo told New York media in the locker room after the game that he was only joking about not finishing his drive to the basket with Thibodeau and did not yap about the trade, which several online accounts have alluded to. 

But