Boos rain down at Madison Square Garden as Knicks slump takes new turn: ‘I’d be booing us, too’
Jan 19, 2026
The general consensus is in from both the Knicks and their head coach: If they were at Madison Square Garden in attendance for Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day showdown with the Dallas Mavericks, they would have booed, too.
The Mavericks led by as many as 30, blowing the Knicks out of the water
out of the gate to hand New York its ninth loss in its last 11 games on Monday.
Fans booed on four separate instances in the first half alone before a smattering of boos seeped on to the home court as the remnants of sellout Knicks crowd voiced its displeasure with the team as owner James Dolan left his baseline seat after the first half and never returned in the second.
“I mean, I’d be booing us, too,” team captain Jalen Brunson said after the loss. “Straight up.”
His team shares the same sentiment, and at one point in the second half, the boos were directed at Karl-Anthony Towns, who was shown on the jumbotron after subbing out of the game for Mitchell Robinson.
Towns finished with 22 points, 18 rebounds and four assists on two-of-five shooting from downtown and 9-of-19 shooting from the field but turned the ball over five times. He committed five personal fouls for the fourth game in a row.
The Knicks’ big man, who was left off of the Eastern Conference All-Star starters list on Monday, empathized with fans who were disappointed by their team’s performance against the Mavericks.
“I mean, you spend what, $140 to represent your favorite player with a jersey, and you come to an MLK Day game at The Garden, and the tickets are twice to three times the price, and to come here and spend your hard earned money, money that you’ve saved up to bring your family to this game and for us to come here and obviously to not only not win — which is disappointing — but to not really have a chance? I’d be disappointed too,” Towns said. “And fans, they spend their hard-earned money. They give us so much love and motivation to go out there and they’re expecting results and so do we. So fans are doing their part and we’ve gotta do our part.”
Monday marked the second time the Knicks have been booed at home this season. The first instance occurred on Monday during Knicks Homecoming Day in front of more than 50 franchise alumni, including Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, J.R. Smith and Patrick Ewing. Fans in attendance booed as the Suns pulled away for a 106-99 victory.
“I’m OK with the boos. If we’re playing crappy, then boo. If I was in the stands, I’d probably boo too, paying a lot of money to come to the game and this is a form of entertainment for the fans,” head coach Mike Brown said after the game. “They know good basketball, they know bad basketball, and we didn’t play good basketball in the first half. And so I’m OK with the boos.”
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