During Wednesday night’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals, New York Knicks superstar Karl-Anthony Towns made one of the biggest plays of the game when he tipped the inbounds pass from Spurs guard Dylan Harper, essentially ending any chance of a game-winning shot. However, what Towns did before tipping the pass has now received some attention on social media.
Before the play, cameras caught Towns motioning fans to get closer to Harper on the sideline to give him less room to inbound the ball. Now, Harper’s father is speaking out at the NBA for allowing it to happen.
Towns Moves Knicks Fans
While there’s been a lot of conversation about Towns’ deflected pass, which essentially sealed the game for the Knicks, one aspect of the play that has flown relatively under the radar happened before Harper even inbounded the ball.
In a video that has since gone viral on social media, racking up more than 4 million impressions on X, Towns can be seen motioning for fans to move in closer to Harper, giving him less room to inbound the ball.
𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: New footage has surfaced of Karl-Anthony Towns asking Knicks fans courtside to move closer to Dylan Harper as he tried to inbound the ball on the final play of the game.
Harper threw a bad pass and the Knicks won because of it.
This should be illegal.
🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/rqNISKMyjZ
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) June 12, 2026
“New footage has surfaced of Karl-Anthony Towns asking Knicks fans courtside to move closer to Dylan Harper as he tried to inbound the ball on the final play of the game. Harper threw a bad pass and the Knicks won because of it. This should be illegal,” noted sports aggregator Dov Kleiman in a post on X.
Ron Harper Not Happy
As the video of the incident went viral on social media, Harper’s father, Ron Harper, expressed his outrage, calling out the league for having “no control” over the fans or the players.
“The [NBA] has no control over fans or players crazy,” Harper wrote in a post on X.
Ron Harper is obviously not just any parent, as he had a prolific NBA playing career himself. Throughout his 15 years in the league, Harper won three consecutive NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls (1996, 1997, 1998) and two back-to-back titles with the Los Angeles Lakers (2000, 2001).
The league has not responded to the incident or to Ron Harper’s complaints on social media.
About Dave Kelsey
Contributing author to The Comeback.