Julius Randle Feb 8, 2022; Denver, Colorado, USA; New York Knicks forward Julius Randle (30) comes on for forward Obi Toppin (1) in the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

A trio of New York Knicks stars hoped to wow the local crowd this week by teaming up for some offseason work in a local summer pro-am. Instead, Julius Randle, Obi Toppin, and Jalen Brunson suffered an embarrassing loss against a team of non-NBA players.

Randle, Toppin and Brunson decided to participate in this week’s New York Pro-Am, but things did not go quite the way they were hoping. While the Knicks trio did combine for 67 of their team’s 97 points, they still lost by a score of 110-97.

The 13-point loss is particularly embarrassing because the Knicks players weren’t playing against fellow NBA players. Jordan Aaron and Jordan Washington, who combined for 80 points in the game, have never played in the NBA. Washington played college basketball at Iona from 2015 to 2017 while Aaron played two seasons with the University of Milwaukee from 2012-14.

While it is just an offseason pro-am event and not a serious basketball game, it’s undeniably embarrassing for a collection of NBA stars from the same team to face off against amateur players and lose by double digits.

Maybe it’s a little too early for the Knicks to be hitting the panic button quite yet, but this certainly doesn’t bring a lot of optimism towards the upcoming season.

[Ballislife]