FLUSHING, NY — Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks and Al Horford of the Boston Celtics are just two of four Dominicans to appear in an NBA regular season game this season, according to the league. The remaining two are Justin Minaya of the Portland Trail Blazers and Lester Quiñones of the New Orleans Pelicans.
With both the Knicks and Celtics advancing to the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs and all the cards playing out right, it just so happens that Towns and Horford have to go up against one another in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, which is currently ongoing with No. 3 seeded New York up three games to one (3-1) on No. 2 seeded Boston in the best of seven series.
And just like most, if not all fans of sports, New York Mets’ designated hitter Starling Marte has taken notice of the entertaining hoops action, tuning in when he gets the chance. But also, and more importantly, the 36-year-old of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic is locked in for homeland reasons.
Of course, in support of both Towns and Horford.
“Whoever wins is better,” Marte joked through an interpreter Monday afternoon when asked about the Knicks-Celtics Eastern Conference second round matchup and specifically, the battle between KAT and Horford.
Image Credit: George Napolitano/Latino Sports
Throughout the course of the first four games played in the intense series—Towns, 29, of Piscataway, New Jersey, a Dominican-American, and Horford, 38, of Puerto Plata, D.R., the son of Tito Horford—have each gone on to establish their presence in the paint with pure physicality, paired to and surprisingly enough, their shooting capabilities despite both listing out to over six-eight (KAT: seven feet and Horford: six-nine).
“It’s a blessing that they are able to both represent their teams on the biggest stage and see a lot of people following them in the Dominican Republic and here in the United States,” Marte said as the Mets finished up batting practice prior to opening up a three-game series with the Pirates.
He then added, “I don’t know them personally, however I am looking forward to going to a game one day and getting to introduce myself to them.”
Image Credit: NBA/@NBALatam on Instagram
Dating back to last year’s NBA Playoffs, where the Knicks defeated the 76ers in the first round and fell to the Cavaliers a round later, the Mets aired live Knicks postseason games on Citi Field’s state of the art scoreboard as the team watched along during their batting practice session.
In addition, during the day/night of home games throughout the middle innings, the Mets would check in on the score of the Knicks playoff affairs and display a highlight or two followed by the score and time remaining.
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