Julius Randle’s dream was not just making the NBA. It was becoming an NBA All-Star.
The dream was realized Tuesday when Randle was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team as a reserve to culminate his career year in his second season with the Knicks.
Randle, 26, will become the first Knicks player to participate in an All-Star Game since Carmelo Anthony in 2017. This year’s All-Star Game is scheduled for March 7 in Atlanta.
“It was really special,’’ Randle said after the Knicks’ 114-106 loss to the Warriors. “It was surreal in a sense. Everything you could dream of. It just seemed like it all came to fruition. It was amazing, honestly, and everything that I signed up for.’’
The Eastern reserves among front-court players included Jayson Tatum, and Nikola Vucevic. Randle beat out Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis, Miami’s Bam Adebayo and Philly’s Tobias Harris.
Kristaps Porzingis was named to the All-Star team in 2018 but never made it to the contest. Soon after being named he tore his ACL and never played another game for the Knicks.
In pregame festivities, Randle spoke to the season’s first Garden crowd to chants of “MVP!”
During a first-half timeout, his mother, Caroline Kyles, a former college basketball star who can’t travel during the pandemic because of a pre-existing condition, suddenly appeared on the scoreboard’s video screen to congratulate her son and to implore him to keep up the “hard work.’’
Randle craned his neck upward to watch the surprise video.
“That was crazy how that got hooked up and they set that up,’’ he said. “It was definitely amazing. Throughout the course of this past year, it’s definitely been tough on all of us. But my mother, she hasn’t been able to leave the house; she’s a diabetic. We’ve been extra cautious with her.’’
Before he learned of the honor Tuesday morning, Randle admitted making the All-Star team would be his “milestone’’ achievement.
“My goal was never just to play in the NBA,’’ Randle said. “I always felt that I would get there. I just wanted to be the best player I could possibly be and reach my potential. And I try to push myself every day to do so. It would definitely be a milestone.”
The league’s coaches voted Randle in, and the Knicks power forward had an inkling he had gotten their respect by all the double-teams he’s faced this season on the way to the best numbers of his career.
The iron-man Randle has played in all 31 games this season, posting career highs in points (23.2), rebounds (11.0), assists (5.5) and minutes (36.8). He entered the season after a dull first year as trade bait but now he’s anything but.
The Post has learned Randle is considered a part of the future and the Knicks have no desire to move him with his team option coming up at $20 million. Randle is a client of Creative Artists Agency — which Knicks president Leon Rose used to run.
“I think I get that validation how [opposing coaches] play me every night,” Randle said. “With the double-teams. How they try to game plan. All that type of stuff. Obviously the All-Star nod would be amazing. Every player strives to do that.”
Randle said his “impact on winning” would likely be a determining factor. With a lightly regarded roster, the Knicks entered Tuesday’s game against the Warriors 15-16. Indeed, they’d be far worse without his nightly domination that has included his improvement from the 3-point line, and in his decision-making and leadership. Randle hasn’t made the playoffs in his first six seasons, but that could change, too.
“Just as you grow as a player throughout the course of your career, you learn how to do the little things to help the team win,” Randle said. “Coach [Tom Thibodeau] has done a great job of coaching me up, putting me in those positions. And we’re winning, having those numbers. But I think a lot of people maybe, before the year, may have counted us out as a team, said that we weren’t going to be that good as a team. We’re turning a lot of heads on a game-to-game basis so that probably has something to do with it too.”
Thibodeau lobbied often for Randle using the team’s winning as evidence.
“I’ve said this many times I think his numbers speak for themselves,’’ Thibodeau said an hour before the announcement. “It’s the impact on winning. I know how his teammates feel about him, I know how the coaching staff, our organization, our fans feel about him. He’s certainly being recognized in our eyes and hopefully the rest of the league will see it that way. But he’s had a monster season and he’s the engine that makes us go.’’
Randle has been effusive about Thibodeau but also gave kudos to assistant coach Kenny Payne for his career year. They were together in Kentucky, and Randle said he may have swayed the Kentucky assistant to come to New York. The Post has reported Payne initially turned down the Knicks’ overtures.
“Yeah I definitely tried to convince him,” Randle said. “I for sure was excited when I heard it was a possibility. That’s my guy — nobody better to have in your corner than him. It’s definitely been a great, great thing for me, him coming here. The relationship I have with him is amazing. It’s been good.”