NEW YORK — Karl-Anthony Towns unknowingly manifested this NBA Finals matchup.

Back in October of 2024, Towns arrived at his first preseason game as a Knick wearing a 1999 NBA Finals T-shirt.

Towns had found the shirt — featuring images of Latrell Sprewell and Tim Duncan — while vintage shopping in Charleston, S.C., days after the Knicks acquired him in a franchise-altering trade.

The Knicks conducted training camp in Charleston that year, but Towns was unable to practice with the team until the trade became official.

“Funny enough, I wore that shirt for the first game,” Towns, 30, said Monday after practice in Tarrytown, “and here we are, looking back at that shirt as an omen.”

As fate would have it, Towns and the Knicks are set to face the San Antonio Spurs in this year’s NBA Finals in a rematch of that 1999 championship bout.

And, fittingly, Towns is at the center of the star-studded series, which begins with Game 1 in San Antonio on Wednesday night.

Who fares better in the battle of the big men between Towns and all-world Spurs center Victor Wembanyama could very well decide which team wins the championship.

Towns (16.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game in the playoffs) is enjoying one of the best stretches of his career, while Wembanyama, 22, is the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year who finished third in MVP voting.

If the Spurs decide to defend the sharp-shooting, 7-foot Towns with the shot-blocking, 7-5 Wembanyama, it could open things up for the Knicks’ offense by pulling Wembanyama out of the paint.

And if the Spurs opt to use a smaller defender on Towns, it would present an opportunity for the Knicks star to exploit his size advantage.

Either route has ramifications.

“It’s not about the shooting. It’s not even a personal thing for me,” Towns said. “It’s about our team doing what we’ve been doing, which is play high-level defense and utilizing those turnovers on defense to get our offense going. As long as our team plays with that kind of energy and discipline and game-plan execution, we have a chance to win.”

Over two regular-season meetings, Towns scored six points on 2-of-4 shooting with four turnovers when Wembanyama was the closest defender, according to the NBA’s head-to-head tracking data.

That’s compared to seven points on 2-of-4 shooting with one turnover against 6-6 guard Stephon Castle.

But the Knicks have featured Towns as a passer much more prominently in the playoffs than they did in the regular season — an adjustment that started in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks’ undersized frontcourt.

“I imagine Wemby won’t guard him as much,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said Monday.

“They put a small on KAT quite a bit. Either way, whether Wemby’s on him or a small is on him, we always want to try to move KAT around. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do that against San Antonio. They’re a really, really good defensive team. They’ve got great size in the guard spot, so it makes it a little difficult, but we can’t give them the same dose every time down the floor.”

In the Western Conference finals, the Spurs used smaller players — 6-5 Devin Vassell and 6-7 Julian Champagnie — to defend Oklahoma City’s 7-1 floor-spacer, Chet Holmgren, which freed up Wembanyama.

Castle, himself a stellar defender, spent most of the series glued to Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

If the Spurs deploy a similar strategy in the Finals, they could put Castle on Jalen Brunson, and Vassell or Champagnie on Towns, which would allow Wembanyama to match up with Josh Hart.

Teams have given the 6-4 Hart space and dared him to shoot, and he burned the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals by making five 3-pointers in Game 2.

But if the Spurs feel comfortable leaving Hart open, Wembanyama can plant in the paint and protect the rim. Wembanyama has led the league in blocks per game in each of his three NBA seasons, and he’s averaging 3.5 blocks per game in the playoffs.

However, Towns is a superior offensive player to Holmgren — who wilted in the Western Conference Finals — and will require more defensive attention.

Towns, a six-time All-Star, is a career 39.7% 3-point shooter and has been even better this postseason, making 48.9%.

“Every team is going to play the game, mess with matchups and whatnot. Obviously, Karl’s shooting is something that anybody has to honor, and that changes the game plan entirely,” Knicks guard Landry Shamet said.

“You have to prepare for that, [as well] the pick-and-roll with Jalen and KAT, with a versatile shooting big who can also roll and make plays in the pocket. As well as he’s been passing the ball and facilitating, I could go on and on about what KAT brings to us. … However they decide to match up with it, there’s going to be pros to that; there’s also going to be cons to that, and areas that we’re going to try to exploit.”

The Spurs won the 1999 NBA Finals in five games on the strength of Duncan and fellow big man David Robinson, who outplayed a Knicks frontcourt that was without Patrick Ewing due to an Achilles injury.

Winning the frontcourt battle this time around would go a long way for the Knicks, even though Towns acknowledges that “a Finals is won by a team.”

“When you get an opportunity like this, you have to maximize it,” Towns said. “You never know if you’ll get another chance.”

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