A lot has happened in the life of Karl-Anthony Towns in the last 48 hours.
Towns spoke about his father recovering from a medical procedure after the New York Knicks’ less-than-comfortable 93-92 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night.
“I’ve had a very long day,” Towns said after finishing with a team-high 26 points and 15 rebounds. “I had a long day yesterday; I had a very long day today. I wasn’t with the team. I was taking care of my family. I showed up just to play. I wanted to play for my teammates. I wanted to be here for them. My dad was on the same time with the little strength he had. He wanted me to come play. Shoutout to my pops, man, love you, man.”
Towns, 30, has endured a unique second season with the Knicks. While his numbers aren’t disastrous by any means — 20.1 points per game on just over 49 percent shooting — issues regarding his role on the team have persisted under head coach Mike Brown.
Nevertheless, even though Towns almost missed the game (apparently), the Knicks escaped with an unimpressive victory.
Speaking of Brooklyn, one of KAT’s former teammates issued a bit of a public challenge while at the podium. Nets forward Josh Minott spoke candidly about a popular criticism often directed at Towns.
“I played with KAT for two-and-half-years, man,” Minott started. “He don’t like physicality. I love KAT, but he don’t like physicality. That’s my boy, too, but … I hope this angers him, too, but we were real connected on bringing that physicality to him.”
Minott, who finished with 22 points, issued the public challenge — while also answering a question regarding his team’s success in a losing effort — following his team’s one-point loss to the Knicks.
Towns and Minott played 2.5 seasons together with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Next up for Karl-Anthony Towns and the 46-25 New York Knicks is a Sunday night contest against another horrendous team, the 16-53 Washington Wizards.
