While Knicks fans had to wait 53 years to see their team win a title, Karl-Anthony Towns finally got his hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy after 11 years in the league on Saturday night with New York’s thrilling Game 5 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
The wait was unexpected, but worth it, nonetheless.
“I remember I came in No. 1 pick, I thought I had a chance,” Towns said. “I was lying to myself; I needed 11 years to do it… I thought in my first, second year, I would get one after having a successful high school, college career. You never know how truly hard it is to get to the NBA Finals.”
The New Jersey native who grew up a Knicks fan had all the makings to become an NBA champion from the jump: A 7-foot-tall big man who can blend a traditional power forward or center’s game with that of a point guard.
It’s what made him the No. 1 pick of the Minnesota Timberwolves 11 years ago. The thing was, the individual accolades came. The winning did not.
The Timberwolves made the playoffs just once in Towns’ first six seasons in the NBA. Then, after two first-round playoff exits, they advanced to the Western Conference Finals in 2024, but were beaten by the Dallas Mavericks in five games.
He was traded to the Knicks two summers ago to create a super duo with Jalen Brunson, and came up tantalizingly short in the Eastern Conference Finals last season.
“[Losing] builds you as a man,” Towns said. “The things I thought I wanted and the timing I wanted it to happen, it wasn’t meant for me. But when it needed to happen on God’s time, it happened. So it’s a testament to my life of believing in the faith, believing in God, knowing that my time was coming, but it was going to be on His time, not on my time.”
Towns was a key cog in the Knicks’ machine this postseason. Head coach Mike Brown’s decision to run the offense through him after going down 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks sparked one of the most dominant runs in playoff history we’ve ever seen, with 13 straight wins and a 14-1 stretch over the last 15 games. He averaged a double-double of 15.9 points and 10.6 rebounds in the playoffs, adding just under five assists per game in a newfound facilitating role.
On defense — an aspect of his game which nearly got him run out of town during last year’s Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Indiana Pacers — Towns was brilliant in keeping tabs on the Spurs’ unguardable big man, Victor Wembanyama.
And yet, all of this might not have happened if Leon Rose were the sort of team president who caved into public pressure. A championship mandate had many speculating that Towns would be traded in a blockbuster deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Good thing that never happened.
“I just kept my head down. I kept working,” Towns said. “I kept getting back up when people pushed me down, put me in the mud, and told me I wasn’t good enough. I just kept believing in myself. I believed in my work. I believed in my life. I believed in my support system. I just kept pushing and kept putting, like I said, the left foot in front of the right. I kept walking down the path God had for me. I kept believing. I never swayed.
“I finally got to the end of that road where you get to see this trophy with your team and the NBA Finals banner behind you.”
For more on Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks, visit AMNY.com
Joe Pantorno
Source link