By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t think it would take long to win an NBA championship.
It took more than a decade — 11 years to be exact — for Towns to reach the proverbial pinnacle after spending the first nine years of his career with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was Minnesota’s top pick in the 2015 NBA Draft after spending one season at Kentucky.
“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.”
The 11-year wait for Towns and a 53-year drought ended for the New York Knicks when they defeated the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday night. Towns scored two points but grabbed 10 rebounds in the finale.
Towns gave credit to God after the Knicks won the title 4-1 over the Spurs in San Antonio by overcoming double-figure deficits in every victory.
“God is good,” he said. “Like I said, I thought in my first and second year I would get one after having a successful high school and college career. You never know how truly hard it is to get to the NBA Finals.”
Towns was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2016 and, ironically, scored a career-high 47 points and 18 rebounds in a 106-104 loss to the Knicks. He was traded to the Knicks in 2024, overcame injuries, and found stability in New York.
“(There have been) a lot of ups and downs in my career to get to this point. I’m glad I’m able to provide Dominicans around the world this moment, New York Knicks fans around the world this moment, these rookies, my young fellow over here and Ariel, I’m just super happy and excited that this is a worldwide celebration for everybody,” he said.
He also found inspiration from his Dad, Karl Towns Sr., but credited him with his development on the court.
“He’s been everything to me,” Towns said. “He taught me the game of basketball. He put a lot of hours in,” he said. “I remember him working up at Piscataway Vo Tech. Shoutout to Ludovico, the athletic director when I was coming up, because I always say, sometimes you have to have a lot of things go right to be at this high level, even to make it to college.
“Always one thing has to go your way. I was very fortunate that Ludovico was the AD at the Piscataway Vo Tech. That allowed me to go to the gym and have a gym to work out at and work on my game all the time at any time. I had a father who was willing to put those long hours in as a high school coach to give me the opportunity to have a gym. I think for a lot of players who are listening to this, one of the hardest things to do was find a gym. Let alone, I was blessed to have a little money and two loving parents and a hardwood floor. Not an outdoor court or concrete floor, but a hardwood floor to work on my game to get to this point.”
Towns added that his dad accepted the challenge of teaching him all aspects of basketball on the court.
“He took that challenge and he trusted me, his son, who was young, maybe didn’t know as much as obviously as him,” he said. “But he could see the passion that I had for this game and for what I thought the vision of my game could be and how I could change the game.”
He also praised his mom, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, who passed away from COVID-19 in 2020. She was a Dominican.
“It’s all shoutout to him and to my mom, too, because she had a lot of hours where they didn’t see me and trusted in me, and my pops was really putting it in at work and was trusting that we were going to make something special out of this,” he recalled. “I know she’s looking down, really proud, knowing all those nights coming home at 10:30 at night from the gym were worth it.”
Towns said his mom’s presence has “always been felt in my life” and credited his fiancée, Jordyn Woods, for her support for the past six years.
“You always pray you’re going to pick the right woman for you, and I know I did in my fiancée,” he said. “… It’s crazy, when (my mom) passed, there was so much turmoil in my life. Funny enough, my fiancée, who was a friend at the time, was the only person I got to call before I got to go out there and say bye to her at the hospital. Me and her have a real bond that goes deeper than just physical features and everything like that. We have a true friendship that was built from the ground up.”
Towns added that Woods has been with him every step of the way during the recovery process.
“It’s truly a humbling feeling when you know you have walked the path,” he said. ”I stayed faithful. Every decision that I was supposed to make, I made the right one. Feels good to be in this moment.”