Welcome Back, Karl-Anthony Towns

Karl-Anthony Towns, a pillar of the Timberwolves franchise for nine seasons, returns to Target Center on Thursday for the first time as a member of the New York Knicks.

In the summer of 2015, the Minnesota Timberwolves were at a low point in their franchise’s history. A year prior, the Kevin Love era had reached its natural endpoint without a single trip to the playoffs as the Wolves traded the multi-time All-Star to the Cleveland Cavaliers to compete for titles with Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, who was returning home.

In return, the Wolves received first overall pick Andrew Wiggins, who ended up winning Rookie of the Year. That same season Minnesota also traded for franchise legend, Kevin Garnett, who was in the twilight of his career and ready to return to the place where it all started.

Despite Garnett and a few promising players on the roster including Wiggins, Zach LaVine, and Ricky Rubio, the Wolves had a league-worst 16-66 record in 2014-15, only beating out the franchise-low for wins in a season by a single game.

The Timberwolves as a franchise were in need of a spark and an infusion of talent when they won the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery, which allowed them to select Karl-Anthony Towns with the first overall pick.

The additions of Towns and Tyus Jones, the former Minnesota Mr. Basketball and Duke standout, were a breath of fresh air for a Timberwolves franchise desperate for anything to go its way, especially in the draft where it always seemed like they were one pick away from a future Hall-of-Famer.

Both players arrived in Minneapolis with much fanfare as many Wolves fans believed this could be the start of something great for the Wolves.

KAT immediately exploded onto the scene, putting up huge rookie numbers of 18.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. Towns, like Wiggins the year prior, would win Rookie of the Year. It was the first time in over 40 years that the Rookie of the Year award was given to the same team in back-to-back seasons.

Before the start of the next season, Towns was listed as the player that NBA General Managers would most want to sign to start a franchise. KAT validated the feelings of those GMs with an incredible sophomore season increasing his scoring and rebounding to 25.1 points and 12.3 rebounds per game.

Even with Towns as one of the best young players in the league, and the hiring of Tom Thibodeau as Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations, the Timberwolves struggled to win games, finishing 13th in the Western Conference in both of Towns’ first two seasons.

On the night of the 2017 draft, the Wolves would make a trade that would change the course of both the Timberwolves and Towns as the Wolves traded LaVine, Kris Dunn, and the seventh overall pick to the Chicago Bulls for Jimmy Butler and the 16th pick.

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

The following season was a roller coaster ride due to a disconnected locker room that limited the Wolves ability to win games as Towns, Wiggins, Butler, and Thibodeau were all seemingly on different pages night-to-night.

Ultimately, the Wolves were talented enough to be on track for the 3-seed in the Western Conference before Butler tore his meniscus in his right knee, causing them to fall down the standings. The Wolves needed a win on the final game of the regular season in order to snap their then-record 14-year playoff drought. Despite snapping that streak, Minnesota would lose in five games to James Harden, Chris Paul, and the Houston Rockets in the first round of the postseason.

In the offseason, Butler would go to Thibodeau to request a trade. Thibs naively thought the whole thing would just blow over before training camp, but Butler had other ideas. What followed was a landmark event in the national and local narrative of who Towns was as a player.

In an attempt to show the Wolves he needed to be traded, Butler arrived at a training camp practice unannounced, beat the starters in a scrimmage with the end of the bench players, and yelled at then Wolves General Manager Scott Layden, “You f—ing need me, Scott. You can’t win without me,” who was watching from the sidelines.

Before anyone on the Wolves could even realize what had just happened, Butler had left the facility to do a prearranged interview with Rachel Nichols and ESPN to go over exactly what he had just done at practice moments ago.

It became clear that the whole thing was staged by Butler to disparage his teammates and the Wolves organization in order to prove that he needed to be traded as the situation had become untenable. Butler went out of his way to show that he felt that Towns, among others, was not built to be a winner in the NBA and Towns did not work as hard as he does.

Both locally and nationally, many bought into Butler’s narrative hook, line, and sinker. Butler had convinced the masses that KAT was soft, lazy, and not a winning player, labels that Towns was never able to shake out of people’s minds through his nine years in Minnesota.

The fallout after the eventual Butler trade, and lackluster return, was that the Wolves were right back where they started, looking up at the rest of the Western Conference, only feeding into Butler’s narrative that Towns was the problem with the Timberwolves.

Over the years, there became a pattern of Towns showing everyone why Butler and fans were wrong about him, only for people to double down on their preconceived notions of both KAT the player, and the person.

The Wolves would go on to have three straight losing seasons after Butler’s departure, shuffling through different coaches and executives along the way. The Timberwolves franchise and its dysfunction gave Towns every reason to request a trade as his career was seemingly being wasted on many bad Timberwolves rosters.

But the trade request never came.

Towns remained loyal to Minnesota and the Wolves organization when so often he was given no reason to remain loyal. Most NBA superstars would have demanded out for greener pastures, but KAT stuck it out with the team that drafted him.

Despite the never-ending loyalty from Towns, there always seemed to be another reason as to why KAT either could or should be traded.

During this time, KAT showed who he was, not just as a basketball player, but as a person off the court. Just months after losing his mother to COVID-19, KAT attended a rally led by former NBA player, Stephen Jackson, following the murder of George Floyd.

In a time of great hardship for Towns and his family, no one would have blamed Karl for staying home to continue recovering from his own personal tragedy, but that isn’t who KAT is. He felt he needed to come and support his city and community which was so badly hurting.

When the Timberwolves drafted Anthony Edwards months later and his stardom began to grow, there was an assertion that Towns would have trouble ceding the spotlight to Edwards. The exact opposite happened. KAT gladly gave the spotlight to Ant, consistently promoted his rookie teammate, and seemed to excel as the second option on offense.

During the 2021-22 season, despite Towns having a career year as the Wolves best player and the primary reason they made the playoffs, KAT was again the subject of trade speculation after a disappointing playoff series loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. The entire team as a whole was unable to close out large leads late in games.

After the Wolves traded for Rudy Gobert, it was Towns who had to sacrifice the most on the court, shifting most of his minutes to power forward, a position he had rarely if ever played before. Where other franchise players would have bristled at the idea of a position change to accommodate someone else, KAT embraced the challenge to help both the team and Gobert.

“It’s been amazing. Always, from Day 1, always told me that whatever I need, he was always there for me. He really made it fun for me to get here into the organization. We started really connecting outside of the floor, also. And yeah, I felt like he really, truly wanted to see me happy and see me succeed. Obviously, that carries over to the team. When your teammates want to see you succeed, you can feel it in the locker room, you can feel it on the floor.” -Rudy Gobert on his relationship with Towns.

Photo by C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images

While there were certainly bumps along the road, KAT’s sacrifice proved invaluable. After two seasons, Minnesota was able to maximize the pairing of Towns and Gobert on their way to 56 wins and a trip to the Western Conference Finals, just the second in franchise history.

“He accommodated Rudy and had to change his game along the way. He never fought it. There were things that we had to learn, obviously, we were hijacked by a 50-game absence in the first year together. But coming back for the playoffs in that Denver series, I thought we were really able to put our finger on some stuff that finally worked. A lot of it had to do with KAT making sacrifices around it to actually make it work.” -Chris Finch on the impact of Towns’ sacrifices.

Gobert wasn’t the only big man who had a growing appreciation for Towns. Naz Reid, now the longest-tenured player on the Timberwolves, spent the first five seasons of his career learning from and growing with Towns. What started out as Naz backing up Karl at center turned into a formidable pairing on the court together.

“I think that’s the biggest word to describe him, unselfish. He cared for one another, whether it was basketball, off the court, family issues, whatever the case may be, KAT was there for you. He always will be. That’s why I say he helped shape the guy I am today because I know somebody wants to be treated how they’re treating someone else, so that’s something I’ve taken from him.” -Naz Reid on playing with Towns

In the 2023-24 playoffs, KAT guarded former MVP, Kevin Durant, in a series sweep of the Phoenix Suns, then three-time MVP, Nikola Jokić, who was coming off a championship season with the Denver Nuggets. Towns held his own in both matchups where each played two extraordinarily different types of games and are locks for the Hall of Fame. In both cases, the Wolves defensive strategy hinged on Towns’ ability to defend in these matchups and he did so brilliantly.

That postseason run, and ultimately KAT’s career in Minnesota, culminated in Game 7 in Denver where on a night when Edwards and the rest of the Wolves couldn’t get anything going offensively, KAT scored a team-high 23 points including a put-back dunk with just over 40 seconds remaining, sealing the game and the series.

In a game that included the Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, reigning MVP, and Finals MVP, KAT was the best player on the floor in what was likely the biggest game in the history of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Fans were still hesitant to fully embrace Towns, as a poorer shooting and defensive showing in the following series against the Dallas Mavericks caused fans to blame him most, forgetting why Minnesota’s season was still alive in the first place.

After being traded to the New York Knicks this past October, KAT showed Wolves fans one last time why he is one of a kind. Less than a day after the trade was announced, Towns was out on the soccer fields in Blaine dressed head to toe in Wolves gear, talking and taking pictures with whoever wanted some of his time.

He was there to watch the daughter of The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski play soccer, a promise he made to her and one he had to keep.

Towns also made an enormous impact on his teammates in the locker room as almost every single player who has shared the floor with Towns came away from the experience thinking more of Karl. He had a knack for building bonds with almost everyone that came in contact with him.

“Just him as a person, more than anything. We know what kind of a player he is. The energy he brought every day, just playful sometimes, sometimes it’s super smart, witty, whatever it may be, being funny. Just being himself. He wasn’t trying to be anybody else but himself, but you respect that about him.” -Mike Conley on what he misses about KAT.

As this year’s Timberwolves team got off to a rocky start following his departure, and Towns’ offensive game exploded in New York, as it always does when he plays center, the narratives around KAT have finally begun to switch.

Wolves fans locally are seeing Minnesota struggle in many of the areas that Towns excels. National audiences, who are likely seeing Towns play for the first time, finally recognize Towns as the offensive juggernaut he’s always been. As frustrating as it was seeing people tear down KAT for all those years, there’s a weird exasperation in seeing everyone appreciate him now that he’s on another team, even if that development is less than surprising.

When Towns returns to the Target Center floor Thursday night, he will be met with thunderous applause from people thanking him for the many wonderful years and memories he provided Minnesota and its fans.

I just wish he would have been given more of that when he was here.