Karl-Anthony Towns was born in 1995 in Edison, New Jersey. Karl-Anthony, along with their two sisters, was brought up in a middle-class family. His father coached the basketball team, and the boy watched him work from childhood, attending numerous training and games. As often happens, it was his father who, by his example, instilled in him a love of basketball. Little Townes just dreamed of basketball and all the action on the field was magic for him since he could not believe that a person could jump so high himself. Just to learn all the subtleties of the game and understand how it is possible to do this, he began his journey in the world of sports.
As a schoolboy Karl-Anthony, he changed not a single educational institution, as his parents often enrolled him in different schools. In addition to his studies, Karl-Anthony always enjoyed attending basketball training and practicing under the guidance of his father for some time.
One day, at the next school change, he was enrolled in St. Joseph High School and there he enrolled in the local basketball team “Falcons”. Thanks to his talent and work together with his teammates, he led the team to participate in the state championship. Karl-Anthony was soon ranked first in the 2012 ESPN national rankings for schoolchildren. The whole family and parents congratulated Townes because they were very happy about such an achievement for their son.
In the same 2012, which was truly successful for a novice athlete, the Karl-Anthony team received several prestigious awards at competitions of a significant level. His efforts and excellent results allowed the “Falcons” to become one of the best teams in the city. At the same time, the club’s management noticed that such successes appeared precisely with the arrival of Karl-Anthony in the team.
Career
After completing his secondary education, Towns decided to go to college in Kentucky and study kinesiology there. But soon the training had to be completed due to participation in the NBA games. In the very first games, he showed amazing results in points and rebounds. But soon after about ten games played, the athlete’s performance dropped sharply and for the game, he was already giving results much more modest. Seeing all this, Karl-Anthony himself decided to focus on training and paid much more attention to them. He understood that his game was letting down his teammates and could not disappoint them and his fans.
In the NBA, Towns played for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Even in the rookie draft, they chose him as one of the first in the first round.
In the summer of 2015, Karl-Anthony signed a rookie contract and scored 14 points in his first leg in the NBA against the Lakers. He showed the same high results in subsequent games, so he was first recognized as a newcomer in November, and then in December and January. At the end of the playing season, everyone unanimously chose him as the rookie of the year and Townes entered the symbolic team of successful young players.
In the fall of 2016, Townes set his personal best with 47 points in one match. He made his first trip-double in his career at the end of the same year. At the end of the 2016-2017 playing season, he became the first player in NBA history to score over 2,000 points, made over 1,000 rebounds, and scored over 100 three-pointers. At the same time, he was named the best in the NBA All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge.
In 2018, it became known that Minnesota offered Karl-Anthony to sign a contract with them for 5 years in the amount of more than one hundred million dollars. According to statistics, clubs rarely offer cooperation to anyone for such a long time, but the Minnesota management decided to grab a promising young player at their disposal for a long time and did not spare any money for it.
At the end of 2019, during the NBA regular season match, Towns became a member of a large-scale brawl. There was a match between Philadelphia and Minnesota, and in the third quarter, the centers of both teams, Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns grappled with each other. Towns tried to push the opponent, after which Embiid grabbed the ball and grabbed the opponent by the elbow. None of them wanted to give in and let go of the second. Such a scuffle ended with the fact that both athletes falling on the floor and at that moment their colleagues from the teams managed to intervene in the situation and not bring it to serious consequences. It is worth noting that Ben Simmons from Philadelphia also tried to help his teammate, who, while the players were being pulled apart on the floor of the court, decided to grab Townes’ neck. This whole situation ended with the instigators of the fight Townes and Embiid being removed before the end of the match.