MINNEAPOLIS — It was a winter wonderland lovefest for Karl-Anthony Towns.
The center returned to snowy Minnesota with two planned video tributes Thursday night — one before the Knicks-Timberwolves tip-off, another during the game — as Towns gushed about the “warm feeling” of stepping back into the Target Center.
“I was here nine years. That’s a long time. I called this place home,” Towns said. “To be back here, to be able to sleep in my house one more time, it was really a nostalgic feeling.”
Towns, who spent nine seasons with the Timberwolves after being drafted first overall in 2015, was appropriately greeted with 6 inches of snowfall but dismissed the idea that he’d have trouble commuting to morning shootaround.
“That’s a New York question. That’s not a Minnesotan question,” Towns said. “Come on. I ain’t going to answer that one.”
Towns, unlike former Knick Julius Randle, clearly carries no ill-will about his former team or being traded just a day before training camp.
He was also enjoying the adulation on his big day, even tweeting out a highlight package of his Minnesota career.
“I just wanted to be my best with whatever NBA jersey I put on, but I especially wanted to be my best here in a Timberwolves jersey,” Towns said while acknowledging Thursday was more than just another game. “This place has given my family so much, not even from a financial aspect, but from a life aspect of the experiences we were able to have because of the organization and the things we were able to accomplish here. Those are things that you can never discredit, you can never lose love for. I continue to see Minnesota as a home for me.”
Towns’ new teammate Mikal Bridges could sort of relate after being traded from the Suns and returning to a video tribute last year.
But he acknowledged Towns “has done way more [for Minnesota] than what I did with Phoenix, being the No. 1 pick and everything.
“So I think it’s going to be a lot of love for him and how much he’s shown effort and how much he’s done for the city,” Bridges added.
Towns had good reasons to feel comfortable and content with his situation.
He was acquired by his former agent, Leon Rose, to play closer to his family and was thriving entering Thursday, averaging 24.8 points and a career-high 13.9 rebounds while making a strong case to be an All-Star starter.
Offensively, the switch from playing power forward in Minnesota to center in New York has boosted his effectiveness.
“I’m not surprised,” Bridges said. “Him being the 5 is kind of more of a mismatch problem for other 5s. I think he causes mismatches for pretty much everybody that guards him. …I think if you get size on him, it makes it even tougher because he’s faster than them. They have to guard him all the way at the 3-point line. Because if not, he’ll shoot it and make it every time. So I think it’s a huge advantage for him.”
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said the position change is behind the rebounding surge.
In 2022, Minnesota acquired Rudy Gobert for rim protection and Towns switched to power forward for two seasons.
“The Knicks play him in the deep drop so he’s always around the basket every time a shot is taken,” Finch said. “And at the 5, he’s a slightly different player than at the 4, and that manifests in a lot of different ways. He’s not having to play with a dominant rebounder like Rudy, either. But it’s incredible. He’s got great hands, he’s long, he fights. He had those kind of numbers for us when I first got here. Maybe not consistently but he had big rebounding nights when he was at the 5.”
Towns waxing poetic for his former team was in stark contrast to Randle, who playfully deflected all questions or pleaded ignorance about the Knicks after Wednesday’s practice.
Towns was in a different boat.
He got his big extension from the Timberwolves before he was traded — Randle, on the other hand, can become a free agent after the season — and reciprocated the love Thursday.
“Wild, wild experience,” Towns said. “Lot of years of great memories here and it’s always a warm feeling I get stepping in Target Center.”
