As Jamal Murray’s shot clanked off the rim and the final seconds on the clock expired, the ball fell to Karl-Anthony Towns, who looked down at his own hand in amazement at what he and his Minnesota Timberwolves team had just done.
For the first time in exactly 20 years, the Timberwolves were headed to the Western Conference Finals after defeating the defending champion Denver Nuggets in Game 7, coming back from 20 points down in the second half, with Towns leading the Timberwolves in scoring.
As KAT
went from the visitors’ locker room at Ball Arena to the postgame press conference podium, he walked side-by-side with longtime Timberwolves reporter and Minnesotan Jon Krawczynski, who reminded Towns to take a beat and soak in everything that had just been accomplished.
Towns and Krawczynski, both pillars of the Timberwolves community, had seen it all: countless losing seasons, a carousel of coaches and general managers, a disastrous year with Jimmy Butler that saw Towns’s name sullied in the eyes of many, and, worst of all, a COVID pandemic and the loss of Towns’ beloved mother Jacqueline.
On the court, there were moments of immaturity as the growing process wasn’t always linear. Towns started as one of the “Timberpups,” and grew into the role of Timberwolves franchise player. He eventually became a multi-time All-NBA player who had just taken the Wolves to a place that only Kevin Garnett had before.
The feeling for KAT that night in Denver was one of validation. All the hard work he had put in, everything he had been through personally and on the court with the Timberwolves organization, had been worth it. Not only was the franchise that drafted Towns nine years earlier finding success, but they were doing it with him and because of him.
Everything in KAT’s Timberwolves tenure to that point led to that moment. Through all the turmoil during his nine seasons in Minnesota, Towns, like Andy Dufresne, had crawled through a river of sewage and come out clean on the other side.
“How much more we gotta lose?” Towns said in the most KAT way possible after the game about his team, “We’ve been losing for 20 years.”
That magical night in Denver may have been the first time Towns ended a team’s decades-long drought, but it would not be the last. On Saturday night in San Antonio, the New York Knicks, with Towns at center, became NBA champions for the first time in 53 years.
The Knicks and Towns stormed through the 2026 NBA Playoffs on their way to the title. New York finished with a 16-3 record in the playoffs, including nine straight road wins while clinching all four series away from Madison Square Garden. Among NBA champions, this Knicks team set the record for best Net Rating in a single postseason, outpacing the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers and the 2017 Golden State Warriors.
KAT himself finished with an NBA record plus/minus of +262 during the playoff run, finishing ahead of Steph Curry in 2017 (+246), Draymond Green in 2017 (+229), his teammate Jalen Brunson (+224), and Kobe Bryant in 2001 (+213).
The feeling again has to be validation for Towns, and this time, maybe even vindication.
Karl proved all of his doubters incorrect. People said he was soft, that he didn’t work hard enough, and that he didn’t have enough basketball IQ. They said KAT wouldn’t be able to control the “stray voltage” on the biggest stage, that he’d be unwilling to play as a team’s #2, or that he didn’t have the defensive ability to lead a quality defense at the center position.
All of it wrong.
“You work your whole life for this moment,” Towns said to ABC’s Ernie Johnson with the Larry O’Brien trophy in his hands. “Throughout my career, I’ve seen myself fall down. People tell me to stay down, and I got back up. Even when I was in the mud, I kept putting my left foot in front of my right foot.”
The trade that sent KAT from the Timberwolves to the Knicks was nuanced and will surely be debated in Minnesota for years to come. It was brought on in large part by the NBA’s then-new second apron, which punished teams for being a certain level above the luxury tax threshold, as the Wolves were in the summer of 2024.
While the success or failure of the trade for the Wolves is still up in the air, what is clear is that Towns still has an immense respect for the Timberwolves organization, his former teammates, including Anthony Edwards, and all the people of Minnesota.
The journey for Towns to get to this point was a long one. It started when the Wolves selected a 19-year-old kid out of the University of Kentucky, and it was filled with every manner of obstacles, difficulties, and loss. Through it all, Karl came out of it a better player and a better person.
“Y’all know my story, you’ve heard my story,” Towns said. “I just want to say, thank you, Momma, I appreciate you getting me one.”
