Karl-Anthony Towns Gets Real About His Humbling NBA Journey: ‘Stop Trying To Prove Yourself To Everyone’

Karl-Anthony Towns and the New York Knicks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-97 tonight, led by a monster performance from the 30-year-old center. He finished with 29 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, and two blocks, shooting 11-21 from the field (52.4% FG) and 2-4 from beyond the arc (50.0% 3P). After the win, Karl-Anthony Towns spoke to Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier, who asked him about the key to rebounding and at what point in his career he stopped caring about scoring every night and instead shifted his focus to doing what it takes to win, which tonight meant dominating on the boards. “It’s a sexy stat to me that damn sure looks sexy to me,” Towns said initially. “Rebounding for me, it comes from my father. My father always told me that if you don’t give opponents a second chance at a shot, and you’re an offensive player who gets that second shot, it’s like a two-for-one special; you see the rim, and it feels like it gets bigger.” “You shoot the ball with a lot more confidence when you get the second chance. Being able to make sure that our team doesn’t give them any second chances and also, for us on offense, giving my teammates the confidence that they can shoot with confidence and know that whatever happens, I’m going to be right next to the rim getting us the rebound and a second chance at it.” “Rebounding, to me, is about establishing the confidence of this team to shoot the ball with full confidence and allowing them to understand that, regardless of the result, if you take care of the process and do your best with your jumper or your finishing, your teammate has your back,” Karl-Anthony Towns further explained. When Mike Breen followed up with his question about prioritizing winning over scoring, Towns had a powerful message for the youth. “When I was younger, you want to establish yourself in the league; you want to show people that, as kids say today, that ‘he’s nice’, you want to show them that you’re nice at this game; you want to show them all the skills you’ve worked so hard to establish” “A lot of young guys, especially me when I was young too, wanted to prove myself to everybody. And as you get older and older, you realize that all those times you were trying to prove everything to people, you’re never going to make everybody happy,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “So you’ve gotta go out there, and there’s only one thing that shuts up all the criticism, and all the haters and everyone, and gives them tough, long, long, sleepless nights, is winning.” “It took time to learn how to win at this level. This is the best of the best playing basketball in the NBA. Winning at this level is very different than college, HS, CYO, or AAU. It takes a lot of time, a lot of wisdom, and a lot of experience.” “When you finally get to that point of stopping trying to prove yourself to everyone, just bring the best version of yourself to the court, and you start realizing and changing your mindset to that, you’re proving a lot of people wrong,” Towns further added. “That’s how you prove to people that you’re going out there and impacting winning, or impacting your team in a positive way, whether it’s basketball, baseball, football, whatever; think about impacting winning.” “You take a lot of pressure off yourself, and you find yourself being the player that you’ve always wanted to be,” he concluded . When Towns was drafted into the NBA, for at least a five-year stretch, he was earning the right to be the undisputed face of the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise. But over time, while playing with notable players like Jimmy Butler , Anthony Edwards , and now Jalen Brunson on the Knicks, he realized the value of sharing the ball and taking on off-ball responsibilities that contribute to winning, while putting his personal wants behind the team’s needs. This is a very powerful message about humbling your own ego to prioritize becoming a winning player that Towns wants the youth of this generation to learn. His performance helped the defending champions improve to 5-4 for the season, going above .500 for the first time this season. They are now headed home to host the Milwaukee Bucks in their next game on Tuesday, November 10.