Нью-Йорк Никсийн төвийн тоглогч Карл-Энтони Таунс багийнхаа ялалтад хувийн амжилтаасаа илүүтэй багийн амжилтыг чухалчлан зүтгэж байна.
Кэнтакид байх үеэсээ л авьяаслаг тоглогч гэдгээ харуулсан Карл-Энтони Таунс өдгөө Нью-Йорк Никсийг 1973 оноос хойш анхны аварга цолонд хүргэхэд тун ойрхон ирээд байна. Хэдийгээр НБА-гийн финалын дөрөв дэх тоглолтод 13 points, 10 rebounds-тай тоглосон нь түүний хувьд даруухан үзүүлэлт боловч, тоглолтын шийдвэрлэх мөчүүдэд үзүүлсэн тоглолт нь багийн эргэн ирэлтийн гол түлхүүр болсон юм. Тэрээр гурван онооны шидэлт амжилттай гүйцэтгэж, будагтай талбайд Виктор Вэмбаньямаг сөрөн зогсож, хамгийн чухал агшинд Дилан Харперийн дамжуулалтыг тасалснаар багийнхаа ялалтыг баталгаажуулжээ.
Жэйлен Брансон багийн хамтрагчаа НБА-гийн түүхэнд нэрээ мөнхлөх хэмжээний гайхалтай тоглогч хэмээн тодорхойлсон байна. Таунс ч өөрөө багийнхаа нөхцөл байдлаас шалтгаалан оноо авах, дамжуулалт өгөх, эсвэл хамгаалалтад анхаарах зэргээр үүрэг ролдоо өөрчлөхөд бэлэн байгаагаа илэрхийлжээ. Тэрээр талбай дээрх туршлага, тоглолтын мэдрэмжээрээ дамжуулан багийнхаа амжилтад бодитой хувь нэмэр оруулахыг эрхэмлэж байна.
Кэнтакид байх үеийн дасгалжуулагчид нь түүнийг өсвөр наснаасаа л оюун ухаан, суралцах хүсэл тэмүүллээрээ бусдаас ялгардаг байсныг онцолдог. Өдгөө НБА-гийн финалд нэг л хожил дутуу байгаа Таунс Нью-Йорк хотын сагсан бөмбөгийн түүхэнд шинэ хуудсыг нээхэд бэлэн болжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
SAN ANTONIO — Orlando Antigua remembers that bygone call from his boss at Kentucky, John Calipari, who was attending a tournament for prospects in Pittsburgh. Coach Cal needed a reminder from Antigua about a recruit the assistant was tracking.
“Hey O, the Dominican kid, what’s his last name again?” Calipari asked.
“Towns,” Antigua replied.
“That’s not a Dominican name.”
“I know.”
“Well, I’m watching this kid right now and he’s ridiculous.”
Karl-Anthony Towns was indeed a ridiculous prospect as a 6-foot-10 teenager who rained down 3-pointers on opponents at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, N.J. Calipari and his staff remodeled Towns’ game in his one-and-done year, made him a post threat, shaped him into the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft and helped put him on the verge of becoming the New York Knicks’ first championship center since Willis Reed.
After Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, after famously serving as a point-center to kick-start the Knicks’ title drive, Towns met with Calipari and former Kentucky assistant Barry Rohrssen on the Madison Square Garden court and told them he absolutely did not care how many points he was or wasn’t scoring in the playoffs.
“KAT just looked at Cal and said, ‘The things I’m doing now are making a difference for our chances to win,’” Rohrssen recalled. “It’s almost like he wanted to get it off his chest and let Cal know that the thing we preached at Kentucky, where we had so many good players like the Knicks do, is to make sure your numbers help the team. It’s good to see KAT held on to that belief. He told us, ‘My numbers now are meaningful numbers because they are contributing to wins.’”
Towns finished Game 4 of the NBA Finals with 13 points and 10 rebounds, pedestrian stats for a six-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA player. But from what is almost certainly the greatest basketball game ever played in the Garden, witnesses will only remember the plays KAT made in the closing stages of a frantic, history-making rally from 29 points down.
They will remember the 3-pointer to beat the shot-clock buzzer as he crash-landed into the San Antonio Spurs’ bench. They will remember how Towns bullied past Victor Wembanyama on the baseline for a critical hoop. They will even remember how he literally took one for the team by absorbing a Wemby elbow under his chin, leading to a flagrant-foul call and the launch point for the comeback.
But more than anything, they will remember how Towns used every bit of his 7-foot-3 wingspan and every ounce of his competitive spirit to deflect Dylan Harper’s inbound pass with 1.2 seconds left, a pass that might have found an open Stephon Castle and reduced the OG Anunoby miracle to the sport’s most conspicuous footnote.
Oh yeah, and they’ll remember how KAT asked a couple of front-row fans to slide to their right to make Harper feel the forceful breath of an entire city closing in on him.
If Towns wasn’t considered a complete player with the Minnesota Timberwolves, well, he is one now. Hard as it is to believe, but KAT was regarded in some league corners as a card-carrying Mister Softee.
“The narrative was placed on him by the outside world,” Jalen Brunson said. Brunson called his running mate “a Hall of Famer” who has done “extraordinary” things for the Knicks.
Like sacrificing individual scoring glory for the greater good. Towns called passing the ball “one of my greatest joys” because it makes his teammates happy. In the end, this Towns quote explains why the center is now viewed differently around the league and around the city he’s always wanted to play for:
“I’ve always had to change the way I play so it could be most beneficial for the team. Taking all that experience this year, I’ve had to do it on the fly. It wasn’t game by game. It’s been quarter by quarter. That comes with experience, and just knowledge of the game, and just time. Time playing the game, time putting shots up, time reading defenses, seeing defenses, offenses.
“One game Jalen got hurt, that’s when I have to be a primary scorer. Other games when he’s cooking, I got to be a facilitator, a hub, assist-maker, aggressive in playmaking. … There’s also days where I got to be a decoy. I got to be the best screener. I got to be the best spacer for our offense. So I think that right now, whatever it takes to win, especially when you’re in the NBA Finals, I’m willing to do.”
Those words wouldn’t surprise the coaches or players who knew KAT as an exceedingly pleasant high school big man and as New Jersey’s tallest shooting guard. The upperclassmen on the St. Joseph team wanted Towns to play in the paint and posterize dudes, yet the freshman kept drifting out to the perimeter and firing up 3s. It was hard for anyone to get mad at him.
A senior on that team, Daniel Brix, once called Towns “the nicest kid on and off the floor that I’ve ever met or played with.” The son of a Dominican mother, Jacqueline, and an American father, Karl Sr., who was once a college star at Monmouth, Towns led St. Joseph to three state titles while dreaming of someday playing for the Knicks.
Antigua’s brother Oliver coached him on the Dominican Republic’s junior national team before Calipari actually coached him on the country’s senior national team. “I was more impressed with KAT as a person than a player,” Antigua said, “and he was a really, really good player. KAT had great skill at that size, but it was more his intellect and his thirst for knowledge that was so impressive for someone that young.”
Karl-Anthony Towns of the Dominican Republic and Anthony Davis of the United States battle for a rebound during a senior national team game in Las Vegas in 2012. (David Becker / Getty Images)
Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the Bronx, Orlando Antigua, once a starting forward at Pittsburgh, was a natural fit as Kentucky’s lead recruiter on Towns. He landed KAT, of course, but then left the bluegrass to become the head coach at South Florida. On his way out, Antigua assured the Towns family that Karl-Anthony would be in reliable hands with one of his mentors, Rohrssen, a fellow New Yorker who looked and talked the part of a Brooklyn tough guy.
“I remember sitting behind my desk at Kentucky and in walks Karl’s mom, God rest her soul,’” Rohrssen said. “She looks at me and says, ‘You had better take care of my son.’ And I said, ‘Well, I do that for everybody and I always have.’ And she says, ‘Orlando told me you were good people.’”
Rohrssen and future Knicks assistant Kenny Payne worked Towns hard, sometimes three times a day, morning, noon and night. But after the very first shot KAT took in his very first practice at Kentucky, Calipari had a problem.
From left are Barry Rohrssen, John Calipari, Karl-Anthony Towns and Karl Towns Sr. (Courtesy of Barry Rohrssen)
“Cal blew the whistle like it was a fire drill,” Rohrssen recalled. “Karl took a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and Cal stops the practice and goes, ‘No, no, no. You’re not going to do that. All these pro coaches saw you do that in high school.’ Cal then pointed his finger toward the block and said, ‘This is where pro scouts need to see you score. And we’re going to get you there.’”
After averaging more than 40 3-pointers per season in high school, Towns took only eight at Kentucky. He still managed to score 25 points against Notre Dame to send the 38-0 Wildcats to the Final Four in 2015, when, paired against Wisconsin, they lost their bid for a perfect season.
Orlando Antigua, now an assistant coach at Illinois, knew Towns would be a great fit in New York.
At the time, Antigua knew where Towns belonged. “He’d be a perfect fit for the Knicks and a city he’s spent his whole life around and knows very well,” Antigua said in 2015. He’s already part of one of the biggest stages there is with Kentucky, so I don’t think New York would be a problem for him.”
Reminded of those words 11 years later, with Towns and the Knicks closing in on the franchise’s first championship since 1973, Antigua, now an assistant at Illinois, said, “Wow, to hear that so many years removed, I’m just extremely proud of him. And I’m extremely happy for him and love the fact that I can be a cheerleader for him and the Knicks from afar.”
Like his protege, Rohrssen also thought New York always made sense for New Jersey’s finest. As a St. Joseph freshman, Towns used to repeatedly make shots from a couple of steps inside the half-court line … while wearing a Yankees shirt.
Rohrssen and Towns still talk about their favorite baseball team in the Bronx. They talk more often about their favorite basketball team in Manhattan.
Now, Towns stands one victory away from Knicks immortality. Like Harper’s ill-fated inbounds pass in Game 4, it’s right there at KAT’s fingertips.
