Karl-Anthony Towns experienced 'best basketball of my career' at Kentucky: "It's a brotherhood."

At 28 years old, Karl-Anthony Towns has already become a four-time NBA All-Star, two-time All-NBA member, NBA Rookie of the Year, NBA All-Rookie First Team honoree and NBA Three-Point Contest champion, racking up 13,121 career points, 6,216 rebounds and 1,815 assists across nine seasons in the league. Averaging at least 20.6 points and 8.9 rebounds per game every year as a pro, he’s done nothing but produce since he walked across that stage as the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.

So would it surprise you to know he feels the best basketball of his career was played in Lexington as a Kentucky Wildcat? That’s what he told Paul Finebaum this week on SEC Network.

Part of that was playing for John Calipari, the coach who helped him become a man and use his platform for good.

“It was amazing to have a coach like Coach Calipari, who really made me a man and taught me what it meant to do community service at the highest level, which helped me do amazing things in NBA with helping my communities,” Towns told Finebaum. “And then from the basketball standpoint of making me a pro, he really taught me the game, he taught me what I needed to do. He saw the weaknesses in my game, and he made them my strengths.”

Then there is the Kentucky basketball aspect, suiting up as part of the greatest tradition in college basketball history. That venue, that fanbase, that season — it was a year he’ll cherish for the rest of his life.

“When you talk about BBN, Big Blue Nation, you’ve got the best fans in all of college basketball. Playing at Kentucky, being in Rupp Arena, those magical moments, playing basketball at its highest level in college basketball, it brings me joy,” he said. “Just thinking about those moments with my teammates, Devin Booker, Willie Cauley-Stein, Tyler Ulis, Trey Lyles — everybody. That was the best basketball of my career.”

We all know what happened that season, a ride that experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows, right up to the very end. From the undefeated regular season to winning the SEC Tournament championship to the Final Four run, followed immediately by the pain of Wisconsin. It was a rewarding, yet humbling season for all of us — especially the No. 1 draft pick.

They were desperate for perfection just like the rest of us, and they nearly got it.

“We embraced it, for sure. We embraced it,” Towns said of the pressure of going undefeated. “I remember when I first got there, Willie Cauley-Stein pulled me to the side, he’s like, ‘Young fella, I’ve seen Cal. If we lose a game, I can only tell you how bad that next practice is going to be.’ And I looked at Willie and told him, ‘We ain’t gonna lose a game then!’

“We had a great time, we embraced it. I remember we would laugh and look at Coach Cal singing the song that was on ESPN where it goes like, ‘I am number one!’ We used to go crazy about that with Cal. The love we was getting from everybody in Big Blue Nation was a big component of us being able to do something historic like that.

“We just understood that we wanted to do something special. I can tell you right now, every single one of those guys in that locker room was hungry for the opportunity to win a championship.

“I would’ve thought you were lying. I would have thought you were lying.”

They didn’t accomplish that dream as planned, but it doesn’t take away the magic of that run and what it meant to wear blue and white. He still feels that love and fraternity in the NBA watching his Kentucky peers dominate as teammates and competitors.

Not to be too on the nose, but it’s a family — La Familia, you might say. That bond will always be there.

“In a way, Cal made the NBA run through Kentucky. You’re always seeing your Kentucky brethren out there, and you seeing them play well — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, Julius Randle, we could keep going down the list. Devin Booker, Trey Lyles, all of these amazing players have come through the Coach Cal program at Kentucky,” Towns said. “It’s a brotherhood, he really made it a brotherhood. We really look out for each other, we always want to see each other do well. That brotherhood is no joke at Kentucky.

“When you go to the University of Kentucky, you truly are stepping into a family that you’ll have for life.”