Karl-Anthony Towns named to Dominican Republic's FIBA World Cup roster

Karl-Anthony Towns is back to represent the Dominican Republic on the international stage for the first time in a decade.

On Wednesday, the Federacion Dominicana de Baloncesto (FEBOMBAL) formally announced a 30-man preliminary roster for the upcoming 2023 FIBA World Cup, which included Towns. The former Kentucky Wildcat center first began representing the Dominican Republic when he made his debut with the program back in 2011 at age 16. However, this will be his first appearance with the senior national team since the FIBA AmeriCup 2013.

Towns, who has spent all eight of his NBA seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, has been viewed as the missing piece for the Dominicans to take a competitive leap. The seven-foot, sharpshooting big man will join a team that includes fellow NBA players Al Horford (Boston Celtics) and Chris Duarte (Sacramento Kings). Another former Kentucky player, Eloy Vargas, was also named to the preliminary roster, which will be trimmed down to 12 ahead of the World Cup.

The 2023 FIBA World Basketball Cup is set to run from Friday, Aug 25 until Sunday, September 10 in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia. 32 teams will compete for a chance to earn one of seven automatic qualifying spots in next summer’s Olympics. The Dominican Republic is set to play in Group A, which also includes the host nation Philippines, Angola, and Italy.

YESSIR KAT. 🇩🇴 pic.twitter.com/4P8lCatP59

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) July 27, 2023

Towns first got his start with the Dominican Republic national team at the 2011 Centrobasket U17 Championship and then played again the following year for the senior team, which was led by Kentucky head coach John Calipari. That connection helped Calipari bring Towns, a five-star high school recruit from the class of 2014, to Lexington where he would go on to win SEC Freshman of the Year (2015). Towns would play again for the Dominicans in 2013 but had not returned until this summer.

After missing most of the 2022-23 season with a strained calf, Towns made his comeback in time for the Timberwolves to make a push in the 2023 NBA Playoffs. Although Minnesota (an eight-seed) fell in five games to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference’s opening round, Towns continued to look more and more like himself as the series went along. He averaged 18.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 36.0 minutes per game in that series while shooting 45.7 percent from the field.

Towns, 27, appeared in just 29 games this past season — he’ll look to make up that lost playing time later in the summer with the Dominican Republic.