Karl-Anthony Towns’ surprising heel turn

There perhaps has never been a more relatable Kentucky player in the John Calipari era than Karl-Anthony Towns. Of course, that doesn’t mean the average fan is a 6’11” basketball prodigy destined to be the #1 pick in the NBA draft from the age of 12, but when it comes to sheer personality, many of us have a lot of KAT in them.

You know the kid back in algebra class who shared his homework out of the goodness of his heart? Or the guy quick to make an overly corny joke even at his own expense? Or maybe the guy prone to getting made fun of, but still be the first person to stand up for someone else?

I have no idea how good of an algebra student Towns was, nor do I have any insight into his joke-telling or propensity to stand up for others, but this stereotype of a really good person whose kindness is sometimes taken advantage of is the picture KAT has painted of himself through his time at Kentucky and first few years in the NBA.

This season, however, there seems to have been an intentional shift in this persona, almost like he was a professional wrestler who turned heel.

For those not familiar with this wrestling jargon, a heel turn is when a fan favorite does something to become a bad guy.

Perhaps the most shocking of all WWE heel turns came in 2001 when long-beloved Stone Cold Steve Austin sided with the evil Vince McMahon much to the disgust of Wrestle Mania 15 viewers everywhere. However, the problem with this move was that it became hard to maintain because fans instinctively loved Steve Austin to the point his bad guy character didn’t fit.

It takes a special personality to shine as a heel. Some guys simply don’t have what it takes to draw heat consistently. They are just too likable.

Perhaps one of the most likable human beings ever to suit up for the Kentucky Wildcats, Karl-Anthony Towns, has surprisingly transformed into a bit of a heel this season, himself.

But what led to this flip? How did the extraordinarily talented affable goofball who used to photobomb John Calipari during postgame interviews morph into a man guilty of more than a few jeer-worthy moments?

Towns’ newfound trash talk

While many guys in the league can pull off flexing in their opponent’s face while talking intense trash, it doesn’t take Phil Ivey to see through Karl’s poor poker face when he tries to do the same.

In a game against the Los Angeles Lakers in March, he boisterously mocked Russell Westbrook after an airball during a Timberwolves route by pretending to check the wind inside the arena. If it were someone else, this could have been funny, but it came across as a little forced when he did it. After all, the same joke told by Louis CK doesn’t necessarily hit the same when told by Jerry Seinfeld.

In the same game, he flexed and cussed out LeBron James in a very non-Karl-Anthony-Towns manner, and later in the season gave Jae Crowder the “he’s too short” sign after a monstrous dunk that led to a double-technical in a game the Wolves would end up losing.

More recently, a mic’d-up Towns was caught bragging when his team was up big against the Grizzlies, saying, “We in Minnesota now!” before promptly blowing that huge lead, in part due to his poor play. Ja Morant was quick to rub that one in on Twitter afterward. Game 5 of the series saw the Wolves blow yet another huge lead, but not before KAT hushed the crowd after draining a triple to put his team up 13 in the fourth quarter. It seemed like every time Towns would talk trash, it led to his team’s instant demise and subsequently set the Twittersphere ablaze, poking fun at the otherwise talented big man.

A personality that doesn’t exactly ooze swag

As someone who can relate to Towns’ personality, I will be the first to admit that while very likable, Towns doesn’t exactly drip with prototypical swagger.

Take a look at a few interactions from this year’s All-Star game. During warmups, Michael Jordan snuck up and gave Luka Dončić a bear hug from the side and the two took a few seconds to bro-out before Towns came over and awkwardly shook Jordan’s hand in an attempt to join in on the fun, but Jordan all but ran away as soon as he could.

Afterward, Towns claimed it was a playful, competitive exchange but that didn’t stop the Internet from calling out the awkwardness.

That wasn’t Towns’ only uncomfortable moment of All-Star weekend. In backstage footage posted by the Timberwolves, Paul Pierce and Kevin McHale were none too pleased when KAT slid into their photo-op after chatting it up with fellow Minnesota star, Kevin Garnett. It was probably an overreaction on Pierce’s part to say, “Man, he messing up my pic, dawg,” but he wasn’t giving Jason Tatum that same treatment who was standing right next to him.

Maybe we can get Tyler Herro to sneeze on Karl and pick up some of what he has.

The Jimmy Butler experience

Karl coasted along affably his first few years in the NBA, but conflict arose when the Timberwolves brought in Jimmy Butler during the 2017-2018 season.

Butler is a tremendous talent but has quickly worn out his welcome on most of his teams.

While we’ll never know the true extent of Towns and Butler’s turbulent relationship in Minnesota, it is safe to generalize that Butler can be a bit of a bully.

Kentucky’s own John Calipari agreed with this assessment:

“I bet that environment was so uncomfortable for [Karl-Anthony Towns]. First of all, he and Jimmy are totally different people—how they were brought up, their likes and dislikes, how they approach competition. You have one guy on this side and one guy on the other side. There was a dogfight, and Karl’s not one to get into that. So, he stepped back. Things happen. There are power struggles all the time in [the NBA]. If a guy can bully you, he will bully you. And that’s what Jimmy did to Karl.”

That friction carried over even after Butler left, as the two got into a heated exchange during a Wolves-Heat game last season when a hot mic picked up Jimmy calling Karl a loser and soft. Karl clapped back with a remark about Rachel Nichols, but it didn’t seem to land as well as it could have.

Towns’ unimaginable loss

Just a year after Butler’s departure from Minnesota, the world came to a halt when the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on society, bringing, among other things, the NBA season to a halt. However, figuring out how to continue playing basketball was the last thing on Karl-Anthony Towns’ mind.

His mom passed away from the virus on April 13, 2020, and since then, seven other members of his family succumbed to the disease. He, himself, got hospitalized from it, but nothing hit him harder than the death of his mother.

He told Yahoo, “You may see me smiling and stuff but that Karl died [when my Mom died]. He’s never coming back. I don’t remember that man. I don’t know that man. You are talking to the physical me, but my soul was killed off a long time ago.”

As someone who once described he and his mom as, “two peas in a pod,” the toll his mother’s death took on him was a hole that will never be filled. Before the season began, he sat down with Taraji Henson and spoke at length about the impact such a tragedy can have on mental health. He said:

“That day changed me as a man. I’m never going to get that innocent young boy back. That’s gone. Ever since that day, I feel like the world just made me a little colder. It took what was most valuable to me, so I don’t have that kind of feeling for it.”

Everyone copes with tragedy differently, but Karl made it clear that his world has gotten colder, and in turn, perhaps he got a little colder toward the world.

The Patrick Beverley effect

Enter Patrick Beverley, who joined the Timberwolves this season and teamed up with Towns for the first time.

When it comes to intensely vocal players in the NBA, Patrick Beverley stands supreme. His trash talk can border on irrationality, once telling Steph Curry, “You had the last five years, the next five years are mine!”

Most fans would eye-roll comments like that, but even big names like Joel Embiid, another player with whom KAT has battled in the past, deem his vociferous trash talk outlandish to the point of absurdity. Embiid said of Beverley: “I feel like if you can’t back it up, I don’t know, to me it just feels weird to be in a position where like you’re always talking trash nonstop, nonstop.”

Last season as a member of the LA Clippers, Beverley got so worked up playing against the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs, he shoved Chris Paul in the back during a timeout of a blowout loss.

Unfortunately, it seems like Beverley’s eccentrics have influenced a freshly malleable Karl-Anthony Towns. In the same game where Towns mocked Russell Westbrook, Beverley went on a tirade midgame calling Westbrook trash and driving the point home by pinching his nose as if he were literally holding a garbage bag full of Shagari Alleyne’s used practice socks.

It can’t be a coincidence that KAT acted out later in that same game in a similar fashion. It’s the Patrick Beverley effect.

Is the new Karl-Anthony Towns here to stay?

It makes sense that Karl doesn’t want to be seen as guy others can push around, but there has to be a compromise where he can shake the soft label without acting like someone he’s not.

The biggest thing Towns has going for him is that he’s still a basketball savant and only getting better. This season, he finished 11^th in the league in points at 24.6 per game and 14^th in rebounding at 9.8 per contest. This makes him one of only four players to finish in the top 15 in both of these categories, the other three being Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokić, the three leading candidates for MVP all season (Jokic eventually won the award).

And during that same All-Star weekend where Karl got ridiculed for a few awkward interactions, he won the 3-point shooting competition and became the first center ever to claim the title.

While impressive numbers help, it would be great to see him lead the league in the most important stat of them all: authenticity.

But don’t listen to me, take it from Draymond Green. The never-shy, oft-annoying, but seldom-wrong Golden State Warrior pointed out this truism on his podcast while offering KAT some sage advice:

“[The Timberwolves] put themselves in position to win four games, but somehow only managed to win two of them. It seems to go wrong every time Karl-Anthony Towns [talks trash]. At some point you should probably just be yourself, because it hasn’t been going right when he does that. I’ve never known Karl Towns to be such a big talker, and this year, especially as of the last few months, it’s been a lot of that.”

It may sound like something found on a Cracker Barrell knickknack, but Green essentially told Towns, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” And he’s right.

Can he be a little bit of a goofball? Sure. That’s okay. He should lean into it and drop this recently-adopted, trash-talking character that doesn’t fit him well. If he can go back to being the smiling but ferocious, polite yet aggressive, kind but devastating big man he started out as then he’ll regain the respect of both fans and players alike.

Stone Cold Steve Austin’s time as a heel didn’t last long because it didn’t work for his personality, and Karl-Anthony Towns’ doesn’t have to either for the exact same reason. But even if it does, I’ll still be here cheering him on.