Karl-Anthony Towns was "flabbergasted" when he learned about trade to New York

Leave it to Karl-Anthony Towns to hit us with a polysyllabic word when describing how he felt when he first found out the Minnesota Timberwolves traded him to the New York Knicks. Towns has spent all nine years of his NBA career with the Wolves and from all accounts, he has genuinely embraced his Minneapolis area as home. Now he is going back East, closer to his original home of New Jersey, but that doesn’t mean the news of his involuntary relocation didn’t affect him.

“[I felt] shock,” KAT told reporters at Knicks training camp, “Shock. The word flabbergasted would be more correct, but, um, shock.”

Aside from Towns’ unabashed loyalty which should be unsurprising to Kentucky fans, the fact the Wolves are championship contenders had to add to the sting. Minnesota made it to the Western Conference Finals last season, the team’s best finish in the Towns era after spending most of those seasons in the doldrums of the Western standings. To be looking forward to a title run, only to be jettisoned across the country right as training camp started…ouch.

The reuniting of Karl-Anthony Towns and familiar faces

While the timing was atypical for a landscape-changing trade like this one, rumors have swirled for years about the Knicks’ interest in acquiring the 2015 No. 1 overall draft pick. Towns’ former agent, Leon Rose, is the president of the New York Knicks, and World Wide Wes, who was a staple in Lexington when Towns was there, is the team’s executive vice president in charge of basketball operations.

Then there is the Knicks’ head coach Tom Thibodeau, who coached Towns in Minnesota from 2016 to 2019. It is safe to say those two did not part on pleasant terms, with KAT making sly comments shortly after Thibs’ firing about him not fostering a healthy environment for young players. Now, that is water under the Brooklyn Bridge, as Towns claimed the two men squashed their beef years ago after a one-on-one conversation. In 2024, the focus is on winning.

“I think over time you just learn a lot about each other and mature…I think that for us, we just want to win….so our conversations are all about winning and doing the best we can do every single day.”

The familiarity of his former coach, former agent, and former whatever World Wide Wes was isn’t the only sense of welcome in New York. He will also get to spend more time with this family. “I’ll be seeing my grandmother…my niece and nephew grow up…it’s cool to be around them.”

Karl also recounted how his late mother called Madison Square Garden the Mecca, a memory that got the big man emotional during an interview. He’ll wear a familiar number on his new unfamiliar jersey, as KAT will don 32 for the Knickerbockers.

Emotions aside, towns won’t have long to get over his state of flabbergastation. The Knicks preseason starts Sunday against the Hornets.