Karl-Anthony Towns Knows the Knicks' Win Was Bigger Than Basketball

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I'm David Marquezzy. And today I'm talking to NBA Champion Carl Anthony Towns. The Seven Foot Tall Center for the New York Nix helped the team secure its first title in 53 years. Lighting up the court, the city, and the country.

And landing his fiance Jordan Woods's bag, which was seen as a lucky charm for the team in the Guggenheim Museum. Towns grew up in New Jersey, so joining the Nix in 2024 was something of a homecoming. His mother died of complications from COVID in 2020,

and he has said her memory fueled him through this year's playoffs. So what's it like making New Yorkers the happiest they've been. Maybe ever. Here's my conversation with Carl Anthony Towns. [Music]

Carl Anthony, thank you for being here. I appreciate you having me. You know, even just on the way into the studio, there are people congratulating you want to shake your hand. Yeah.

And when I've been talking to Nix fans, something people will say is, I can't believe that happened. Yeah. Almost like I still can't believe that. Well, I was going to say, how does it feel to you now,

like about a month after it happened? It still is something hard to believe. You know, 53 years, me as a Nix fan growing up, just seeing the Nix not be able to win the championship, and to be in a Nix jersey and be the one to do it with the Nix.

It's an honor. It's a blessing. I still can't fathom that we've done it. And I keep now being here and people call me champ, and I'm like, I don't know why they keep calling me that,

but it's something that I've earned and it's something that we've earned and the cities earned and the right to be calling ourselves champions. All right. I want to do some pure like relive the magic fans or something with you right now.

So I think game four of the finals. Okay.

“Is the game that people are going to know what happened that game?”

No one knows what happened that game. But that's the game that people are going to be talking about. Yeah. Years from now.

So first half of that game,

you guys are getting your butts kicked. You know, your dad. I feel like that was all really awesome. It was the whole finals. But talk to me about what you were thinking and feeling,

late in the first half when you're down almost 30. I know you're going to say, you know, we're just need to hit singles. But there was a moment where like, oh, this is just not our night or they're kicking our butts tonight. I mean, I'll put the words for you because I know you don't want to say. We were going to ask it for show.

You know, they're hitting shots. We're not hitting many shots. They're executing at a higher level. We weren't. They were bringing more physicality to the game than us and we weren't.

So we had to take our game to another level and amplify ourselves and in the face of adversity.

We found ourselves finding our best version in the second half.

And last year we had the same situation in Boston game one in game two. And we found ourselves winning down 20 plus. You know, I have time I just told the guys and everyone, you know, we have experience coming back from these moments, especially in the playoffs.

Just trust our experience, trust each other. And if anything, let's go out there and let's swing for the fences. You know, at least give ourselves a chance, you know. And if not, at least we'll have a different standard walking into the next game. We build off of this game, get ready for a game of five.

But this team and their special have no quit in them. And we went out there in the second half and we found the way to get the job done.

“And then when in the second half, do you really think?”

All right, this might happen. Is it, I think it's early in the fourth. You hit the three falling down. Oh, yeah, step by. Yeah, but when did you really start to think?

Wow, no, I'm just playing with you. Yeah, I know you were trying to get a foul. I thought we had a good chance of winning. And when I walked in the building, oh, I felt really good. And I told my wife, I told everybody, I felt really, really good about the game.

Obviously, as the first half was going on, I was like, man, maybe I was wrong. First half didn't give me the best feeling as well. Second half, I think when soon as we got it into like that 15 point range, I felt really good about our team, finding way to win. And do you feel in that moment when you're a started claw back and getting closer?

Do you feel the spurs tightening up? What is your analysis of what's happening on the other side? I think sometimes when you're a young team, you look to not lose the game. And we were looking to win the game. And that was what made us bring such an aggression to the game.

And I think they were trying to protect the lead.

Instead of protecting the lead, we're trying to build the lead. I think there was also one stretch to or maybe they took something like 93 pointers in a row. And you feel like maybe a more mature team takes a different approach. You know, it's so weird because when you're in the game.

“That's why a lot of times I know reporters hate when we say it.”

I got to watch the game to like actually give you an honest answer on the situation you're asking. But because in the game, I didn't realize.

And this is my first time hearing that they took nine.

I mean, even it was six, seven, eight. We weren't aware of that because we're so locked into the game, just trying to find a way to get a stop. Go back down the corner and make a bucket. You're not really thinking about what type of shots they're shooting. You're just, I just need to get a stop at all costs, whatever it takes. Whatever three's ahead, they hit two big three's.

Uh, what, the Aaron Fox had a left wing three. Yeah, the victim of my alma hit a pull up two pointer. They hit some shots at the end, but we did such a great job as a team just sticking with it. Finding ways to make that one bucket get that one stop. And of course, the right hand of God came through with OG getting a tip in.

All right, you need to tell me about OG's play. What? Where are you on the core? What is your sense of? I'm right next to him. I was going to want to dunk it in. I was going to dunk it in.

I was going to dunk it in. I see no G flying in the sky. And I'm like, all right, well, if he tries to tip the ball back in and it doesn't, it goes long and it goes off the front. I'm going to dunk it back in.

OG made it. It was something special, you know, the play was the play was designed to go to me. And then two people guarded me inbounder and the person defending me.

And we finally got the ball to JB and JB took a quick pull up three.

And OG, who was inbounding the ball, found himself with no one on him. He crashed at a board and got offence a rebound, which was to tip in and found a way to make the bucket. I mean, it's going to go down to this one of the greatest plays in New York history. One of the greatest plays at the final history. And then when you see that ball go through the hoop.

“What is the feeling that goes through your body at that moment?”

Or are you even having thoughts when you see me in the game? You see me telling everybody, it's so loud. I didn't hear the whistle. So I just see people running on the court. So my first reaction is to tell everyone, get off the court right now.

And like, let's stay focused on the game. But then I realized I look back and I see the rough grab in the ball. And I'm like, oh, it's a timeout. I see OG and OG is very, you know, OG. You don't have a lot of people.

This is New York Times. That means New York all knows how OG is. And I just saw him and it was one of those things. You know, you want to hype up and stuff. But I have such a close friendship with OGs.

One of my best friends. I was like, no, you're going to get a hug for this one. This is this is a career changing bucket for all of us at one time. And he gave us a chance. We still had to get a stop and he gave us a chance to get that stop.

Bless and God is good to us. I was able to get a hand on the basketball too. On the invalid for Casal.

“Did OG ever have more to say about that playing in the locker room?”

Did he do the same? Of course. No. OG went to locker room. You know, he did the usual OG has no reaction, no emotion on his face whatsoever.

And he was just like, yeah, I guess I made it, I guess. You know, OG OG's too funny there. There's another moment from the series I want to ask you about. I think you had just scored against Wemby. And maybe it was a timeout, a TV timeout.

And you're coming off the court. And you know, we're not supposed to curse here. But the camera's how you saying something like something like something like something. He can't fudge with me. Maybe what you said.

Yeah. Did you feel like you had understood something about how to play against him? Or what was that in response to you? I was just being competitive. Yeah.

So I respect to the opponents of stuff. I just was being competitive. And I have tremendous confidence in my ability and what I do in the work I put in. So you know, it was the moment as them be a finals. And you're on the biggest stage against one of the best players in the world.

And I wanted to prove again after all these years. It's proven again where I stand in NBA. Yeah. Because you had to take it a little personally just as a competitor, right? To hear no.

I mean, I just, well, to hear how much people are talking on Wemby before. I don't, I'm glad. He deserves it. He's a generational player. He's a 75, 75, whatever we want to say.

He's extremely tall and he's, and he's God gifted with intangibles. And none of us were able to get, I mean, I'm seven foot, thank God. But at seven forward, I'm cool too. And he deserved it. But you know, I've, I've, I've earned my stripes in this league too.

And I'm a competitor.

And I wanted to go against, I always say I want to go out there and play against the best.

And I was out there with one of the best. And we just wanted to compete at a high level. And when you talk about being a competitor, I think you're known for being a nice guy. You can just talk to you now, like, you know, you smile easily. Have a nice decision.

You're joking around in, in the green room. But I can imagine that being, you know, a professional basketball player, pushes you towards a kind of, you know, aggression, aggression or hardness.

I was definitely more aggressive when I was younger.

When you were younger.

“I just had a mean street to me because I understood what it was to be the young kid playing with the older kids playing basketball.”

There's no respect given to the young kid, especially to the younger brother. So I had to go earn it. And every day I learned how to earn it when I was 13 playing, you 16 basketball, you 17 basketball. Going out there and competing against the best of the best at age groups way higher than mine. You know, when you're doing that, you understand, you know, you got to bring that kind of aggression to the game,

especially for me, at the time I wasn't physically mature yet to dominate or out physicality. These older kids. So you learn how to get crafty with it. You learn how to get a little finesse with the game. And then as I got older, I had the finesse.

I learned the physical attributes to playing against older kids. I actually got my, you know, my strength. I got my maturity going. So while doing that, I also learned how to maintain and my mom taught me really well how to take that aggression and utilize it to my advantage and also be passionate about the game and how to love playing the game at a highest level.

You spoke very movingly. I think it was after game one, right? About your mom in an encore interview or you lost her during COVID and you talked about how she was kind of there with you. And it seemed clear that this idea that in a way you were playing for her was motivating. Is that actually what was going on?

Did you think during the playoffs? Like I am here trying to commemorate my mother in a way.

“Like what do I think about it in terms of food for me?”

I think about the finals and I say, you know, I've dedicated my life to this game. I've dedicated my time with her and I'm precious time. I could have been hanging out with her and enjoying life with her. I spent it in the gym, working on my game, working on my craft, playing basketball games, getting treatment on my body, getting ready for the next game.

You know, mentally not maybe always being 100% present because I'm thinking about that opponent.

I'm thinking about that team and that has coming up. We got that big game coming up. So I've sacrificed so much for this game. It would be a disservice to her if I didn't try to capitalize on this opportunity as much as possible. So I wanted to make her proud and I wanted to maximize this opportunity because I've worked my whole life for it.

And did you find yourself thinking about her at moments during the games? I mean, I think about her all the time. It's not just basketball. My life doesn't revolve around basketball. It's just my job.

I still have a whole life outside that revolves not around basketball.

“And I think about her with the basketball hand and not.”

After you guys won, who was most meaningful for you to celebrate with in terms of remembering your mom and her mom and her mom? My wife? Yeah. You know, it would be enjoyed and I think it was great. The next closest woman in my life was there and able to celebrate that moment with me and seeing all the trials and tribulations.

I took to get there, you know, trading from Minnesota to New York, coming up short last year. This year, all the rumors and everything, trade rumors and stuff. And then they still find yourself in this spot, winning the championship is a, you know, a testament to her love. She's giving me all and the support she's giving me and to my father as well, who has been with me every step of the journey since birth. And I was really special.

I think the most meaningful one after I spoke on was Patrick Huey and just to see all that. It's just all that years of misery and then, and then it's just that exhale he had, you know, I could tell he just had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

And for finally for the first time he could like breathe and he could see the end goal for the next.

We had talked about this moment since I got here and I've leaned on his experiences wisdom. And now only that has been come up really, really great friend of mine and someone I love to just pick up the phone and just talk with him and have a good time. And I know while he may have been disappointed that he was not the one in the jersey, bringing it home. He is the next culture. He is the next team, you know, he's the most recognized nick of all time and especially in my life that I've been able to recognize and see.

So he's playing against my dad too and just to see that moment happen and to see him finally get that moment to hold the trophy. I knew how much it actually meant to him on the side as well. It what did you guys say to each other after you won? No, it just simply, this was something that he needed to see in life. And I'm just honored I was able to make it happen and help him help this seem to make it happen for him. And I think the way that in press conferences and, you know, on the court interviews after the game, the way that you're willing to show your emotion and be vulnerable in those moments.

Is that something that you consciously decided you were going to be willing to put yourself out there in that way? No, no, no. You just can't be any other way. I'm just myself. I try to be anybody. I'm just trying to answer the questions as honestly as I can and doing them.

“Just I guess my personality shows itself sometimes and I'm not going to say sorry for any of it because that's how my mother raised me.”

She's hoping to be comfortable in my skin. I've always been comfortable in my skin and to never diminish my light and my value to help other people's narratives and opinions.

Get amplified. Have you learned anything from Jordan Woods about how to be a public figure? You know, she's obviously an influencer and actress. What did she tell you? I guess you could say a relationship in Hollywood hasn't lasted as long as ours. Like usually it doesn't do it. That's just kind of not the norm. And we found ourselves finding each other at the foundational level of just being friends for years and now we're here.

Well, wedding bells incoming soon. So I think for her, she's just taught me so much about that myself and things I had to work on myself that I maybe I wasn't willing to work on. I didn't recognize and she makes me better all around. You know, and it also just made me better with patients as well. And her handbag of course came sort of like I looked at Charm for the team. One that won us the chip.

“Yeah, so even though I think was at the Guggenheim for a little while.”

It's been at a Guggenheim. It's still there. Is it? It's still there. So do you know where it's going to be in your house? Well, this week for it this week. It'll be leaving the Guggenheim because it's going to fanatics festival, my group and everybody.

So it's going to be really cool to have all the fans in your fans be able to get close to the bag and see it in the sports environment. After that, I think I think she needs a retire. It's a shoe.

“The bag and the bag is a shoe. So I think she needs a retire.”

I think she needs to go to our house and just live its days with the sun in its face and just enjoy what has been able to accomplish. I also want to ask some questions about the internal dynamics of the team. You know, one of the big changes obviously between last year and this year was the coaching change. And something that people pointed to in terms of like key differences between tips and mic Brown is, you know, certain flexibility or or like coach Brown's willingness to have back and forth with players or change dynamics.

The both of the coaches in an amazing job. One took a city Easter, conference finals and we just came up short. The other took the same team that tips in an amazing job with was able to watch from afar and see what he could do from his coaching style, his personality traits to help us. And we found a way to win a championship.

But that's not a testament to tips not being the guy or tips not being good enough. He's always been good enough. He has a championship to show for as well.

Tips is an amazing coach, an amazing got person to and to see his growth as a person from when I was with him in Minnesota to when I got here to the next has been amazing and it's made us even closer and. Man, tips to get to a lot of credit for this man. But I'm not trying to subtly, you know, throw it on coach tapes or anything, but just like from your perspective, what was the biggest change that coach Brown brought to the team to help you guys get to that next. I mean, just he built off of what you know on an amazing foundation of tips that's and then he built off of that and added his own.

His own swag and flavor to it. So, you know, I think he did a great job of finding the right combinations that worked, you know, land your sham, it was huge in the playoffs and shout out to area how 42 man he has some big moments when we really really needed him in Mitch Robinson and Jose Alvarado, you know, and you could go down the list Muhammad Diawara all these people had an amazing impact on the game. Especially Tyler Kolig there in the year when JB got hurt played some amazing basketball. So, I think Mike did a great job at just finding at the right time in the right place where he needed to put, you know, certain players into the game and not put him in the game shout out to him, the amazing chess game he played.

And so in the first round of the playoffs, right, you're down to one to the hox and then there is this it seems like there's this strategic decision.

And made to change where you're playing on the court to run more of the offense through you sort of standing basically at the top of the top of the top of the key elbow top of the key. To just talk to me about from a strategic basketball perspective and then also from a Carl Anthony town psychologically perspective, what was the importance of that change like what did it unlock. I mean, for us as a team being the hub, it drew out the, you know, their five man or their four man and it put us in a great spot where the four man, if he was guarding me was guarding, you know, their five man would have to guard OG or Josh, which, you know, with that speed advantage and that kind of advantage.

It took so much pressure off of JB having the dribble dribble dribble and figure out like what's going to happen.

“So, and it made it easier for him to score, you know, less energy, expend it and gave us more energy to do other things and for me as a, as a, as a competitor as a player.”

Something I, for all year, you know, and it was finally a time to utilize that, that talk and, you know, my teammates trusted me, Mike trust in me to coach a staff trust in me in a vital point of our, of our season probably the most vital point.

And I was, I'm just glad I was able to repay their trust with some amazing games.

So you had that idea earlier in the season. I wanted to, I wanted to maximize what we could do all year, and we, we've done a great job getting to the point and finally pulling out our, another chess piece of ours. And were there other players on other teams who you had seen, do something similar. We seen Yokech. Yokech, right?

That's obviously. Yokech a bunch. And you see, operons and Goon do it a bunch and the months is so bonus as well. So, you know, it's a brand new team, new system.

There's a bunch of things we want to try to learn throughout the sphere, but in learning throughout the year,

we were finding ourselves still winning.

“Does unlocking that feel like something that you're going to then bring into the upcoming season?”

Let's see. We'll see. We'll have to see. I have to figure it out. I mean, my advice would be do that.

It seems like it worked pretty well. I think the way we did it was your work as well. After the break, Carl Anthony Towns tells me what it's actually like when an athlete gets traded. It's just kind of like your world's changes. You know, it's not like an away game becomes a home game all of a sudden.

And I think personally, just tough. I'm Winnello. I write the game connections, one of the puzzles from New York Times games, and I love horror movies. I love my dog, and I love trying to trick you. I'm Sam Azarsky, and I create the game spelling bee and letter boxed on a daily basis. And I have this thing called promosthesia. I see color when I'm listening to music.

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I am begging the universe for any new five letter word. New York Times games are made by people, like the ones you just heard from. Go to nytimes.com/games to start playing today. What's everyone's fastest mini time? Four seconds?

No. I'll go find it. I have my screenshots on where. Obviously as a professional player, you can only control live in control. But you had the experience in Minnesota of playing with the same team for nine years.

“And then getting traded. And I think lots of people in life, we can't control every aspect of our jobs.”

But the idea of somebody just tapping you on the shoulder one day and saying, "Hey, you've got to go work in some other city, it's not your choice." That's kind of a wild thing. What is most challenging about that experience? Just being awakened up one day and having somebody say, "Hey, you don't work here, you work there."

It's just kind of like your world's changes. You know, it's not like an away game becomes a home game all of a sudden. And I think personally just tough, you know, you're living a whole different lifestyle. You go from living in a big house and having six years dedicated in that house, built a life there. You know, every little thing that, you know, does whole house like the back of your hand and all of a sudden you're getting traded in your apartment. Much less space, you know, got to adjust, you're in a city now, you're not in the outskirts and the suburban town, you know.

So it's totally different and a different way of living too, but this is the life we chose. And there ain't no crying at all about it. I'm super honored that I was able to, you know, getting traded is sucks.

It's never good, but to get traded back home to a team I rooted for my whole entire life.

And when I was younger and for a team that gave my father his only chance in NBA, I mean, couldn't have went to a better situation for me and my family.

So the wife was happy. The family was happy. I was happy. It's a great situation. But so when you, when you get to call that you're traded, I didn't get to call. Oh, I got told. You got told. So when you got told.

“So when you get told that you're traded, like, what's the first call that you have to me?”

Are you like, oh, I got to call a mover? Do you think I got to call my family? What's the very first time I remember having the called Jordan in Paris. And she was having a good time and I said, no, take me all speak here right now. I don't know. I think that was one of the first calls I made. And then the second was, I didn't have to call my dad. He was there.

He heard the news as I heard it too and he was shocked and I was shocked. And second was calling my agent and having that, you know, conversation about what I was just told. Because even she didn't know at the time. So did Kevin Garnett talk to you after you were traded? I talked to KG all the time. That's my bet as a mentor.

So we've been talked a bunch. Yeah, I interviewed him a few years ago. Yeah, yeah. And just his intensity. Did you just interview the Lord a lot or not? I heard some other words that I'm not allowed to say.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Setting. But he was sort of a mentor to you. Yeah, he was. Can you talk about some of the advice that you just in family friendly language? Well, I can't speak that.

I think he was so big about routine. Yeah. And I was already huge about a routine. Like routine was everything to me. So me and him got along so well about that.

Because our routines, you know, were sinking with each other like coming in the lift, coming over on a sauna, getting to work out and on the court. You know, it was kind of we were kind of like, you know, I was the young fellow. And he was my OG, it was my vet. So I was just under his wing just learning how he became a hall of fame or one of the best

Ford's of the game ever. And taking those lessons and those teachings, especially the fundamental aspect that he was so big about. Just taking that in my every, not only in basketball, but in everyday life. And just about, you know, getting the fundamentals right.

He must have given you a hard time about defense though, right? I mean, I was guarded him well when he was there. But he's just a, he's a competitor. And you know, me and him are really fierce competitors. So we don't like losing or even having giving opponents a chance to win.

So we had a bunch of fun and practices. And just, I guess you want to say, talking smack to each other a lot. It was fun.

“We put Carl, I think, I want to say this with love, okay?”

I'm saying this with love. Sometimes, then this is the reason I bring up the defense thing. Sometimes, I'm watching you on defense. And you do those like 30 foot away from the basket fouls.

I think you're always like near the top of the league leader for fouls per game every year.

That means I'll be in physical. But it's just so different than your offensive game, which you may always feel is like so finessey, finessey, controlled, precise. It's all, it's all reaction. So explain to me the difference.

It's all reaction. So you're just swiping. I'm reacting a lot in offense. On defense. I mean, I'm getting a lot of steals.

I get a lot for us. It gets a lot of defense. Will we be in defense this year? What's that? We were like a top three defense this year?

Yeah. There you go. Yeah. So you think you're just winning?

“And what's number number one thing done in the NBA right now?”

What? Probably ISOs and what P&Rs. Pick a rules. I'm involved in all of them. So we did pretty damn good job at it this year.

All right. That's my one constructive criticism. That's reaching. That's reaching. You always said that.

You've never been in the playoffs.

I mean, it's working. My wife. She was watching a lot of the games with me. And she said, she would watch you do interviews. And then watch Jalen Brunson do interviews.

Or totally different. Jalen's the dad of the team. And Kat is like the mom of the team. That's what he actually is. That's actually pretty cool.

I never heard of it like that. Yeah. You're sort of more openly emotional. Yeah. More expressive.

He's kind of more button down. Yeah. Yeah. Is that how it plays out?

I'm never heard of it like that.

That's intriguing. I'm going to say that to J.B. That's actually pretty 40. Because that team accurate. What do you think of that description?

I don't think it's too far off. I don't think it's too far off. I mean, I think in a way that aren't we both like our parents in a way. I feel like he gives more of like Rick energy. And I give more of like Jacqueline energy.

You know, and that's beautiful. That shows great parenting too. You know, and that shows our parents have gotten us to this point. So shout out to Rick and JB's mom and shout out to my mom and my dad for getting a done for us. And leading us to be a one men that people respect.

This is the most important thing as a parent. You want to have kids that people respect more than anything. And to, you know, giving us, I guess you could say those personalities has gotten us as far.

You did.

Was there ever any questions?

He was better to me. Oh, what about that? We know that.

“Was there ever any question in your mind about whether you wanted to be a professional basketball player?”

No. From, as long as you could remember, that was really really good at basketball. But is it what you wanted to do? I wanted to be MLB player. I want to play for the Yankees.

I want to put the pinstrips along. And the true Dominican in me. And I wanted to be like Robinson can know. I wanted to be like Alex Wattie because I wanted to be like the great Yankees. You know, for me, two opera pools.

And these great Dominican players, I've come before me. And I just, it just wasn't in my car. It's at one point. I made the last minute decision when I was really looking to take this professionally. I wanted to go back to basketball.

And I plan to play basketball my whole life. And I went back to basketball.

And got back on the scene and never looked back since.

And what was the inflection point there? Why did you make the decision not baseball? Honestly, it was my childhood friends. I really was. My childhood friends, Vic Singh and Greg Davis. Back from Piscadaway, they just was like, we missed playing with you man.

You haven't been around. You know, I know you're playing a bunch of A U baseball and travel baseball and stuff. And I know you said you quit basketball. But like, you don't have to play like full time. Like, and I'm always a person like, I get obsessive.

Like, if I give my attention to something, I want to go 110%. I didn't be the best of the best side of it. So they asked me to do it. And they kept, you know, we went to the park one day. They played basketball and Jersey and they part and Piscadaway.

And I just was like, you know what? I do miss hanging out with you. I play basketball a little bit. I'll come just to play one tournament and play. And so they brought me back to basketball.

And it's funny now that Greg was with me on the court at San Antonio after game five with the final trophies and everything. And Vic is still one of my closest friends like those are like my brothers. And they've been to my games. And that's really crazy that now they're seeing me and these NBA games.

And before I tell them I never even wanted to touch basketball again.

“And so when you do finally get to the league, is there a game or a moment or a play?”

Where you really think I belong here? I'll tell you, actually it wasn't even in the league. I remember when I played before my freshman year, I played team USA with Kobe in Lebron. It was a dream team V2. And I remember, you know, it was a big game everyone was telling the Dominican Republic for his team USA. And I understood the situation.

I got myself a nice little super cut across the street before I go into Thomas and Mac and I got the job done. And when I was out there, I felt like I could be in the NBA. I could belong. And I knew I had more years to go and I had to still grow as a player physically mentally. But to already go out there and feel very confident and feel good about my game already there.

And I said, man, the league's in trouble in a couple of years. When I gave him more, figured out, right? I'm going to be a problem and a damn short became a problem. Let me ask you some league questions. Okay. You know, the East this year, right?

The Janis went to the heat. Coi looks like he's going to go to the Raptors. I know it's a little up in the air right now. Jalen Brown went to the Sixers. Who are you most worried about? The next.

That's all I need to worry about.

“Do you get why Jalen Brown is now on the Sixers of all the teams for him to end up on?”

The fact they trade him to like one of their biggest rivals, pretty fun. It's pretty fun. Yeah, like I said, control the controllables. If I worried about all the uncontrollables in my life and professionally, I'd be lost in the sauce. But of course, your buddy Mitch Robinson now on the Sixers of all the tough one.

I have two questions about that. In good conscience, could the team do hack a Mitch? If you were playing the Celtics, that would be hard break if you guys did that? I don't know how that. I don't even know if I could look at Mitch with the Celtics jersey on after everything.

I don't even know if I could, I'll just start laughing at Mitch when we see each other. He owes me a pickup truck now and talking about that. For what? I don't know. I just want to pick up truck. You just say to him, you owe me a pickup truck.

I just owe me a pickup truck. But you know, watching him shoot free throws as a fan is the most emotional roller coaster experience. You just want that emotional roller coaster watching American shoot free throws? Oh, it is because you want him to succeed so badly. That's not like walking up to a woman out of bar and saying she all she can say it or worse is no.

That's easier than watching. That's stupid. Because you know, it's like you know he struggles with the free throws. You want him to shoot them so well and then it ends up still being a struggle.

Oh, we love it. We love going to see him shoot free throws.

What do you love about it?

“Just wanting it gets a foul puts us closer to the bonus.”

It gets closer for me for all of us like whatever it's me, jail and anybody. We get closer to getting that foul against the free throw line. To every time it happens, you know, it gives us breaks and gives us a break to kind of reset. Think about what we want to do next and three. We believe in Mitch.

Like I said, we believe everyone on that team one through 15. We know we see each other get to put the work in and everything. So when he goes up there, we're excited because we can't wait to talk junk when he makes it.

So we're always excited when we get to see Mitch go up there.

You know, we're almost at the end of our time. But you know when you leave the building, you're going to have the similar experience. They know I'm here. They know I'm here.

When you came up, What a honor. Just be able to to like represent

“Joy for people in the city of New York seems like such a privilege.”

And it's going to be that way for the rest of your time on the next. Probably for the rest of your life. You're in this city for the rest of your life. Talk about what that means to you. Yeah.

I talked about it after the game. If we're talking about, you know, the impact of this win. You know, you talking about I leave and everyone, you know, congratulates and says champ the word champ which is still crazy. We started this interview talking about how surreal is still is to have a championship.

To bring so much joy to families. And especially those families that have previous generations of Nick's fans who have been just begging for a chance to be in the NBA finals. Let alone winning the NBA finals after 53 years. And then last time being 20, seven years ago. I guess the spurs, too, ironically.

I feel like a little violent character getting back my phone after to play off and seeing these Reels and these videos and these Instagram posts about the grandfather selling, it with his son's kid and passing that kind of Nick's fandom down to the kid or the father who grew up watching the disappointment of 1999 or families and those people who have those lost loved ones and going to the cemetery to celebrate the next win with them.

And I know how special it is because I saw people in Brooklyn share and they got their own NBA teams. So that's kind of that's kind of crazy to do. But it just shows, you know, New York's so unified with each other. When you give them something to be unified for and for us to reach a mountain top and give so many people something to cheer for. And so many people to have hope for because inspiring hope is one of the hardest things to do.

And for us to be able to do that is something truly special. So just the last question. The margins in professional sports between winning and losing are very slim. You know, it's like one small decision changes that one small decision changes everything last year. You know, you guys are our big against the Pacers in a fourth quarter.

They pull off a comeback and you this year. OG tips at a shot that if he missed that 999 times out of 1000. I'm dunking. I know you're saying you would have dunked it, but you know, it's a dunk in. I'm telling you I'm dunking it in.

But you know, no one would have blamed him if he missed that. That's sort of a miraculous shot. And then just the level of intensity and focus that it takes and it seems almost unbelievable that you can win once. Does it then seem even more daunting to try to have to have to think can we come back and win it again back to back.

“My competitive spirit says, you know, that's what we're planning to do.”

And now, you know, I know we were always underdogs in every series.

We got to be ready to always be looked at as the favorites. And that's not something we we like a lot. So we're going to have to go out there and continue to have that underdog mentality that mindset. And just we're going to have to be even a better version of ourselves, even though a lot of Yase. We were one of the best ever in the playoffs. We got to find another level because people are going to be ready for us this year. And they're not going to get caught slipping anymore.

All right, I'm going to say it back to back. We're going back to back. I ain't going to say that. I'm going to say we're going to do our best. All right. Thanks, Jam. Appreciate it. That's Carl Anthony Towns. To watch this interview and many others, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube dot com slash at symbol the interview podcast. This conversation was produced by Seth Kelly. It was edited by John Wu, mixing by Sophia Landman, original music by Dan Powell,

Rowan Nemisto and Marion Lazano, photography by Devin Ealken. The rest of the team is pre-amatue, Wyatt Orm, Palo Newdorf, Joe Bill Moonios, Eddie Costis, Jeremy Rockland, Kathleen O'Brien and Brooklynters. Our executive producer is Allison Benedict.

There's this little devil on my shoulder that tells me I don't deserve any of this.

“And thanks that I should be in some little trailer somewhere addicted to drugs or something and not a penny to my name.”

So it does feel like I'm kind of playing for my survival a lot.

I'm David Marquezie and this is the interview from the New York Times.

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