Karl-Anthony Towns

Karl-Anthony Towns Jr. (born November 15, 1995), also known by his initials KAT, is a Dominican-American professional basketball player for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats. Towns was named to the Dominican Republic national team as a 16-year-old. He was selected with the first overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Towns was named the Rookie of the Year for the 2015–16 season. He is second on the Timberwolves' all-time scoring list. He led the team to the Western Conference finals in 2024, their first appearance in 20 years. After spending nine seasons with the Timberwolves, Towns was traded to the Knicks before the 2024–25 season. That season, he helped lead the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference finals appearance in 25 years. He is a six-time NBA All-Star, a three-time All-NBA Team member, and became the first center to win the NBA Three-Point Contest in 2022.

Early life

Towns was born in Edison, New Jersey to an African-American father, Karl Towns Sr., and a Dominican mother, Jacqueline Cruz. He grew up in Piscataway, New Jersey, and attended Lake Nelson Seventh-Day Adventist School, before transferring to Theodore Schor Middle School from Our Lady of Fatima School in 2009. At Theodore Schor, he reclassified and repeated seventh grade in order to gain an extra year of development. Towns's father played basketball for Monmouth University and coached basketball at Piscataway Technical High School, where the precocious Towns practiced with the junior varsity team as a fifth grader.