Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns draws inspiration from his father, who is back at Garden after health scare
New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) looks to pass the ball as he is guarded by Atlanta Hawks forward Onyeka Okongwu (17) in the 1st quarter as the New York Knicks take on the Atlanta Hawks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round Playoffs at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, NY on April 18, 2026 Credit: Newsday/William Perlman
GREENBURGH — In the first game of the postseason Saturday night, the front row at Madison Square Garden was filled with the usual array of celebrities — movie stars, musicians, comedians, and other athletes from New York pro teams.
Karl-Anthony Towns was hugged by Ben Stiller after the Knicks finished off a 113-102 win over the Hawks. He also joked with Kit Harington, the actor who played Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, he was willing to "bend a knee" to the actor if it wasn't so sore.
But Towns was most focused on one face in the crowd that few would recognize, his father, Karl Towns, who is the Monmouth University single-season total rebounds leader. Karl Towns was back in the front row, where he has watched nearly every Knicks home and road game since his son came home to New York before last season. The senior Towns had been absent for weeks since undergoing a procedure to repair a coronary blockage.
“Oh man, it’s awesome,” Towns said afterward. “It’s awesome to see him back at the game, everything that’s gone on, to be seeing him walking around and enjoying Knicks basketball.
“To have someone who I would say is the most important person in my life, it’s really awesome to be able to have him back in Madison Square Garden supporting me. Any son out there that plays basketball or plays any sport, to see your father there, at your competition, you always have a sense of pride. You want to make him proud. It’s awesome that I get to see him on the baseline and be able to have some special moments with him.”
Since being selected as the first overall pick of the 2015 NBA Draft, Karl-Anthony Towns has lived up to his reputation as one of the best shooting big men in the game.
The elder Towns is still unable to travel to road games, but on Saturday he saw a part of his son's game that probably reminded him of his own playing days.
Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks talks with his father Karl Towns Sr., right, at Madison Square Garden on May 12, 2025. Credit: Getty Images/Elsa
Karl-Anthony Towns provided defensive help with three blocked shots, a steal and eight rebounds, shy of his 11.9 per game that ranked him second in the NBA this season.
From the opening tip Towns had a different role for much of the night. He started the game by holding the ball in his hand outside the three-point line, faking a handoff to Jalen Brunson and then placing a bounce pass to Brunson cutting into the paint, a play he would recreate to various cutters, orchestrating the offense without taking a shot.
Towns has been an unknown for the Knicks this season, something odd for someone who has been the NBA Rookie of the Year, a six-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA selection. But the uncertainty has mostly come from himself as he has wondered aloud about his role. Some of it has cleared up from Knicks first-year coach Mike Brown changing the plans he had at the start of the season, adjusting his offensive and defensive strategies. And some of it has come from Towns accepting demands that he be more than just a player who can drop as many as 60 points in a game.
“When KAT wants to, he can be a really, really good defender,” Brown said. “Especially at his size, he can cause some problems. I kind of said it all year long it’s a matter of whether or not he wants to do it that night. As of late, he’s been really good on that end of the floor. I even told him today, I said ‘Your pick-and-roll defense was at a pretty high level.’ That’s something that we need him to continue to do.”
Towns did a lot of the little things in Game 1 until the fourth quarter, when he shifted into the more familiar mode — scoring 11 of his 25 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the field and wildly celebrating each basket.
Brown has preached the standards he has set for the team with sacrifice as the first pillar. Towns seem to have been asked to do that as much as anyone on the team and that continued as the playoffs began.
“In the first half, KAT was like ‘OK, if they’re going to play me a certain way, I’m going to try to facilitate,’ ” Brown said. “And then when his opportunity came in the second half, to open it up with scoring, he was aggressive. All of our guys have to continue doing a great job of that throughout the course of our playoff run.”
As Towns has worked to find his fit much of it has been related to his place in the organization next to Brunson. When Towns arrived in New York he spent a year referring to Brunson almost exclusively as, “Cap,” acknowledging Brunson’s place in the Knicks’ pecking order. If outside the locker room there are questions about jealousy the two have insisted that there is nothing to it.
“I think for the most part KAT and I have a really good relationship and it’s grown the longer we’ve known each other,” Brunson said. “It’s just becoming easier. It’s great. We have to continue to build off of it, making sure we’re putting ourselves in position to be successful. Just continue to trust each other.
“At the end of the day he’s a guy who wants to win, will do whatever it takes. Obviously, at this moment in time, it’s important to get wins.”
When the chemistry was the subject after Game 1, sitting next to each other at a table for interviews, Towns joked, “I’m not at the Josh [Hart] level yet. We’re working.” Brunson answered, "Josh is not a friend,” and implored Towns not to start eating during their postgame interview sessions.
“I’ve dealt with pressure since I stepped into the league and before that,” Towns said. “But on top of that, that’s sports. The highs are high and the lows are lows. You just weather the storms, you stick with each other. That’s when team bonding and unity are so important, when things aren’t going well. It’s never when things are going great that team bonding is lacking.
"It’s always you test each other when things are going bad. We’ve had those highs of highs this year with the [NBA] Cup. We’ve had the lows of lows with the losing streak. And this team has stuck together. The locker room has been great. So it’s good for us to know that if things are not going well we’re going to lean into each other and get closer.”
For Towns, he has had that locker room to help him, and now he has his father back there, too.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
