Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns recently laid claim to a throne that many believe rightfully belongs to Dirk Nowitzki. Now Nowitzki is offering a funny response.
Towns hyped up his shooting ability as a big man in an interview earlier this month with Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
“I’m the greatest big man shooter of all time,” said Towns. “That’s a fact. You can see the stats. I ain’t got to play like no one else. Everyone trying to find themselves to be the second version of me when I’m the first version. I don’t got to be the second version of someone else. I’m already an original. I don’t have to be a duplicate of someone else.”
On Tuesday, the retired Dallas Mavericks legend Nowitzki appeared on the local broadcast of the Mavs-Wolves game. After Towns hit a three-pointer, Nowitzki joked, “There’s the best shoot[ing] big man in the world!”
Nowitzki elaborated further on Towns’ comments later in the broadcast.
“He’s got the confidence and that swag,” he said of Towns, per ClutchPoints. “That’s what you need to make it in this league. Not sure if he’s the greatest of all-time already, he’s got a long way to go. But I mean, his touch is great and he’s got the full package, so definitely if he keeps playing like this, he’s gonna be up there before his career is over.”
Nowitzki is, of course, the player who is widely considered to be the greatest shooting big man of all-time. There were big men who came before Nowitzki that could hit the three like Bill Laimbeer and Jack Sikma. But Nowitzki was the first big man to hit threes with both volume and efficiency. He shot 38.0% for his career from three, making almost 2,000 triples. Nowitzki is also still to this day the only seven-footer to win the Three Point Contest.
The 26-year-old Towns can certainly compete, hitting 42.6% of his threes this season and 39.7% of them for his career. But even Towns’ own contemporaries will likely agree that Nowitzki is still the GOAT for now.
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