The Minnesota Timberwolves are again one of the most awful teams in the NBA this season, and the organization’s longstanding ineptitude and perpetual dysfunction appears to be really weighing on superstar Karl-Anthony Towns.
The Timberwolves head into the All-Star break with a league-worst 7-29 record and are in a complete downward spiral amid a nine-game losing streak.
Towns, who has admirably remained loyal to the Timberwolves franchise despite the constant losing, expressed relief that the team won’t play until next Thursday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
“Thank god for the break. That’s all I’ll say,” Towns said, via Derek James of A Wolf Among Wolves.
Other comments from a frustrated Towns this week leads one to believe that he might be finally reaching the end of his tether.
“We ain’t executing, and I’m tired of looking at the box score and looking at all the numbers and s— and talking about the same thing – how we haven’t won or oh, we’ve got to do this and do that,” Towns said following Wednesday night’s 135-102 blowout loss to the Charlotte Hornets, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “Obviously, what we said hasn’t worked.”
Not only has this past year on the court been difficult for Towns, but it has been a tragically nightmarish one off of it. Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, the star’s mother, passed away on April 13 at the age of 58 due to complications from COVID-19 after more than a month of fighting the virus.
Towns later revealed that he lost an additional six other family members to COVID-19 following his mother’s death.
Then, Towns tested positive for COVID-19 himself and missed nearly a month’s worth of games. The T-Wolves big man returned to the court on Feb. 10 after last playing on Jan. 13. His experiences with the coronavirus led Towns to slam the NBA for going forward with All-Star Game festivities despite the ongoing pandemic.
Towns was then “shocked” by the Timberwolves abruptly firing Ryan Saunders earlier this month after two-plus disappointing seasons as the team’s head coach, replacing him with Chris Finch.
To say it has been a tumultuous time for Towns of late wouldn’t do justice to what the 25-year-old has endured both personally and professionally.
It remains to be seen whether Towns will finally give up on a franchise he’s remained remarkably devoted to despite its struggles and demand a trade, but his comments heading into the break certainly aren’t encouraging for the T-Wolves in that regard.
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