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

▸Key takeaways

01Towns credits the Game 4 comeback to experience — the team had erased 20-plus-point deficits in Boston the year before — and to San Antonio playing not to lose while New York played to win.

02The championship-winning tip-in came on a play designed for Towns: two defenders collapsed on him, Jalen Brunson took a quick three, and inbounder OG Anunoby followed the miss.

03Towns describes his playoff run as a tribute to his mother, who died of COVID complications in 2020, and says the sacrifice of time with her made winning non-negotiable.

04He learned about the trade from Minnesota by being told, not called — after nine years, his world changed overnight from a suburban house to a New York apartment.

05Moving Towns to the hub at the top of the key, an idea he pushed all year, unlocked the offense by dragging opposing bigs away from the rim and easing Brunson's ball-handling load.

▸What this episode covers

David Marchese sits down with Karl-Anthony Towns a month after the New York Knicks won their first championship in 53 years, and Towns admits he still flinches when strangers call him 'champ.' The centerpiece is Game 4 of the Finals against the Spurs: down almost 30 in the first half, Towns told the locker room to remember the Boston comeback the year before and 'swing for the fences.' He describes reading San Antonio as a young team protecting a lead instead of building one, and the title-swinging play that followed — a set designed for Towns that drew two defenders, a quick Jalen Brunson three, and inbounder OG Anunoby crashing the glass for a tip-in Towns calls one of the greatest plays in Finals history. Towns swears he was positioned to dunk it if the tip rimmed out.

The conversation keeps circling back to Towns's mother, who died of COVID complications in 2020. He frames the title as repayment for the time he spent in gyms instead of with her, and says the most meaningful post-win embrace was with Patrick Ewing — a friend and mentor who, in Towns's telling, finally exhaled after decades of carrying Knicks misery. There's lighter material too: fiancée Jordyn Woods's handbag becoming a team lucky charm displayed at the Guggenheim, trash-talking Victor Wembanyama in the Finals, and Marchese's wife's theory that Brunson is the dad of the team and Towns the mom, which Towns happily accepts.

Towns also gets unusually candid about the business of basketball: being told, not asked, about the trade from Minnesota after nine years — his first call was to Jordyn in Paris, 'take me off speaker right now' — plus Kevin Garnett's mentorship, choosing basketball over a Yankees dream after his Piscataway friends pulled him back to the park, and how new coach Mike Brown built on Tom Thibodeau's foundation and finally made Towns the offensive hub at the top of the key, the role he'd lobbied for all season. He closes on the repeat question: the Knicks have to relearn being the favorite without losing the underdog snarl.

Why listen: A newly minted champion walking through the title run play by play — and getting more honest about trades, grief, and his own reputation than athletes usually do in a press setting.

▸Chapters

“It's just kind of like your world changes, you know. It's not like an away game becomes a home game all of a sudden.” Karl-Anthony Towns · at 22:00 —

“Inspiring hope is one of the hardest things to do. And for us to be able to do that is something truly special.” Karl-Anthony Towns · at 36:14 —

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