Karl-Anthony Towns took the high road when asked to respond to Draymond Green’s comments that the New York Knicks center missed last week’s game against the Golden State Warriors because of Jimmy Butler’s presence.
“I choose to approach that with love and not hate. That’s all I really care about,” Towns said Sunday via Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “I hope no one has to go through what I went through, and those kids — and what those kids had to go through. Losing a parent is tough.”
Towns’ absence from the Warriors game was due to the death of family friend Sarah Holtzman from breast cancer.
On his podcast after the game, Green said that “some would say [Towns] didn’t play because Jimmy [Butler] was in the building” and “they say KAT didn’t play because Jimmy came into town. … I don’t know what was hurt. I didn’t look that deep into it to figure out what his injury was or nothing like that.”
When told by a reporter the true reason why Towns missed the game, Green wasn’t exactly repentant.
“That’s unfortunate, I’m sorry to hear that. That sucks,” Green said. “But my comments that I made were, you know, ‘People, what I heard was this.’ That’s what I heard. So I do send my well wishes to him and his family.
“It’s inevitable, we all experience death in one way or another, and we’ll all experience it in the same way one day. So it’s unfortunate, you never wish that on anybody, but ‘The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis’ must go on.”
Towns returned to the Knicks’ lineup on Thursday.
After the Knicks’ shootaround on Thursday, Towns said he had to leave the team to be there for his family and “the kids that lost somebody really special to them,” adding that the losses he’s experienced over the past few years — several family members, including his mother, to COVID-19 complications — taught him to appreciate life.
“And the problems that have arisen in my life and stuff, I know that if people were in my shoes, they’d be extremely joyful to have the problems that I have,” Towns said. “So just stay focused and it’s made me a better man. And, with my mom, I had utilized that experience when it came to this one because losing a mom is tough.”
Green and Towns will meet on the court Saturday night when the Knicks wrap up their West Coast road trip at Chase Center.
