Karl-Anthony Towns Returns To ‘Podcast P With Paul George’

Karl-Anthony Towns shares his thoughts on Ricky Rubio’s retirement, the T-Wolves success post-Draymond Green scuffle, and Jokic’s continued dominance on “Podcast P with Paul George”.

We share this week’s episode of “Podcast P with Paul George”, presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment.

This week, PG and the guys are joined by Minnesota Timberwolves star, Karl-Anthony Towns as they break down the latest happenings in the NBA including Nikola Jokić’s recent incredible stretch including his half-court game-winner against the Warriors, the epic Wemby vs. Giannis showdown and the upcoming trade.

Later in the episode, PG opens up on the Clippers’ recent hot streak, Kawhi Leonard’s incredible play as of late, and where the team still needs to improve.

In their conversation with KAT, the guys also touch on Ricky Rubio’s recent retirement announcement and the impact Ricky made on KAT’s career, as well as the T-Wolves’ success and how his relationship with Rudy Gobert has gotten stronger since the Draymond Green choking incident.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• 17:39 — PG’S REACTION TO JOKIC’S GAME-WINNER AGAINST THE WARRIORS

“I didn’t watch the game, I did see the game-winner though. I saw it on Instagram and the reaction and his celebration. I love that moment but I hate that people don’t allow that to be normal. When people see that as ‘Oh he’s showing emotion’ like– they do the same shit with Kawhi. Allow him to have that moment, don’t make it a joke now because he’s showing emotion that you’re not used to seeing and now it’s funny. So now in those situations like damn, can I be myself?…Jokić is a different beast…how do you stop him?”

• 25:00 — PG ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH FRANK VOGEL AND THE OPPORTUNITIES HE WAS GRANTED DUE TO THIS FRIENDSHIP

“Ton of love for Frank, forever indebted to Frank Vogel and his family. For people that don’t know, when I first got drafted to Indiana. At that time, there wasn’t player development, that just wasn’t around in the league. The assistant coaches were working out the players, each assistant coach was assigned a couple [of] players. In today’s NBA… there [are] coaches that are strictly just developmental coaches that help the players rebound, get shots, and put them through drills…so back then Frank Vogel was my guy…Jim O’Brien’s the head coach, Jim O’Brien gets fired. Now at this point, I’m not playing. I’m very small spurts, I might play five minutes in this game, garbage time, the next game I’m in a suit. That’s just how my career went up until they fired Jim O’Brien. Then immediately I start starting, Frank Vogel is the interim coach so he takes over for the rest of that season… Frank put me in the starting role. So for me it was like this is my dude, I’m gonna go through a wall for Frank. Whatever Frank need me to do, it’s done.”

• 31:56 — PG SAYS KAWHI LEONARD WAS “PUT ON THIS EARTH TO PLAY BASKETBALL”

“[Kawhi]’s making it look easy. And it is easy for him. He got that much respect that when he post up, they doubling him right away. Like ‘we won’t even let you get a shot off.’ That’s how effective he is at the post and getting to his spots…but I was looking at him yesterday, actually watching him in the game, and I’m just like bro, some people are just meant to hoop. Like some people were put on this Earth just to play basketball. You watch him move, you watch his movement, that is a basketball player. He was just made to do this. The game is just so easy for him. It don’t matter if it’s mid-range, from three, it’s cash, it’s money. I don’t know, I think it just puts everybody around at ease, knowing there’s a lifeline there. There’s a reliable source there.”

• 35:23 — WHERE THE CLIPPERS CAN IMPROVE

“I think we’re still struggling to rebound as a unit… We’ll have moments of going up big, and not being able to put teams away. You talk about the teams that have won it and teams that are serious contenders when they go up big, it’s over. Like damn, the team knows it, this game’s over it, they lost…We give teams that life that they can come back and make it a game again. I think saw a great version of that…in New Orleans We went up big, we solidified that…we shut the door on the game, that game’s over with.”

• 42:58 — KAT SHARES HIS FAVORITE MOMENTS WITH RICKY RUBIO IN LIGHT OF HIS RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

“I feel like anyone that’s been blessed to play with Ricky, probably has the same stories or feeling playing with him. Just how great of a human being he is, how great of a professional he is. My story with him is when I first got to Minnesota, got drafted, and the first person that welcomed me into Minnesota was Ricky. He took me to a restaurant in Minnesota and just showed me around the city. Drove me around the city, showing me spots I should know about and just really welcomed me to Minnesota and made me feel comfortable. I just think that’s how Ricky always is with all of his teammates, he makes everyone feel so comfortable, so loved and cared for. Not even talking about him as a basketball player…but just as a human. I’m forever grateful to him for making me a better man.”

• 56:40 — KAT ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH RUDY GOBERT FOLLOWING THE DRAYMOND GREEN IN-GAME SCUFFLE

Jackie: “Earlier this season, there was an incident where Draymond Green choked out one of your teammates during the game. Now, some people criticize you for not intervening– they said you didn’t intervene quick enough. I wanted to know about the situation and your relationship with Rudy Gobert, and did you two ever even speak about the incident afterward, and do you have any more insights to share that we don’t know about?”

KAT: “I love Rudy, Rudy’s my dog. That’s one of my really good friends, we talk all the time, funny enough we’re supposed to play Call of Duty right after this…We’ve never had a problem. I think if anything, me and Rudy’s relationship has helped our team tremendously and it’s because we just want to win. We never had any problems, even after all of that. It’s funny enough, me and him are laughing about it more than anything.”

Jackie: “What took you so long to get over there?”

KAT: “…I don’t know what people wanted me to do but it would’ve been three big old basketball players and a full Nelson would have been crazy. Just got full Nelsons going on.”

Jackie: “What happened after the game, did anything else go down?”

KAT: “No, I wish I could tell you something super good. I wish I could tell you something cool but honestly, we laughed about it. It wasn’t even anything serious. We were talking about how we came out with a really big win there because we stayed composed, we stayed mature, and we made some really big plays at the end to win.”

• 1:00:14 — KAT MAKES HIS GOALS FOR THE SEASON CLEAR: HE WANTS TO WIN

PG: “I know the main goal is to win a championship, right, that’s the main goal on pretty much everyone’s bulletin board. But I gotta ask, what else? What else is the goal for KAT this season?”

KAT: “Honestly, it’s just to win. I think if I can do anything I would want to bring rounds one of the playoffs to Minnesota again. I think it’s start off with that and just continue to build as a team and find ourselves, hopefully, in the NBA Finals as the complete version of ourselves that year and give ourselves a chance.”

• 1:03:40 — PG AND THE GUYS REACT TO THE WEMBY AND GIANNIS SHOWDOWN

PG: “The Wemby and Giannis showdown was special. That was two avatars playing against each other. That was dope. That was definitely dope. The creativity at that size, talking about Wemby splitting it and throwing it off the backboard…The behind the back on Damian Lillard to the boom! You know, Giannis punching shit on people.”

Dallas: “The Spurs just look good as a group. You could see like, maybe not now, but in the future– I don’t even know all the guys’ names– but the whole team was playing well. They were not worried about Milwaukee.”

PG: “Yeah it was a fun game… and you saw the potential of Wemby in that game against [an] elite matchup in Giannis.”