Karl-Anthony Towns on how the Timberwolves informed him that he was being traded: "It was gangster, I ain't gonna lie"

Karl-Anthony Towns was disappointed that the Minnesota Timberwolves traded him to the New York Knicks. KAT had envisioned himself spending his entire career with the team that drafted him, so he was sad that his employers felt otherwise.

However, how Timberwolves President for Basketball Operations Tim Connelly handled the move left the former Kentucky Wildcat with nothing but respect for the organization.

"I didn't get called, they told me," said Towns on The Roommates podcast. "Tim told me to my face that I was traded. It was gangster, I ain't gonna lie. He came to the house. I respect it."

Nothing but respect

Towns was the Timberwolves' No.1 overall pick of the 2015 NBA Draft. He won Rookie of the Year honors in 2016. Former Kentucky Wildcat earned four All-Star game appearances and two All-NBA team selections while playing in Minnesota.

But after helping the team reach the second-best regular season in franchise history and leading them to the Western Conference Finals, the Wolves decided to trade Towns to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. For someone who spent his entire career trying to win it all for Minnesota, that sucked.

"It's a tough situation regardless of what happened," added KAT. "But the fact it happened that way, I got to give him respect cause it was me, three of my closest friends, and my pops, so shout out to him, he came to a house by himself with five dudes there who could've started spazzing out and crashed out, and we said alright so I gotta give him respect for that for sure."

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Connelly is a class act

The 48-year-old executive came to Minnesota in 2022 when he signed a five-year $40 million deal to head the T-Wolves' basketball operations. Before that, he held various positions for the Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, and, most recently, the Denver Nuggets.

Tim was the Denver general manager when the Nuggets traded Jusuf Nurkic in 2017 so that they could give Nikola Jokic the keys to the car. Connelly never rushed Jokic to stardom and let him grow on his own terms. He is also credited with bringing Aaron Gordon to Mile High. Although he was no longer there when the Nuggets won the title in 2023, his signature was on the franchise's first ring.

KAT was Minnesota's franchise player up until last month. Despite enduring several losing seasons early on, Towns never asked for a trade. When Anthony Edwards came, he did not complain about "Ant-Man" overshadowing him. Having said that, the sharpshooting center did not deserve to hear the trade from Shams or by phone. So Connelly manned up to go to his house to break the news personally. That's a class act right there.

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