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Minnesota Timberwolves’ star big man Karl-Anthony Towns has a lot of NBA fans scratching their heads these days. He seems to be slightly… disinterested, ever since Jimmy Butler landed in the Twin Cities.
During Wednesday’s game versus the Toronto Raptors, Towns airballed a fairly easy shot and then asked to be taken out of the game. This led to a lot of people questioning his heart and motivation. Even the announcers for the local TV broadcast weren’t sure what to think.
“KAT just has that look in his face like he doesn’t want to play tonight, so, so be it…” 😳 https://t.co/Qr7UGLfZ4H
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) October 25, 2018
Towns ended the night with a stat line of 5-for-17 from the field, 1-of-5 on threes, and with a scoring average that had dipped all the way down to 16.4 ppg, considerably lower than his career average of almost 22 ppg.
The next day, folks like The Starters on the NBA Daily Show even questioned whether or not Karl-Anthony Towns has given up.
Then on Thurdsay night on Inside The NBA, Charles Barkley said that he thinks Jimmy Butler has “ruined” Karl-Anthony Towns.
However, it was Shaq who took KAT to the woodshed, later commenting, “He got the max dollars, he gotta pull his panties up and play. I don’t want to hear all that stuff you’re talking about right now. He gotta play. The man called him out. Whoppee-freaking-doo, pull your stuff up and play ball. Pull ’em up.”
Shaq on KAT "He got the max dollars, he gotta pull his panties up and play" pic.twitter.com/QFZ9qR2AxB
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) October 26, 2018
Never change, Shaq. Never change.