Karl-Anthony Towns’ Dominican heritage has a Knicks’ stage: ‘He’s home’
NY Post
It hit Karl-Anthony Towns at the cookout.
The Dominican side of the family, his mother’s side, was hosting the gathering in Perth Amboy, N.J. — a weekend tradition of Towns’ youth that the Knicks center missed while embarking on an NBA All-Star career.
In that moment — which was after his trade to the Knicks — nostalgia met appreciation for the opportunities back home.
“We’re all looking at the next generation and enjoying the cookouts in the same backyard with the same basketball hoop I was playing with when I was dreaming of being an NBA player,” Towns told The Post. “And for my Dominican culture and my family, it hit me in a way that it’s like, these cookouts that I haven’t been around for, for a decade-plus, I have a chance to make them now.”
Towns, a product of Piscataway, never lived in the Dominican Republic. His Spanish is spotty, at best.
But the center’s link to the community is powerful and mutual, solidified by a decision to represent the Dominican national team despite overtures from powerhouse Team USA.
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